#MLBVideos: The inevitable Astros and the rocking Rays! | Morning Lineup (MLB Daily Recap)

The inevitable Astros and the rocking Rays! | Morning Lineup (MLB Daily Recap)

brown delivers got him up top hunter Brown the diesel with some extra fuel getting Schwarber for his ninth strikeout of the game [Music] from MLB.com this is the Morning Lineup Podcast i’m your host Anthony Castro today is Friday June 27th and on today’s show we’re going to talk about the unstoppable team that is once again right at home on top of its division the team without a home that is shaking up the AL East and the slugger who made himself at home in a ballpark that bears his name let’s get to it surely the season will come when the Houston Astros are no longer contenders right the law of averages has to catch up to Houston at some point doesn’t it a lot of us thought that day might be nearing when the Astros traded away star outfielder Kyle Tucker over the winter for a package that included third baseman Esacho Paredes and outfield prospect Cam Smith while Parades was brought in to help the Astros absorb the free agent loss of Alex Bregman that trade was yet another reccalibration for a team that looks drastically different from the one that won it all in 2017 and even quite a bit different from the one that went the distance just 3 years ago in 2022 but as fans of other AL West teams can tell you the Astros just don’t die one reason for that is the emergence of a true ace in Hunter Brown who took the mound in Houston on Thursday afternoon against a dangerous Philly’s lineup and continued to pitch his way into the Sai Young conversation hunter continues to roll nine strikeouts for Brown seven shut out innings for the second time this year start number six where he has gone shut out on the season hunter continues a brilliant 2025 brown threw seven scoreless innings to lower his major league leading ERA to 1.74 he struck out nine batters didn’t issue a walk and allowed three singles he left with a one- nothing lead but the Phillies managed to score a run off the Astros bullpen in the eighth to tie it after the Astros had remarkably held them scoreless for the first 25 innings of the series so the Astros needed some offensive help late and in the bottom of the eighth after Paredes reached on a hit by pitch and moved to second on a José Altuve single the rookie Smith came through line drive over the head of Trey Turner base hit here comes Torus he’ll score the go-ahead run 2-1 Stros in the eighth cam Smith a big RBI and a boy Cam behind the brilliant Brown and the help of the Tucker trade acquisitions the Astros won 2 to1 to complete the sweep of their 2022 World Series opponent it was the Astros 12th win in 15 games and they hit the midway mark of their season schedule a season high 15 games over 500 and in their familiar position in first place things are going well for Tucker on the first place Cubs too but when Tucker returns to Houston for a three-game series this weekend he and the Cubbies will have their work cut out for them because the Astros won’t go away things are a little weird for the Rays this season as they play their home games at Tampa Stein Brener Field while Tropicana Fields hurricane damage gets repaired and their impressive play could make things weirder earlier this week sources told The Athletics Ken Rosenthal that MLB and the Rays have had preliminary discussions about where the team could play home games if it makes the playoffs according to Rosenthal’s reporting the concern is less of a concern for the wildard and division series rounds than if the Rays advance to the ALCS given ticket and media needs in the later rounds this is a topic now because the Rays have been unstoppable for more than a month they have baseball’s best record dating back to May 20th and though their schedule which was front-loaded with home games to account for the brutal Florida summer weather at the open air Steinbrer Field gets a lot tougher going forward with a heavy dose of road dates you wouldn’t know it this week on Thursday the Rays wrapped the three-game series at Kansas City’s Kaufman Stadium and it was more of the same in the fourth inning left fielder Jake Mangum came to bat with a runner aboard and two out and broke a scoreless tie there’s a liner into right center field the Rays are going to get on the board extra bases for Mangum and he’s going to dig for three with that great speed safe at third base later in the sixth Brandon Laauo hit a leadoff blast and one pitch later it was rising star Junior Camro’s turn here’s a shot down to left field line that ball’s got great carry it will go home run off the bat of Junior Camro with Camro’s 20th homer of the season and Shane Bos pitching eight scoreless innings in which he allowed just three hits in a walk with nine strikeouts the Rays rolled four to nothing to complete