2017 Houston Astros Season

[eagle eye]

You know you’re on a roll when you get no-hit until the 7th inning and you win the game. The Astros blew a chance to blow the game open in the 3rd inning when they had the bases loaded but they only came away with a sac fly by Alex Bregman. At the time, it was good for an early lead for first time Astros starter Justin Verlander. Verlander was cruising along until the 4th when he made a mistake with a hanging slider that Kyle Seagar put into orbit. The ball finally came down in the right field seats to tie the game at 1. The Seattle starter, Ariel Miranda, had a no-no going into the 7th inning but he was replaced by James Pazos because Miranda had thrown 112 pitches in his six innings of work. Pazos got Carlos Beltran, who returned to the Astros lineup the night before from the DL, flew out to left field. Pazos followed that up with a walk to Brian McCann. The Astros sent Derek Fisher in to run for McCann with Cameron Maybin coming up to bat. At this time Seattle manager Scott Servais decided to go with Emilio Pagan in relief of Pazos. Maybin worked a 9 pitch at-bat from Pagan when, on the 9th pitch, Maybin took him deep into the left field seats for a 2-run homer that gave Houston a 3-1 lead. Joe Musgrove and Ken Giles combined for 3 scoreless innings in relief of Verlander to nail down their 6th win in a row by that 3-1 final score. Ken Giles has found another gear. In recent games his fastball has hit 100 mph consistently and in the 9th inning Giles threw exactly 10 pitches and the lone ball he threw just missed being a strike. That is the closer Houston was hoping for when they gave Giles that big contract in 2016. As for Joe Musgrove, he is settling into a crackerjack middle reliever. He has some heartburn about going to the bullpen earlier this year because he had always been a starter but he has learned to reset his thinking and, as of late, he has really pitched well.

How about the two newest Astros leading the way to another win last night? Between Verlander’s excellent start and Maybin’s game winning home run Astros GM Jeff Luhnow is looking like a doggone genius. I think the signing of Verlander energized this team. When the no-trade deadline passed at the end of July you could tell that Dallas Keuchel was disappointed that a big name addition didn’t come to the Houston in an interview after the trade deadline. But, now that Luhnow has made that 11th hour trade to get Verlander, it has energized Keuchel and the rest of this team. That, and the Astros finally being able to connect with their families in the aftermath of Harvey, have lifted this team up and set them right on a path to win 6 games in a row.

The Astros will get another shot in the arm tonight with the return of Lance McCullers to the starting rotation for the first time since the end of July. McCullers has been dealing with back discomfort since early June right after he won AL Pitcher of the Month for May. He missed a couple of weeks at the beginning of June but when he came back he struggled thru a handful of starts before returning to the DL with the same back issues. He has gone thru multiple starts at both AAA Fresno and AA Corpus Christi and he has been declared ready to go. I feel like he’ll struggle a bit in his first couple of starts just as Keuchel and Collin McHugh did when they came off the DL. That’s okay if Houston’s offense can give him some run support. Check this out, here is the Astros current starting rotation:

Dallas Keuchel, Justin Verlander, Lance McCullers, Collin McHugh and either Charlie Morton or Brad Peacock. Morton is tied with Verlander with 11 wins and Peacock is next with 10. If McCullers can pitch like he is capable of this is a really good staff that has terrific depth. Damn, I love September!

[eagle eye]

Make that 7 in a row! Houston completed the sweep of the Seattle Mariners with a 5-3 win last night in Seattle. For the 2nd night in a row newbie Cameron Maybin hit a 2-run homer to win the game for the Astros. On Tuesday night, it was shot into the left field seats of Safeco Field and last night it was an opposite field line drive into the right field seats. On Tuesday Maybin’s homer came in the seventh inning and last night his heroics occurred in the top of the 9th. Maybin’s homer accounted for 2 of the Astros 5 runs but his homer would not have meant much without Marwin Gonzalez 2-run double in the 4th inning and the RBI single by George Springer in the 7th set the table for Maybin to go home the hero last night.

Another hero was Lance McCullers who went 5.1 innings allowing 3 runs on 4 hits and a walk with 4 K’s. McCullers entered the sixth with a 2-1 lead but after he left the game he had given up two runs and that 2-1 lead suddenly became a 3-2 deficit. AJ Hinch decided to pull McCullers because he had reached his pitch count limit which was a pre-determined 75-ish pitch limit, it was actually 76 pitches, which was disappointing for McCullers but he had to be pleased with his first start in 5 weeks since he went on the DL. Everything will depend on how he feels today after his start. If his back is healed now Houston’s starting rotation just got scary good.

Jose Altuve got a night off last night after he went oh-fer in the first two games of the Seattle series. Getting last night off plus the day off Houston will have off today will give him a nice breather to hit the reset button and get back on the hitting track. Currently, Altuve is leading the AL in hits with 183. If he can manage 17 more hits in the final 22 games he will extend his streak of consecutive 200 hit seasons to 4 and he will have led the American League in hits 4 straight seasons. He also currently has a batting average of .351 with is 27 points higher than the man in 2nd place, Avisail Garcia of the White Sox, who is hitting .324 which means that Altuve is 98% sure to win his 3rd batting title in 4 years. Like most Astros fans I am really rooting for Altuve to get those 17 hits. So close, and yet, so far away.

Houston has the day off today as they travel to Oakland to take on the A’s. Houston just completed the first three games of their current 9 game road trip, all against AL West opponents. After the A’s Houston heads down the coast to LA to play 3 against the Angels. All the games in September will be against their division except for series against the Mets, which Houston swept, the White Sox and the final 4 games of the season will be in Boston against the Red Sox which will likely have playoff implications and have a playoff type atmosphere. My calendar is circled for September 25-27 when the Astros play their last series of the season against the Rangers. I really want Houston to abuse the Rangers in that series. This is the home stand the Rangers refused to swap with Houston last week in the wake of Harvey and they forced the series to be played in Tampa in the Rays stadium as a “home” series for Houston. I will never forgive or forget how the Rangers played a gamesmanship card during such a trying time for the Astros and the people of Houston. Fuck the Rangers.

