Astros Fire Manager after Posting Winning Month in August
September 2, 2014 by Bill Gilbert · 1 Comment
In the final game in August, the Houston Astros rallied for 2 runs in the bottom of the eighth inning to defeat the Texas Rangers, 3-2 to post a record of 15-14 for the month, matching their previous best month in May. The next day, Manager Bo Porter was fired by General Manager, Jeff Luhnow, and replaced by minor league instructor, Tom Lawless.
The Astros have a record of 59-79 with one month remaining and have already exceeded their win totals in each of the last three years. They are on pace to finish with a record of 69-93, an 18 game improvement over 2013.
The Astros played the entire month without outfielders George Springer and Alex Pressley who were on the disabled list. Meanwhile, outfielder J.D. Martinez, released by Luhnow without getting anything in return, is hitting .307 with 18 home runs for Detroit. Picking up the slack were Jose Altuve with a batting average of .325 and 7 stolen bases in August and Chris Carter with 12 home runs. The team scored an average of 4.21 runs per game in August while allowing 4.00. For the season, they have scored 3.96 runs per game while allowing 4.63.
Altuve enters the final month of the season leading the American League in batting average, hits and stolen bases. Carter has 33 home runs and is challenging for the league lead held by Nelson Cruz with 36.
The pitching also improved in August. Three of the five starting pitchers had excellent months. Collin McHugh was 3-0 with an ERA of 1.91, Scott Feldman was 4-2, 3.32 and Dallas Keuchel was 0-2, 3.21 but the Astros were victorious in 3 of his starts. Chad Qualls picked up 5 saves in 6 opportunities. Highly touted prospect, Mike Foltynewicz, made his major league debut in August with 9 relief appearances and flashed some 100 mph fastballs reminiscent of Billy Wagner.
The Astros continued their success against the Texas Rangers taking 5 of 7 games in August to retake the Silver Boot for the first time since 2006 with a record of 16-10. Another highlight was a tough 10-game road trip to play the Red Sox, Yankees and Indians. The Astros won 5 games on the trip including 2 out of 3 at Yankee Stadium.
The minor leagues finished the regular season on Labor Day with only 2 of the 7 Astro domestic farm teams entering the playoffs. The two top farm clubs, AAA Oklahoma City and AA Corpus Christi failed to make the playoffs
Bill, Luhnow hasn’t been playing nice with much of anyone lately. Since Bo Porter was well liked in DC before taking the Houston job, could you comment on how others besides Luhnow believe Porter was doing in his first gig as the boss.