their fifth sweep of their season and their 25th win in their last 34 games and what do we have here in the AL standings i see just half a game separating the Rays from the first place Yankees the owners of their quote unquote home ballpark this is a much different landlord tenant spat than we see in the real world coming up we were beating the bushes to find you a quirky story that took place in St louis yesterday that’s after the break the Cubs beat the Cardinals at Bush Stadium in St louis on Thursday by a score of three to nothing to salvage a four-game split with their NL Central rivals the Cardinals have been creeping up on the Cubs in the standings but now sit right where they started before the series began at four and a half games back while the second place Brewers are three back but ladies and gentlemen that was not the big story from BCH no the big story was BCH michael Bush the Cubs first baseman came to bat in the top of the second inning and made history of a sort hammered right field that one back on its way and gone michael Bush will touch them all his 13th of the year and the Cubs jump out front there it is a homer for Bush at Bush believe it or not in three iterations of Bush Stadium in St louis dating back to 1953 there had never been a Bush B U S H B U S C H or any other spelling can come up with to go deep in that building leave it to our friend and researcher extraordinaire Sarah Langs to go deep herself on this one she looked at ballpark names past and present and found a few but not many Homer homophones such as Chase Utley and Chase Headley going deep at Chase Field Damen Brad and Bill Miller all going deep at what used to be known as Miller Park and Jacob Cruz going deep at what once was Jacob’s Field also did you remember that Trey Turner’s first career homer came at Turner Field i’m guessing he does i urge you to check out Sarah’s full article at MLB.com for all the examples but suffice it to say what Bush did at Bush was rare he really made a name for himself elsewhere in MLB Aaron Judge and Show Otani were the leading vote getters in the AL and NL in phase one of the all-star balloting and therefore advanced directly to the starting lineups for the July 15th game in Atlanta the remaining top two vote getters at each position advance to phase two of the voting which begins Monday at noon Eastern time at MLB.com and the MLB app you can of course head to mlb.com to check out the full Pro Spirit MLB All-Star ballot speaking of all-stars two of them got plunked as tensions flared between the Blue Jays and Guardians at Progressive Field on Thursday toronto superstar Vladimir Guerrero Jr was struck by a pitch for a second straight day in the top of the third inning and then Cleveland superstar Jose Ramirez was hit in the bottom of the fourth both players were struck in the forearm though thankfully X-rays were negative on each the Blue Jays won six to nothing to take the three-game series future Hall of Famer Clayton Kershaw is now just three strikeouts shy of 30,000 after king the Rockies five times in a 3 to1 win at Coors Field the Tigers remain tied with the Dodgers for best record in baseball after beating the A’s 8 to nothing kyle Sters and Augustine Ramirez both went deep in the Marlins 12 to5 win over the Giants a 4hour 22minute rain delay proved worth the wait in Minnesota as the Twins thumped the visiting Mariners 10 to one after dropping 10 games in an 11game span the Mets have now won two in a row they beat the visiting Braves 4 to nothing finally Royal superstar Bobby Wit Jr announced that he will again be with Team USA for the World Baseball Classic in 2026 and this time he’s likely to have a more pronounced role than he had in 2023 when he was just a wee bitty baby [Music] that’s all for the morning lineup be sure to check out Kyle Tucker’s return to Houston tonight at 8:10 Eastern time 7:10 local on MLB.tv you also don’t want to miss Showi Otani’s third pitching appearance for the Dodgers in Saturday’s 4:10 Eastern 1:10 Pacific time game against the Royals in Kansas City i’ll be back with you on Monday to recap all that and more until then thanks for listening please be sure to leave us a rating and review share this episode with the baseball lovers in your life and have a great weekend everybody

All of the important storylines from 6/26/2025 across MLB including: The Astros’ and Rays’ impressive seasons AND MORE!

Don’t forget to subscribe! https://www.youtube.com/mlb

Follow us elsewhere too:
Twitter: https://twitter.com/MLB
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/mlb/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/mlb
TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@mlb

Check out MLB.com daily to watch the MLB.TV Free Game of the Day! https://mlb.com/freegame

Visit our site for all baseball news, stats and scores! https://www.mlb.com/