Collin McHugh (2-2, 3.25 ERA) will take the ball in the first game against the A’s on Friday night. His counterpart for Oakland will be Jharel Cotton (7-10, 5.53 ERA) McHugh will be looking to run his season record above .500 with a win. He should have gotten his 3rd win in his last outing on August 31st against the Rangers but Quick-hook Hinch pulled McHugh after 4.2 innings of work in which he allowed just one run which was unearned in what was the Astros only win against Texas in that series. It’s hard to believe McHugh will be heading into his 9th start of the season. To be honest, McHugh should be 6-2 right now. If not for bad bullpen backup and Hinch’s early hook, he would be.

[eagle eye]

The Astros had the day off yesterday but so did every other team in the AL West. No advantage for Houston in that regard as they begin a 4-game series with Oakland tonight and will highlighted by a day-night double header on Saturday to make up for a rainout early in the season. Collin McHugh gets the ball for Houston tonight and Jharel Cooper takes the hill for the A’s. On paper, it’s advantage Houston but they don’t play the games on paper so Houston will have to earn the win on the field.

In the early game on Saturday (3:05 PM start) Charlie Morton will look to equal Dallas Keuchel for the most wins on the team (12) and he’ll face Oakland starter, and Houstonian, Daniel Mengden. Mengden has struggled with injury and lack of success on the mound this year but he always seems to give the Astros fits when he pitches.

In the nightcap Brad Peacock will likely make his final start of the season. He is 10-2 on the year but stat guys will point out that Peacock is 0-1 in his last 5 starts. The truth is he’s had some bad luck. Let’s look at the last 5. Aug 10 against the White Sox he went 6.1 allowing just one run. Ken Giles blew the save in the 9th costing Peacock and the win and they lost in 11 innings. Aug 15 against Arizona Peacock got some run support but he was given the old AJ Hinch early hook with 4.2 innings pitched. If Hinch lets Peacock get the final out he would have left with an 8-4 lead in what turned out to be a 9-4 win. Aug 20 against the A’s Peacock went 5.1 allowing 3 runs but only one earned as the Astros offense AND defense let him down in a 3-2 loss. Aug 26 against the Angels Peacock pitched 6 innings allowing just 1 run but he got a no-decision when the bullpen blew the lead and the game late. Sept 2 against the Mets Houston completed the sweep of the Mets in the Astros first home stand since Hurricane Harvey but Peacock was denied the win because he was pulled after 5.1 innings and Houston scored the go ahead and winning runs in the bottom of the inning. Bad Luck, bad bullpen, no offense. Peacock could easily be 15-1 or 14-2. Peacock will move to the bullpen where he began the season and he will add quality depth there.

Sunday the Astros get back to their regular rotation as Dallas Keuchel takes the ball as Houston will face A’s starter Kendall Graveman.

As the Astros had a day off I thought I would update their minor league team’s status.

AAA Fresno Grizzlies – Had 4th best record in the PCL but missed the playoffs as they came in 2nd place in their division 3 games behind the Reno Aces. Manager Tony DeFrancesco will not return to the team in 2018.

AA Corpus Christi Hooks – AA is messed up. The Texas League plays a first half and a second half and the division winning teams for both halves make the playoffs unless, in the case of the TL South division the first and second half winner is won by the same team. Then, thru circumstances I don’t understand, a different team is selected. In the case of the TL-S it was the Midland Rockhounds despite the fact Corpus Christi had a better record.

Advanced A Buies Creek Astros – The Buies Creek Astros had the best overall record in the Carolina League Southern Division but they missed the playoffs because they didn’t win either the first half or second half division titles.

A Quad Cities River Bandits – 4 teams in each of the 2 divisions make the playoffs. Quad Cities is in the Western Division playoffs as the second half champion and they also had the best record overall in the division. They are currently locked in a best of 3 1st round series with the Peoria Chiefs with that series tied at 1 game apiece. Game 3 is Saturday at Quad Cities home field Modern Woodman Park in Davenport, Iowa.

Short Season A Tri-City Valley Cats in the NY-Pennsylvania League – There are 3 divisions in the NY-Penn League and the Valley Cats are in the Stedman division. They are in 3rd place in the division and officially eliminated from the playoffs.

Rookie Appalachian League @ Greeneville, N.C. Greeneville Astros – The Greeneville Astros made the playoffs but were eliminated 2-1 in a 3-game series losing to the Elizabethton Twins who advanced to the league finals against the Pulaski Yankees. Elizabethton is up in that series 1-0 with Game 2 scheduled for tonight.

Rookie Gulf Coast League Astros @ West Palm Beach Fla. – This team plays at the Ball Park of the Palm Beaches which is the Astros string training home in a league that is located in Florida. The Astros failed to make the playoffs and the league championship has already been decided with the GCL Cardinals beating the GCL Phillies 2-1 in the best-of-3 championship series. The Cardinals went into the game tied 1 game apiece but they came away with the win, on the road, 4-2 to become league champs.

That’s it except for the foreign leagues which is actually the Dominican leagues.

