The Houston Astros won their first game of the season on Monday against the Seattle Mariners, 3-0. Houston was led by Carlos Correa and George Springer, who both homered. Springer’s homerun came was of the leadoff variety, becoming only the second Astro ever to lead off a season with a home run. The real story is the terrific pitching of ace Dallas Keuchel. Dallas had a terrible season in 2016 to say the least, finishing with a 4.5+ ERA a year after finishing as the AL Cy Young winner. On Monday, however, Keuchel threw 7 shutout innings, locating each of his pitches to perfection all game long, and also showing off why he was the gold glove winner a year ago with a bare handed, off balance play on a Jean Segura bunt.
http://m.mlb.com/video/topic/6479266/v1255615483/seahou-keuchel-fields-a-bunt-gets-the-out
The Mariners’ Felix Hernandez only lasted 5 innings and 65 pitches, but looked pretty good aside from the two mistakes to Correa and Springer. What is really impressive about the Astros in this game was the relatively low amount of strikeouts by their lineup. Last season, it seemed like they were good for at least one, maybe 2 strikeouts per inning, which should be expected with guys like Colby Rasmus and Carlos Gomez playing everyday. Now, those two have been replaced by Nori Aoki, who consistently makes contact and gets on base, Carlos Beltran, who is a veteran that also consistently makes contact, and Josh Redick. Putting the ball in play naturally leads to more opportunities on offense, something that could prove invaluable for the Astros in 2017. Though pitching was great in this game, it will likely be the weak link of this squad as the season goes along. Offense will clearly be the most important aspect of Houston’s team, and having good at bats and putting balls in play instead of striking out will only help this team score a ton of runs this season.
What we learned from this game is that even when the offense isn’t on it’s game, this team can still succeed thanks to occasional strong pitching, as well as phenomenal bullpen play. Luke Gregerson got into some trouble in the 8th inning, but was able to escape unscathed. Ken Giles, who was extremely inconsistent in 2016, struck out the side in the ninth inning to secure his first save, and the first win of the season for the Houston Astros. Winning the first game against the Mariners’ ace is huge for the Astros, as the Mariners pitching gets worse as you get deeper into their rotation. The offense will need to produce a few more runs though just to be safe.