PITTSBURGH -- Those who primarily follow the National League -- say, for instance, Pittsburgh Pirates fans -- might not have heard much about right-hander Joe Musgrove.Musgrove (1-1, 4.18 ERA) began the season with Double-A Corpus Christi and has had arguably a meteoric start to his career with Houston. He will be on the mound Tuesday when the Astros play the second of three games at PNC Park.At 6 feet 5, 265 pounds, Musgrove, 23, can look imposing, and he has pitched accordingly -- thanks to his performance and a couple of opportunities.He was recalled from Triple-A Fresno Aug. 1 because Doug Fister was going on paternity leave. He came on in relief Aug. 2, pitching 4 1/3 scoreless innings against Toronto and setting a major league record for strikeouts by a reliever making his major league debut with eight.The starter that day, Lance McCullers, then went on the DL, so the Astros kept Musgrove around and gave him his first start, Aug. 7 against Texas, then another and another. The statistic that jumps out: He has 23 strikeouts and three walks in 23 2/3 innings.In his first start, which turned out to be a 5-3, 11-inning Astros loss to the Rangers, Musgrove retired the first 10 batters he faced before giving up three hits in the fifth. Then he settled back down and retired seven of the last eight batters he faced as he pitched through the seventh.He tired at the end but still gutted through his performance, Astros manager A.J. Hinch told the Houston Chronicle. Thats a big step for a young kid to come up here, get his first start and finish his outing. Its really easy to nitpick at the end when youre tired, not make a pitch, and end up having me go out and get you at 6 2/3, as opposed to seven.So there was a good growth day for him. Hes got a lot of charisma, he knows what hes doing, and hes going to attack the zone. I really like what I see from his first two outings.Musgrove has gone 1-1 since that no-decision.Tuesday, he will oppose right-hander Ivan Nova (9-6, 4.83 ERA), meaning it could be a strikeout contest.Nova is 2-0 with a 4.41 ERA in three starts since Pittsburgh acquired him from the Yankees. In his most recent start, a no-decision Wednesday in a 6-5 Pirates win in San Francisco, Nova gave up four runs on six hits over four innings, with five strikeouts and no walks.Houston and the Pirates are in similar battles to try to climb into a wild-card spot, but they are moving in different directions lately.The Astros 3-1 win Monday in the series opener was their fourth win in a row and kept them 3 1/2 games behind Baltimore, which holds the second American League wild-card spot.Since falling to 11 games under .500 on May 22 at 17-28, Houston is 48-32.Winning is contagious and playing good baseball is contagious, said Mondays winning pitcher, Doug Fister. Weve been playing pretty well the last few days, the best weve played in a while.The game Monday was Pittsburghs fourth loss in a row, leaving the Pirates two games behind Miami and four behind St. Louis, which holds the second National League wild-card spot.Manager Clint Hurdle often cites an even keel as critical, and hes emphasizing it even more now.Were very consistent in what we do, and one thing I remind them of is to think with reason, not to think with emotion; make decisions with reason, dont make decisions with emotion, Hurdle said. Many of them have been there in that situation before. Ive been in that situation before. Its not for lack of effort or attitude. Youre getting attitude, youre getting effort, the game can swing back and forth sometimes.Youve got to play through it. You hold fast. These are the times when the coaching staff and myself need to show up. Somebodys got to hold the wheel, keep them positive, keep them playing forward and keep them optimistic. 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He sat out the following game, a 108-107 win Saturday in Portland, before coming back to help send the Nuggets to their seventh consecutive loss. TWICKENHAM -- Michael Cheika bemoaned Australias error count as they fell to a 37-21 defeat to England at Twickenham but said the end-of-year Tests have provided the Wallabies with an opportunity to develop an improved squad depth.Cheika did not agree with a few of Jaco Peypers calls but said it was his teams inability to break Englands second-half momentum which cost them the match.Australia were 10-0 to the good after 18 minutes and had England on the ropes but were unable to preserve that lead as Eddie Jones side consigned them to their ninth defeat of 2016.First half all told, all they got was the drop ball and toe through for the [Jonathan Joseph] try, Cheika said. We had a lot of good continuity.In the second, they are always going to get a run of momentum, and in the moments we had to try and break that, we made errors. We might have had a penalty against us and then back that up, and when we saved that situation we would knock-on and make back to back errors.Cheika said the way the players turned their back on Ben Youngs who quick-tapped a penalty to score Englands third try was unforgiveable and also said they should never have attempted the play which led to Josephs intercept try in the 74th minute.It was their fourth meeting with England this year with Jones side winning on each occasion and Cheika was impressed by them. They play a good game, Cheika said of England.They believe very much in the style of game they play, a pressure, coonservative style and in Australia they scored a lot of tries off errors when we loaded up their attack.ddddddddddddThey play a really good solid game, are very well coached, and you dont win 14 in a row out of luck. Theyre playing good rugby, their own style, and thats why theyre winning games.Saturdays match against England was Australias 15th Test of 2016 and their fifth in the end-of-year international schedule and Cheika said the programme has been gruelling but that was not the reason behind their defeat at Twickenham.We started getting fit towards the end on the tour, I didnt think we started the season in great fitness, Cheika said. Five Tests are difficult but I dont think that had anything to do with the performance tonight.Thats more about recovery and the bigger picture. The boys will be training first week of January so its more about break time. It is what it is.We knew there were 15 Tests this year against the top eight nations. We had a massive turnover in our squad and as much as tonight was disappointing, we finished last year in the same dressing room after a loss so weve had two disappointing finishes to 15 and 16.Weve improved a lot as a team and have given some young lads good experience. Well continue to grow our group so we have a good selection to choose from by 2018 and can narrow that down. ' ' '