[eagle eye]

Ask me if I'm upset with the Astros. Go ahead, I dare you. For Houston to go into Oakland clinging to a 3 game lead for best record in the American League and lay the giant turd they have laid is frustrating as heck. The Astros scored 8 runs on Friday night and they blew two leads to lose Game 1 of this 4 game series was bad enough but to lose both ends of a double header yesterday is just too much to bear without regressing to the point of self abuse. Namely, banging your head against the wall until your bloody. How can Houston lose to a team with half assed players with mediocre pitching? It's looked for all the world that Houston was the team with half assed players and mediocre pitching. Especially the Astros bullpen, those guys have sucked big time for the past 3 games. In the first game on Saturday AJ Hinch put JD Davis on the mound to save his bullpen and this was after Reymin Guduan gave up a single, got a foul tip K and then proceeded to walk 5 batters in a row allowing the A's to extend their 6-1 lead to 9-1. Davis actually did better than Guduan. He allowed a walk and an infield hit that extended the lead to 11-1. The Astros offense wasn't without their own fax pas. The Astros had men on 2nd and 3rd with 1 out and failed to score even one run. It was the 3rd inning and Houston was already trailing 3-0 at the time and it was definitely a blown opportunity. In the 4th they had a man on 3rd with one out with Jose Altuve and Carlos Correa up and the Astros could not score then either. Altuve struck out looking and Correa grounded out weakly for the 3rd out. In game two Brad Peacock was in a pitcher's duel with A's starter Daniel Mengden until the 6th when Houston finally pushed across 3 runs to take a 3 zip lead. That lasted just until the bottom of the 6th when Peacock gave up a 2 run home run to tighten the score to 3-2 and Joe Musgrove came in to allow the tying run to score. Houston took the lead when they pushed across a run in the top of the seventh but, again, the lead was short lived. In all the Astros bullpen gave up 9 runs in the final 2.1 innings they worked. Musgrove, Chris Devenski, Francis Liriano combined to allow 4 runs but it was the 5 runs Michael Feliz gave up in the bottom of the 8th that drove the final nails in the Astros coffin. In all Houston gave up 22 runs on 18 hits and a whopping 14 walks to give Astros fans flashbacks of 6 years ago when Houston really did suck on the way to a franchise record 111 loses. People, yesterday was flat ugly. Ugly enough to make you sick to your stomach. To make matters worse the Indians continued their winning streak by beating Baltimore 4-2 running their current streak to 17 games. The giant lead Houston once enjoyed over the rest of the AL is now a mere wisp of a memory as Cleveland and Houston are now tied with an 86-56 record. A horrendous August coupled with the last 3 games against Oakland have really done the Astros in. Yet another late season swoon by this team that has derailed their hopes for home field or even a playoff birth last season has become the modus operandi of this team. The Astros offense is wildly inconsistent and when the pitching is bad it resembles something you flush down the toilet.

One good thing is Jose Altuve has gotten 4 hits in this series so far dropping his magic number to 200 hits to 13 with 20 games left to go in the season. He will probably get those hits but I'll bet all he can think about it all the runners he left stranded in scoring position or the time he was picked off 1st base. Houston had a hit by Alex Bregman in Game 1 of the double header yesterday and he took second on a wild pitch all with Altuve batting. Jose hit a ground ball to 3B and Bregman, in a bonehead base running move of his own, ran right into a tag by the third baseman when he inexplicably broke for 3rd on the play. A couple of pitches into Carlos Correa's AB Altuve got caught leading toward second base. So far, in Oakland, Houston has been a very lousy team playing against a pretty lousy team. The Astros are 7-3 in their last 10 games but their play this weekend is not the play of a team who looks to do damage in the postseason. You just cannot suck for 3 straight games because you will be eliminated right quick and in a hurry in the playoffs.

[eagle eye]

The Astros won 1-0 last night after Justin Verlander pitched 8 scoreless innings of one hit baseball. That is why Houston traded for him, because he’s a badass, and he showed it last night. The game took place past my bed time so I couldn’t follow along but I’m sort of glad I couldn’t because I would have gone crazy as the offense only managed 6 hits the whole game and they made a rookie who hadn’t pitched more than 4.2 innings in 3 measly appearances prior to last night. It wasn’t just Garrett Richard who stymied the Astros offense but the Angels bullpen threw 4 shutout innings after Garrett’s night was done after 5 innings and just 63 pitches. The Astros got to Garrett in the 2nd inning on 3 base hits by Carlos Correa, Alex Bregman and the RBI single by Yuli Gurriel. That was all Garrett allowed as he only allowed 4 hits total and zero walks. The Rook was good but the vet, Verlander was better.

Houston isn’t going to catch Cleveland for home field throughout the playoffs. Houston is only a game and a half behind them but the way the Indians are playing and the inconsistency the Astros are struggling with I don’t believe Houston will catch them. Too bad for Houston but the most important thing is to not suck in the playoffs. The one thing that is all but written in stone is Houston will win the AL West and avoid the Wild Card round of the playoffs. The Astros likely opponent will be Boston which makes the final four games of the season important because Houston will play the Red Sox on the road to close out the season. So, the Astros-Red Sox matchup will likely turn into at least a 8-game series. Four games in Boston to end the regular season and at least 4 games in the ALDS and that’s if one team or the other sweeps. Houston’s magic number to clinch the AL West is down to 5 with 18 games left to play.

Jose Altuve went hitless last night so he continues to sit at 189, 11 his away from 200 hits for the season. His batting average dropped below .350 for the first time since July but his .349 BA is still tops in all of baseball 13 points ahead of Colorado’s Charlie Blackmon who sits at .336. From the first of August to now Altuve has slumped losing 15 points off his season high .364 BA. With just over 15 days left in the season he needs to find his stroke. That goes for George Springer and Carlos Correa as well as they have struggled since coming off the DL for their respective injuries.

[eagle eye]

Quick update and you’re not going to like it. Lance McCullers is scratched from his regular start tonight in Los Angeles because of arm fatigue-whatever the hell that means. Taking his place is Mike Fiers who is sure to give up at least two home runs tonight. You just broke a 4 game losing streak and now you send a guy to the mound who routinely gives up multiple homers in his starts. The way Houston’s offense is struggling I wouldn’t be surprised if the Astros lost by double digits tonight.

