The Houston Astros are going to have to make some adjustments to their rotation when Lance McCullers comes off the disabled list.
With the way Mike Fiers is pitching lately, he is making a strong case to keep his spot.
Jose Altuve had three RBIs, while Colby Rasmus added two as the Astros jumped on Corey Kluber for five runs in the third and cruised to a 7-1 win over the Cleveland Indians on Monday night.
Photo: AFP
Fiers (3-1) allowed season lows of one run and three hits in seven innings for his third straight win.
“It’s crowded and that’s not a complaint out of me,” Hinch said of the rotation. “We’re going to need every single one of these guys in different stages of the season. It’s not the most comfortable decision ... [but] if I’ve got too many choices, they’re all good and it won’t matter which way I go.”
McCullers had a 3.22 ERA in 22 games as a rookie last season, but has spent all of this season on the disabled list with a sore throwing shoulder.
Photo: AFP
“I’m not worried about Lance,” Fiers said. “Lance is a great pitcher, and we can definitely use him. I definitely needed that, personally, and as a team, we need to get rolling here. So it was a great start, and that’s what I’m going to take out of it.”
Altuve drove in two with a double in the third and Rasmus had a two-run single later in the inning to make it 4-0.
Kluber (2-4), coming off the second shutout of his career in his last outing against the Tigers, was chased after just 2-2/3 innings. He entered with a 1.48 ERA in five career appearances against the Astros, and had allowed just five earned runs in 30-1/3 innings against them.
On Monday, he gave up five runs and five hits, while walking three in his first loss since April 17.
Kluber struck out the side in the first inning and did not allow a hit until a single by Luis Valbuena to start the third inning. Jason Castro doubled before Altuve’s double scored them both to make it 2-0.
Kluber then walked George Springer on four pitches before a single by Carlos Correa loaded the bases. The single by Rasmus to right field sent two more home to push the lead to 4-0 as Springer barely beat the throw home on the play.
They tacked on another run on a groundout by Marwin Gonzalez before Kluber retired Preston Tucker. Carlos Gomez then drew a walk to chase Kluber, who was replaced by Kyle Crockett.
It was Kluber’s shortest outing of the season and snapped a streak of three straight games where he pitched at least seven innings. Crockett finally ended the inning on the 10th batter when he struck out Valbuena.
Fiers had retired six in a row when Rajai Davis doubled to the corner of left field to start the sixth inning. He advanced to third on a groundout by Carlos Santana and the Indians cut the lead to 5-1 when he scored on a groundout by Jason Kipnis.
Valbuena doubled in the sixth and scored on a sacrifice fly by Altuve to make it 6-1.
Correa helped Fiers out early when he laid out to make a diving catch on a low line drive hit by Lonnie Chisenhall for the first out of the third inning.
Gomez, who is hitting just .210, snapped a 0 for 11 slump and drove in just his fifth run this season with a single in the eighth inning to make it 7-1.
In other MLB action, it was:
‧ Marlins 4, Brewers 1
‧ Reds 3, Pirates 2
‧ Red Sox 14, Athletics 7
‧ Diamondbacks 10, Rockies 5
‧ White Sox 8, Rangers 4
‧ Mariners 5, Rays 2
‧ Blue Jays 3, Giants 1
‧ Mets 4, Dodgers 2
‧ Orioles v Twins postponed
‧ Cubs v Padres postponed
Revelations of positive doping tests for nearly two dozen Chinese swimmers that went unpunished sparked an intense flurry of accusations and legal threats between the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) and the head of the US drug-fighting organization, who has long been one of WADA’s fiercest critics. WADA on Saturday said it was turning to legal counsel to address a statement released by US Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) CEO Travis Tygart, who said WADA and anti-doping authorities in China swept positive tests “under the carpet by failing to fairly and evenly follow the global rules that apply to everyone else in the world.” The
Taiwanese judoka Yang Yung-wei on Saturday won silver in the men’s under-60kg category at the Asian Judo Championships in Hong Kong. Nicknamed the “judo heartthrob” in Taiwan, the Olympic silver-medalist missed out on his first Asian Championships gold when he lost to Japanese judoka Taiki Nakamura in the finals. Yang defeated three opponents on Saturday to reach the final after receiving a bye through the round of 32. He first topped Laotian Soukphaxay Sithisane in the round of 16 with two seoi nage (over-the-shoulder throws), then ousted Indian Vijay Kumar Yadav in the quarter-finals with his signature ude hishigi sankaku gatame (triangular armlock). He
RALLY: It was only the second time the Taiwanese has partnered with Kudermetova, and the match seemed tight until they won seven points in a row to take the last set 10-2 Taiwan’s Chan Hao-ching and Russia’s Veronika Kudermetova on Sunday won the Porsche Tennis Grand Prix women’s doubles final in Stuttgart, Germany. The pair defeated Norway’s Ulrikke Eikeri and Estonia’s Ingrid Neel 4-6, 6-3, 10-2 in a tightly contested match at the WTA 500 tournament. Chan and Kudermetova fell 4-6 in the first set after having their serve broken three times, although they played increasingly well. They fought back in the second set and managed to break their opponents’ serve in the eighth game to triumph 6-3. In the tiebreaker, Chan and Kudermetova took a 3-0 lead before their opponents clawed back two points, but
Taiwanese gymnast Lee Chih-kai failed to secure an Olympic berth in the pommel horse following a second-place finish at the last qualifier in Doha on Friday, a performance that Lee and his coach called “unconvincing.” The Tokyo Olympics silver medalist finished runner-up in the final after scoring 6.6 for degree of difficulty and 8.800 for execution for a combined score of 15.400. That was just 0.100 short of Jordan’s Ahmad Abu Al Soud, who had qualified for the event in Paris before the Apparatus World Cup series in Qatar’s capital. After missing the final rounds in the first two of four qualifier