Houston Astros vs. Detroit Tigers series recap

The Houston Astros dropped the series to the Detroit Tigers 1-2, and the A.J. Hinch curse seems to be alive and well. Let’s get into what happened in the Houston Astros vs. Detroit Tigers series recap.

Hunter Brown took the bump for Monday night’s game in the Space City uniforms. He got through 4.2 innings and gave up four earned runs. He didn’t have everything put together for his first start of the season, and that’s just fine. His stuff was good, but his control was a bit spotty. Again, it was his first start of the season, so it’s nothing to worry about for now.

Detroit got out to a four run lead by the fifth inning, and the Astros had put up a goose egg on the scoreboard. Not exactly what you’d like to see, but the bats got warmed up in the bottom of the fifth with a grounder from Jeremy Peña. Then, of course, Yordan Alvarez was there to save the day with a game tying three run home run.

It was his 100th career homer and, boy, was it a huge one. Every time Yordan hits a homer I am speechless of how majestic and powerful his swing is. Every single time.

The Astros had to come back and tie the game again in the ninth with a José Abreu double. It feels like Astros fans and the national media aren’t talking enough about how good of a signing Abreu is for this team. He’s currently hitting fourth in the lineup, and the Astros still have Michael Brantley and Jose Altuve to add to it. The Astros are the death star.

Ultimately, the 11th inning was not kind to the Astros and they dropped the first game of the Detroit series 7-5.

Tuesday night’s game was one to forget for the most part. Spencer Torkelson got the Tigers out to an early lead in the first inning. Then, Kyle Tucker tied it up in the bottom half of the inning with a single to bring home Alex Bregman. Tucker is starting out this season red hot, and he homered in the fourth inning to give the Astros a 2-1 lead.

The rest of the game didn’t go the Astros way. Framber Valdez is still the staff ace after tossing seven innings, two runs, and nine strikeouts. The Quality Start Tour is back on schedule. The Astros lost again, this time 6-3. There were a lot of hard hit balls, but the Astros couldn’t bring them home on Tuesday.

Wednesday was the first week day day game, and the Astros decided enough was enough. The bats were firing on all cylinders, and Cristian Javier was on the bump. Javier had a decent outing with six innings pitched, only giving up one earned run, and tallied five strikeouts. The starting pitching in the last two games has been super solid. They finally got over the hump of pitching more than five innings, giving the bullpen an opportunity to rest.

The Chas Chomp was in full effect, as Chas McCormick continues to prove that he should be the every day centerfielder. He hit a two run homer in the second inning, and he pulled the ball to left field! What a time, who would’ve thunk that Chas would pull a homer.

Tucker and Peña homered later in the game, and there were a couple of sacrifice flies from Corey Julks and Alvarez. Tucker’s early season MVP case is heating up. He added a double to his stat line as well Wednesday. He’s already put up .5 WAR, and is breaking his tradition of not hitting well to begin the season in the month of April. Kyle Tucker for AL MVP. It’s never too early to start this campaign. Pay that man.

The Astros took home the third game to get a happy flight in on their way to Minnesota. They’ll be back in action Friday afternoon after Thursday’s game was moved. The Houston Astros vs. Detroit Tigers series recap wasn’t the result that I thought would happen, but A.J. Hinch owns the Astros. There’s no other explanation.