 

http://m.astros.mlb.com/news/article/254015548/lance-mccullers-jr-scratched-from-next-start/

 

You might know this already because it’s really old news from last week but Collin McHugh will not make the start tomorrow night because in his last start he suffered a split fingernail that cut into his finger on his pitching hand. The Astros and McHugh don’t think this will be a lingering problem but he will miss his next start tomorrow night. It’s certainly a better situation going into tomorrow with Brad Peacock getting the call. Given his performance this year you certainly have a lot more confidence in Peacock than you will in Mike Fiers.

 

http://m.astros.mlb.com/news/article/253556046/astros-collin-mchugh-to-miss-scheduled-start/

[eagle eye]

Man, I hate being right sometimes. I was wrong about the double digit loss last night but I was close as Houston was slapped around by the Angels to the tune of 9-1. I was absolutely right about Mike Fiers sucking. He started off sucking in the very first inning by giving up 4 doubles and a 2-run HR to former Astro Luis Valbuena to put his team in a 5 zip hole right out of the box. By the time Fiers got thru his 3.2 innings of work he had allowed 8 runs on 10 hits and a walk. Way step up there, Mike.

 

The offense let another half baked pitcher, Tyler Skaggs, and his 4.86 ERA come in make the Astros hitters look foolish. It was so bad that AJ Hinch pulled Jose Altuve out of the game in the 7th to spare him any more embarrassment. Altuve had one of the 5 hits the Astros managed last night watching this offense sputter like it has is starting to make me sick especially when Cleveland notched their 21st win in a row last night.

 

Jose Altuve's hit last night brings him to within 10 hits of reaching 200 hits for the 4th season in a row.

[eagle eye]

Ah, home sweet home. The Astros had 3 days at home in their last home stand and it came on the heels of Harvey when they were away from their families and homes and couldn't get back due to the widespread flooding. The Astros swept the Mets in those 3 games in a very emotional return to Houston. They road that wave of emotion into Seattle where Justin Verlander made his first start for Houston. Then came Oakland. Four games in 3 days that will live in infamy in Astros lore as Houston was ambushed by the A's and lost all four games including both ends of a double header on Saturday. Houston took 2 of 3 against the Angels to end the 10 game road trip on a happy but it was definitely tainted by that trip to Oakland.

Fast forward one week and Houston has returned to Minute Maid Park and they have won their first game at home on Friday night over the Seattle Mariners 5-2. Since returning from the DL both George Springer and Carlos Correa have been in hitting slumps, as has pretty much of the Astros lineup. Right now Houston has won 89 games and they would have to go 11-4 in their last 15 games to reach 100 wins. At the end of a red hot July it seemed Houston would have no problems winning 100 games but a dismal August and very inconsistent September to date makes winning 100 or more games seem out of reach. The Astros only month with a losing record was August. Everyone sucked from the pitching staff to the equipment managers. I don't know when or how but it was about the end of July when both Springer and Correa went on the DL and it wasn't long after that the Astros started losing more than they won. It's a testament to just how hot the Astros had been the first 4 months of the season that the past 7 weeks haven't mired the Astros in the cellar of the AL West instead of maintaining a 13 or 14 game lead in the division.

The guy who really needs to get going is Jose Altuve. He is almost a lock to win his 3rd AL batting title in 4 years but he can't keep losing points on his batting average. He had a season .364 BA in early August and it's dwindled down to a mere .347. That's still pretty good but since mid-August he has put together a string of oh-fer's. Up to August he probably had just 5 or 6 games when he didn't get a hit but now it's become pretty frequent and one hit games are more normal. I would love to see Altuve start to put together a string of multi-hit games to get his BA over .350 again and also have him get to, and surpass the 200 hit mark for the fourth season in a row. He now has 191 hits so he needs 9 more hits to reach 200 with 15 games to play. In a perfect world he would reach 210 or more but I'll just be happy with the 200. He still leads the entire MLB with his .347 and he trails Charlie Blackmon of the Rockies by 5 hits but he's far and away the champ of the American League in hits with Eric Hosmer of the Royals 12 back with 179.

Houston can clinch the AL West title and a spot in the postseason with a win tonight over Seattle and a loss by the Angels who are playing Texas. Given how I feel about Texas I'll be happy with the Astros win. The Astros can clinch tomorrow by sweeping the Mariners.

[eagle eye]

The Astros did it, they clinched their first division title in 16 years and they won their first division title as an American League team. The Astros clinched the AL West yesterday afternoon as Justin Verlander pitched 7 innings of one hit baseball and the Houston offense hit 4 home runs in the game scoring 7 runs all told in a 7-1 win that not only clinched the division but completed the series sweep against division rival Seattle. It wasn’t just an also ran that was mailing in these games. Not hardly. The Mariners came into the series last Friday in the hunt for a Wild Card spot in the American League. They are still in contention but being swept by Houston didn’t help the Mariners’ cause one bit. Charlie Morton, Dallas Keuchel and Justin Verlander closed the door on the Mariners and the magic number of 3 needed to clinch the division. The link below is from Astros.com and contains videos of the game winning play and the celebration after the game. This was a big deal for Houstonians and people of SE Texas who could use the emotional lift of having a champion in their city after all they have endured and will continue to endure because of Hurricane Harvey.

http://m.astros.mlb.com/news/article/254835522/astros-win-first-division-title-in-16-years/

Jose Altuve didn’t play yesterday because AJ Hinch gave him the day off so he wasn’t on the field for the win and he didn’t get any at-bats to get an opportunity to get closer to the 200 hit mark. He currently stands at 193 hits, still the tops in the AL, with 14 games to go. Given his plate success even in a September when he’s been slumping he is still averaging over a hit a game so that means in 7 games minimum he will get to 200. I would be willing to wager Altuve might not play in the last game, or possibly the last two games, of the season just to allow him and maybe a few others to rest up for the post season. Houston can’t rest too much because they are only 1-1/2 games back of Cleveland and you know Houston would love to have home field advantage throughout the AL side of the playoffs. Cleveland for their part has won 2 straight since Kansas City ended their win streak at 22 games. To put this in perspective, Cleveland is 24-1 in their last 25 games. That is SICK!

