Astros Win Eighth Straight as Justin Verlander Picks Up His Ninth Win of the Season

Justin Verlander struck out seven and walked none in seven innings of pitching as the Houston Astros beat the Oakland 7-3 on June 14th, sweeping a three game set from the Athletics. It was Houston’s eighth straight victory, improving the Astros’ season record to 45-25, second by four percentage points to the Seattle Mariners in the American League West.

Currently, it’s a two team race in the A.L West between the defending World Series champion Astros and the upstart Mariners. But the Astros have more going for them and will be on top of the division at the end of the season. The top of Houston’s batting order includes George Springer, three time batting champion Jose Altuve, Carlos Correa, and Yuli Gurriel; throw in Evan Gattis (who had three home runs in the Oakland Series) and Josh Reddick in the bottom half of the order and you have a pretty formidable offense.

But perhaps Houston’s greatest strength is in its starting rotation. Verlander improved to 9-2 in the June 14th win, with 120 strikeouts on the season and a league leading 1.61 ERA. Gerrit Cole is 8-1 with a 2.40 ERA and a league leading 130 strikeouts. Then, there are Charlie Morton (7-1, 2.82) and Lance McCullers, Jr. (8-3, 3.83).

The only starter who has struggled is Dallas Keuchel, who is 3-8 with a mediocre, but not horrible 4.45 ERA. Keuchel has been somewhat inconsistent in his career. He was 20-8 with a2.48 ERA in 2015, winning the A.L Cy Young Award that year. He followed it with a 9-12, 4.55 ERA in 2016, but bounced back in 2017 with a 14-5 record and 2.90 ERA. If Keuchel can get back on track, what is arguably baseball’s best starting rotation will be even more devastating.

Houston’s upcoming schedule is extremely favorable. The club’s next 29 games up until the All Star Break, are all against teams with sub-.500 records. The potential is there for the Astros to have a big lead before playing the Los Angeles Angels to start the second half of the season on July 20th.