Astros righty Hunter Brown is slated to start on Tuesday after missing more than two months with a shoulder injury. He’ll square off against former teammate Framber Valdez. It’s the lefty’s return to Houston, where he spent his entire career before signing with Detroit over the winter.
1. PCA hits for the cycle
Cubs outfielder Pete Crow-Armstrong notched the first cycle of the season on Monday in a win over the Rockies. He opened the scoring with a leadoff home run against Michael Lorenzen. PCA tripled to lead off the third inning, but was stranded at third base. A fifth-inning double set the stage for the cycle, and Crow-Armstrong completed it with a single off lefty Brennan Bernardino in the seventh inning. As Patrick Saunders of the Denver Post noted, the sequence of PCA’s cycle was uncommon. It was just the 11th instance since 1900 of a cycle in reverse order (home run, triple, double, single).
2. May tosses complete game shutout
Cardinals right-hander Dustin May flirted with history last night, cruising through six perfect innings. He walked Fernando Tatis Jr. to lead off the seventh inning and permitted a hit to Manny Machado later in the frame, but coaxed a double-play grounder from Gavin Sheets to escape the jam. May struck out the side in the eighth, then breezed through the ninth on eight pitches to wrap up the shutout. He just missed a Maddux, finishing at 101 pitches. May was pounded for 13 earned runs in his first two starts of the season. Since then, he’s recorded a 2.54 ERA across a dozen starts. May has a strong 3.00 xERA and a solid 3.61 SIERA in that stretch. His one-year, $12.5MM deal has gone from a disaster to a valuable signing for the Cardinals.
3. Keith goes yard three times
Tigers infielder Colt Keith hadn’t homered all season coming into last week. He finally got on the board against the Twins on Thursday, slugging a two-run homer off Zebby Matthews. Keith added three more dingers to his season total on Monday in Houston. The second baseman tagged Kai-Wei Teng for a two-run home run in the fourth inning. Keith got Jayden Murray for a homer in the seventh inning, then took Bryan Abreu deep in the ninth inning. His OPS is suddenly back over .700 for the first time in a month. Keith has maintained his improvements in barrel rate and hard-hit rate from last season. He’s also boosted his pulled air rate. More home runs could be on the way.
Photo courtesy of David Banks, Imagn Images