The Astros have a day off, their last one of the regular season, today. They begin a 3 game home stand with the Chicago White Sox tomorrow night and Collin McHuch will make the start for Houston after missing a start last week because of an injured finger on his pitching hand. The Sox counter with a young pitcher, Lucas Giolito. Giolito, 23 years old, is making just his 5th start of the season. He is sporting a 2-2 record with a 2.56 ERA. He made his MLB debut last year while with Washington. He was 0-1 in 4 starts and 6 appearances with a 6.75 ERA for the Nats.

The Indians are playing a series In Los Angeles against the Angels and the Halos could really help out the Astros by winning that series or, even better, sweeping the series with the Tribe. The Angels are still in the hunt for a Wild Card spot in the playoffs and they have every reason to play hard. The Indians, BTW, also clinched the AL Central this past weekend so maybe they will let their guard down a little bit. I sort of doubt it because Houston is breathing right down their necks as they compete for the top seed in the AL. GO ANGELS!

[eagle eye]

I don’t care about stats or how long a starter goes in a game but I do care when my team sucks the big one against a team that annoys the heck out of me. Dallas Keuchel had a couple of bad innings but he only gave up two runs. Most pitchers who have a bad game give up a way bigger crocked number than 2. The problem with all this is the offense. Houston’s offense is a problem. I know they have scored some runs in the 6 game winning streak that ended last night but they are just an average offense. The last great month for Houston was July and since then every single one of the Astros hitters has seen their batting average drop. Alex Bregman made a late surge and his BA creeped up close to .290 but now it’s definitely going the wrong way. At one time 6 Astros everyday players were hitting over .300. That would be Jose Altuve, Carlos Correa, George Springer, Yuli Gurriel, Marwin Gonzalez and Josh Reddick. Now it’s only Aluve and Reddick that are above .300. Since they came off the DL both Carlos Correa and George Springer have really stunk it up as neither has been able to find that winning stroke. Since his return on September 3rd Correa has lost 23 points on his BA going from .320 to his current .297. Correa has hit a paltry .182 in the month of September getting just 12 hits in 66 AB’s. In last weekend’s series against Seattle it looked like he was coming out of his slump as he got 4 hits in the series including a big 2-run HR in Sunday’s finale. Against the White Sox this week he went oh-fer for the entire series. Not a single hit in 10 AB’s. That wasn’t just Correa, last night in the 3-1 loss to Chicago the top hitters in the Astros lineup combined to go 0-17. Seven half assed relievers for the White Sox blew the Astros away holding them to just the one run in the game.

As for George Springer, he has struggled for nearly two full months. When he went on the DL on July 24th he was hitting .310, leading the club in HR’s and RBI’s. Since his return on August 9 he has struggled at the plate. In August, his BA dropped from .310 to .290 as he hit just .200 for the month. So far in September Springer has his BA has dropped from .290 to .286. He is hitting improved over August but he is still batting just .261 for the month of September.

Jose Altuve has struggled the past two months as well. He finished July with a .368 BA and he actually got that average up to .369 at one point. He hit record setting .485 for the month of July but he has struggled ever since. At the end of August his BA was down to .355 as he hit .304 for the month. In September, it’s been worse as he is now batting .346 for the season and a troubling .271, so far, this month. You just can’t have your 3 best hitters struggling this bad with only 10 games left in the season.

[eagle eye]

Okay AJ, what the hell are you doing? Yeah, I know, you are beating the crap out of the Rangers and you're feeling pretty good about Collin McHugh getting out of a bases loaded jam in the 5th inning without giving up a run and your up 8-2, I get that but why take Altuve out an not give him the chance to get hit number two hundred last night? Are you trying to drag this whole process out or what? I know you're trying to give your starters some rest going into the playoffs but what is 2 or 3 more innings going to do? Not much and fans are still waiting on hit number 200. This is killing me AJ Hinch. Let Jose get that final hit and it will reduce the stress in my life by a lot. As for his 3rd batting title in four years? That's a lock, Altuve is 18 points up on 2nd place Avisail Garcia of the White Sox and his .348 BA is the best in all of MLB. Altuve is 2nd in the AL in stolen bases, he's 2nd in the AL in runs scored and 6th in MLB. Altuve is 3rd in the AL and tied for 4th overall in OBP, he's 3rd in the AL and 8th overall in OPS and he's first in the AL and tied for 2nd overall in hits. Not a bad year for Mr Altuve if you don't mind me saying.

 

I guess I neglected to say Houston beat Texas 11-2 on the strength of a huge 8 run 5th inning that broke the game open for Houston. Marwin Gonzalez had a big game after an extended slump. He went 4-5 with 3 RBI's and 3 runs scored including a solo HR in that big 8-run 5th. One down and two to go in what I hope is a season series ending sweep of the hated Rangers. The biggest excitement of the night was whether or not Houston starter Collin McHugh and the Rangers Carlos Gomez were going to duke it out. McHugh had gone high and tight on a pitch to Gomez and on a subsequent pitch which was over the plate Gomez swung and missed. Naturally, Gomez swing took him off balance and into the opposite batter's box. It was then he decided to stare down McHugh who was having none of Gomez' crap. The two exchanged words as the benches cleared in the expectation of a fight which never materialized and the Rangers came up short in the 5th when they loaded the bases but failed to score as McHugh wriggled out of trouble in the inning.

 

Dallas Keuchel goes tonight in what is likely his last start before the playoffs and Justin Verlander will pitch the series finale in his final regular season start on Wednesday. Hopefully, that will be more than enough get the series sweep of the Rangers.

