The Astros’ and Rangers’ benches cleared on Saturday after Hank Conger and Rougned Odor exchanged words. Conger felt Odor was taking too long to get into the batter’s box, and things escalated from there. There was some shoving, but nothing serious.
Keuchel, however, felt Odor disrespected the Astros (per Jose de Jesus Ortiz of the Houston Chronicle), so he went out and tossed seven shutout innings with 13 strikeouts on Sunday, allowing only two hits while refusing to issue a walk. The lefty now sports a 12-4 record with a 2.12 ERA, 0.97 WHIP, and a 127/34 K/BB ratio in 144 1/3 innings. Keuchel remains the American League leader in ERA and moves into the league lead in wins.
The takeaway may be that giving Keuchel bulletin board material may be a bad idea.