 

If the playoffs began today Cleveland would own the #1 seed in the AL and they would play the winner of the Minnesota - NY Yankees one game Wild Card play-in game as the winner would be the #4 seed. Houston would be the #2 seed and they would host the #3 seed Boston Red Sox. If Houston does end up being the #2 seed it would mean that Houston and Boston will play a minimum of seven games against each other. On Thursday the Astros travel to Boston to close out the regular season with a 4-game series with the Sox. At the conclusion of the regular season both teams would pack up and head to Houston for games 1 and 2 of the ALDS. Potentially, Houston could win the series in a 3-game sweep but it could go the whole 5 games. In that case the Astros and Red Sox would see each other in 9 straight games. If Houston should manage to overtake the Indians and win the #1 seed they would play the Wild Card round winner and they would host games 1 & 2. To be honest, both the Twins and the Yankees scare me especially since Houston's offense has been struggling for such a long time. The Astros didn't struggle against Texas last night and I hope that 11-2 win ignites the team through the end of the regular season and into the playoffs.

 

So, how do the Astros stand in relation to Cleveland? They are exactly 2 games behind the Tribe since Cleveland had a day off yesterday and both have six games left in the season. Houston will have to win 3 more games than Cleveland to close out the season as the #1 seed. That would make up for the 2 games they are behind and an extra game to win the #1 seed. The Astros cannot tie Cleveland because the Indians would have the Astros on the first tie-breaker as they beat Houston in their head-to-head matchups this season. In a perfect world the Astros would go 6-0 and Cleveland would go 0-6 but we all know this is definitely not a perfect world. The fact is, it is highly unlikely the Indians are going to choke in these final 6 games but it's nice to dream.

 

The rest of the American League is pretty much set but there is one race that is not completely decided. The Yankees have come on strong here in September and it's taken an equally hot Boston club to maintain their lead in the division. The Yanks and Bosox have both clinched a playoff spot but Boston has just a four game lead over the Yankees and the Sox are playing Toronto who are definitely trying to play the spoiler role to the hilt winning the first game of their 3 game set last night. The Yankees were off last night but they have the benefit of playing all six of their remaining games at home. First they host the Tampa Bay Rays and they are no gimme for the Yanks and then the close out the season with Toronto. The National League is pretty well set. The Cubs is the only division leader not to clinch yet but they are six games up on 2nd place Milwaukee so their magic number is 1. Arizona is the top Wild Card. It's hard to believe a team that won 90 games so far is nothing more than a wild card but the Dodgers have topped 100 wins on the season and they only have 5 games left. The second wild card is going to be between Milwaukee and Colorado with the Rox holding a 1-1/2-game lead over the Brewers. The Rox play their final 5 games at home while the Brewers finish the final two games with Cincinnati at home then they travel to St Louis for the final series of the regular season. St Louis has an outside shot at the 2nd wild card but they are 2-1/2 games back of Colorado and they are a real dark horse to make the playoffs.

[eagle eye]

I am on cloud nine today. The Astros topped the 11 runs they scored on Monday night by putting up 14 last night in a 14-3 rout of the Rangers. Couldn’t be happier unless maybe they score 17 tonight behind the pitching of Justin Verlander which would give the Astros the series sweep and the season series will be won by a margin of 12-7. The Astros offense finally gave Dallas Keuchel some run support coming out in the top of the first inning with 4 runs. Keuchel notched his 14th win of the season and we are left to wonder just how many wins he would have had if he hadn’t missed 2 months of the season being on the DL. He went into the All Star break 11-0 in 13 starts if he hadn’t had to deal with a pinched nerve in his neck he might be in line to win his 2nd Cy Young in 3 years. What a shame. Fans should be grateful he’s healthy and pitching well heading into the playoffs. With Keuchel and Justin Verlander leading the pitching staff Houston has a real chance to do some damage in the playoffs.

Another reason I’m so happy is because Boston was beaten by Toronto last night which means Houston has clinched the 2nd seed in the AL playoffs which means home field advantage in the ALDS.

Another reason I’m happy is because Minnesota beat Cleveland last night 8-6 and that means Houston is just one game behind the Indians for the top seed in the AL with just 5 games left in the season. Houston can’t tie with Cleveland because the Tribe owns the tie-breaker over Houston so the Astros have to win 2 more games than Cleveland in the final 5. For example, if Houston goes 4-1 then Cleveland will have to go 2-3. Realistically, that isn’t going to happen. Houston should win tonight but they finish against Boston and going 3-1 or 4-0 will be next to impossible. Not only that but Cleveland plays one more with Minnesota but their final 3 games are against the White Sox who they have owned this year.

One reason I’m not happy is because on Monday night with Jose Altuve closing to within one hit of reaching 200 hits for the season he was hit on the right forearm by a 95 mph fastball. He was taken out of the game with 3 innings left to play on Monday and he was held out of last night’s game which is totally frustrating because just about every player who had an at-bat got at least one hit. AJ Hinch said he knows Altuve is one hit away from 200 but he doesn’t care, if Altuve isn’t healthy he isn’t playing. Did I happen to mention I hate the freaking Rangers? Altuve can become one of only 5 players in MLB history to get 200 hits 4 years in a row if he can just get one more hit. I hate the Rangers.

[eagle eye]

The Astros swept the Rangers!! Whoo-hoo!!!! They did it scoring double digit runs and to make it even sweeter the final out was made by Tony Sipp who picked off Will Middlebrooks who was on 2B after he hit a two out double. Carlos Correa snuck in behind Middlebrooks and Sipp spun and threw to Correa who applied the tag. For all the crap Houston fans have had to eat at the expense of the Rangers who dominated Houston through the lean years after coming over to the American league that pick-off was sweet revenge.

 

Not only did the Astros complete the sweep of the Rangers but Jose Altuve finally got his 200th hit! That took a load off my mind and I'm sure Altuve was glad to get that last hit. Of course, AJ Hinch sat Altuve after 6 innings but who cares? The important thing is Jose got to 200.

 

Justin Verlander likely pitched his last regular season start for Houston in 2017 as AJ Hinch will now begin setting up the rotation for the playoffs. Houston certainly got their money's worth out of him so far as he is 5-0 since he became an Astro with an ERA just a skosh over 1. Keuchel and Verlander with Charlie Morton and Brad Peacock would make our best playoff rotation IMO. I am not concerned about Lance McCullers because he's just missed too much and he is definitely not ready for playoff work. He will get a start Sunday but he's still on a pitch count and he might not make it past 4 innings. I'm sorry but you don't want to be nursing along a starter in the playoffs. If I didn't go with Brad Peacock the next option would be Collin McHugh but Peacock has earned the right to represent in the playoffs. Yep, that's me saying that. The same guy who was pissed when Houston traded Jarred Cosart to Miami for Jake Marisnick a few years back when Houston was suffering through 3 straight 100 loss seasons and trying to restock their franchise with draft picks and prospects. I'm glad I was wrong about Peacock because when Houston had 4 starters on the DL he and Mike Fiers carried the team.

 

On to Boston to close out the season. The Astros have clinched the #2 seed and Boston hasn't clinched the #3 seed just yet but they will. Houston and Boston will play 4 games to end the regular season then they will likely go back to Houston for the playoffs. As little as 7 straight games together or as many as 9 if the series goes the distance. It's unlikely that Houston, who is trailing by a game, will overtake the Cleveland Indians for the #1 seed. That's what happens when you win 30 of 32 games from late August to late September which is exactly what Cleveland has done. To overtake Cleveland Houston has to win two more games in the final 4 to gain the #1 seed. That is not likely to happen. So, get ready folks because we are all going to get to know the boys from Beantown way better than we ever really wanted to.

Edited September 28, 2017 by eagle eye

[eagle eye]

It didn't seem possible as recently as 2 weeks ago but tonight the Astros won their 100th game of the season. Their current win streak is now 5 games after they beat Boston 3-2. They have also won 8 of their last 10. Houston picked up a game and half this week on #1 seed Cleveland but there are only 2 games left and Cleveland would have to lose both games and Houston would have to win both to claim the #1 seed in the AL. A 4-game sweep of Boston is unlikely just as the White Sox beating the Indians twice is pretty much unthinkable but you never know, stranger things have happened. If Houston does win their final 2 games they will tie the franchise record for wins in a season.

 

The only downer is Josh Reddick, who has been a big part of the Astros season, has been sent back to Houston to have doctors check out his current back issues that has kept him out of games this week. You hope whatever it is turns out to be minor and he will be ready for the playoffs.

 

Lance McCullers pitches for Houston tomorrow and Collin McHugh will close out the regular season for the Astros. Then it's playoff time, Baby!!!!!

Edited September 30, 2017 by eagle eye

[eagle eye]

Houston finished the regular season with a 4-3 win over Boston. They also closed out the season with a series win. It was a pretty good week as they swept the Rangers then they won 3 of 4 against the Bosox. They had a nice month of September going 21 and 8. If not for that miserable August Houston would also have won the #1 seed in the American League despite the Cleveland Indians amazing run from late August into mid September when they won an AL record 22 straight games. What Cleveland did over the last six weeks was amazing.. I hope the winner of the Yankees-Twins wild card game beats them in their half of the ALDS. Houston also had the second best season in franchise history becoming only the second Astros team to reach 100 wins in a season. They ended up with 101 wins, just one game behind the 1998 team who posted 102 wins. Great job all around. Now all they have to do is make good on Sports Illustrated's prediction from a couple of years ago.

 

 

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[eagle eye]

Here’s some pre-playoff news for the Houston Astros.

Jose Altuve has won his 3rd batting title in 4 years. He led the AL in hits with 204 and with those 204 hits he becomes the first right handed hitter in big league history to lead the league outright in hits 4 years in a row. Ichiro Suzuki did it between 2006 and 2010 but in 2008 Ichiro shared the title with Boston’s Dustin Pedroia. Altuve will likely win his fourth consecutive Silver Slugger Award given to the best hitter at each position. The one award that has eluded Altuve in the past 3 years is the MVP Award. In 2015 Josh Donaldson won the Award and Altuve was 10th in the voting. In 2016 Mike Trout won with Altuve finishing 3rd in the voting. This year there is nobody even close to being The Man for the American League. Not only has he won and the things mentioned above but he’s top 5 or top 10 in almost every single offensive category. He leads all of the American League in WAR. He just can’t be denied this year. The next guy pundits are saying is the #2 candidate is the Yankees Aaron Judge who, as a rookie, hit 52 home runs but he had an extended slump during the summer when he hit only .178 for the better part of 2 months.

Dallas Keuchel is in line to win his 4th straight Gold Glove award. He may have trouble winning because he missed two months of the season with a pinched nerve in his neck. By winning his 3rd Gold Glove last year Keuchel became the first Astros player to win 3 straight since Craig Biggio won 4 straight from 1994 to 1997. Obviously, if he wins again this year he will tie Biggio’s team record but Keuchel will have to go a while to catch the all-time leader for consecutive Gold Gloves. That honor is held by HOF pitcher Greg Maddux who won – get this – 18. Right now the favorite is Boston’s Chris Sale.

Jose has another honor that could come his way. He is a finalist for the Roberto Clemente Award which goes to a player who best represents the game of baseball through extraordinary character, community involvement, philanthropy and positive contributions, both on and off the field. There is one player from each of the 30 teams in MLB and Altuve is Houston’s representative.

Who is the team MVP? I mean after Jose Altuve of course. IMO it’s Marwin Gonzalez. Marwin has been invaluable as a player who has played almost every position on the team except pitcher and catcher. Because of injuries he’s played as many games as most of the starters and he’s been at the top of the class with his bat. Marwin played in 134 of 162 games and he had 455 at-bats and he finished the season with a .303 batting average which puts him 4th on the team in hitting and one of four Houston players hitting .300 or better for the season. If there was an award similar to the Sixth Man Award in basketball for utility players in baseball Marwin Gonzalez would win the award hands down. I would bet he is in the starting lineup in the postseason when teams put the best 8 position players on the field. How could you keep a guy like Marwin on the bench.

[eagle eye]

The Astros named the Game 1 and Game 2 starters yesterday. Game 1 will feature Justin Verlander whom the Astros acquired via trade at the very last minutes of August 31st to bolster their starting rotation. A boost it he did. In 5 starts for Houston Verlander went 5-0 with a 1.06 ERA.

Game 2 will go to Dallas Keuchel who finished the season 14-5 with a 2.90 ERA. Through the first two months of the season Keuchel was unstoppable going 11-0 in 13 starts. The only thing that held Keuchel back was a balky bullpen who blew the holds/saves in the 2 starts he got a no-decision. Then came the pinched nerve in his neck. He missed a couple of starts in early June and he came back, undoubtedly too soon, and he went back on the DL for the rest of June and July. This effectively took Keuchel out of the Cy Young race as he did not pitch enough innings to qualify for consideration. With Verlander and Keuchel the Astros will sending out 2 former Cy Young award winners. Verlander won in 2011 and he also was named AL MVP. Keuchel won the Cy Young in 2015.

The Red Sox also have a former Cy Young winner in Rick Porcello who won last season but he will not be starting Game 1 or 2. The Red Sox will start the probably 2017 Cy Young winner Chris Sale who the Red Sox acquired in a deal with the Chicago White Sox before the season began in Game 1 and they have announced their Game 2 starter will be Drew Pomeranz who last pitched last Saturday against Houston getting the win as Houston starter Lance McCullers was roughed up in his first start in two weeks. McCullers has suffered arm fatigue in his first start in over a month because of back pain.

Speaking of McCullers, after beginning the season with an All Star worthy first half he suffered back issues in the 2nd half of the season. He pitched last Sunday and it was clear he was not ready to warrant the trust to deal with a playoff baseball game. You just can’t afford to babysit a player rehabbing from an injury in the playoffs. He might be worth of a bullpen spot and he’s certainly better than James Hoyt or Reymin Guduan but he can’t be trusted to make a playoff start. I believe that the playoff rotation after Verlander and Keuchel will be Charlie Morton (14-7, 3.62 ERA) and Brad Peacock (13-2, 3.00 ERA). That leaves Collin McHugh as a long relief man in the bullpen.

[eagle eye]

Since the last time I posted the Astros have done what we pretty much expected of a team that had the second most wins in the American League and had home field advantage. There are some surprises like Jose Altuve hitting 3 home runs in a game and like that makes him only the ninth player in MLB history to accomplish that feat in the postseason. Yet another milestone Altuve has passed on his road to greatness. Justin Verlander was the Game 1 starter which should come as no surprise especially given the fact he was 5-0 with a 1.06 ERA since joining the Astros. The team's front office bought his services for just this reason, to lead Houston into the post season, and he didn't efficiently. He had some bumps along the way but this isn't some chump squad they are playing. Boston is a legit playoff team and to beat them in Game 1 8-2 was huge for the psyche of the team. Dallas Keuchel was up next in Game 2 and he was pretty darn good. Both Verlander and Keuchel gave up two runs in their time on the hill with Verlander going 6 innings and Keuchel giving the Astros 5.2 innings. The offense did their part by staking both starters to a 2-run lead right out of the box. In Game 1 Alex Bregman and Altuve went deep back to back for Game 1's 2 run lead. In Game two Carlos Correa jacked a two run bomb to left high off the wall in left just under the train tracks. Altuve was on first with a 2-out single to set the table of Correa. In the 5th inning of Game 1 Altuve hit his second HR off Boston ace Chris Sale to extend the Astros lead to 5-2 and in the 7th he went deep off reliever Austin Maddox to push the score to 8-2. It was eerily similar in both games as Houston took an early lead, allowed a run that could have been more to the Red Sox. They then pushed across a couple of runs to make the score 4-1 then allowed the Bosox another run to make the game a little tighter at 4-2. Both games played out similarly but Game 1 saw the Astros push across runs in 4 consecutive innings from the 4th to the 7th. to get from the 2 runs Bregman and Altuve gave the team in the 1st to the 8 runs they ended up scoring. The Starters in both games were solid if unspectacular and the bullpen was Johnny-on-the-spot for the 3 innings they pitched.

 

So, I did mention I was puzzled so here goes because I need some help here. Boston paid P David Price a boatload of money to come pitch for them but all they have him doing is long relief which he did very well in Game 2. Another guy who came into Game 1 as a reliever was former Cy Young winner Rick Porcello. Porcello and Price are former Cy Young winners and they pitch in relief? The kicker is, the Red Sox Game 3 starter is former Astro pitcher Doug Fister. He's sort of a minimum wage guy and he's who the Bosox are going to hang their hats on tomorrow in what could be the final game of the series. Fister did win the only game against the Astros last Saturday in the regular season final series but that was mainly because the Astros trotted out Lance McCullers and he sucked. More on him in a minute. Houston will counter with the surprise starter of the season for Houston, Brad Peacock. All the guy has done all season is pitch his ass off all year long. He was a long reliever in April and May but when injuries slammed the Astros in early June, at one time 4 of the 5 starting pitchers that began the season were on the DL, Peacock and Mike Fiers saved the Astros bacon. Fiers faded as the summer wore on but Peacock just kept rolling. I'm sure Charlie Morton isn't happy because he had a better record than Peacock and he's got league seniority but this is how AJ Hinch wanted things to go. So, can Peacock overcome his nerves in his first experience in the playoffs? We all hope the answer is a resounding "YES".

Another puzzlers is Hinch's snub of Collin McHugh on the playoff 25 man roster. McHugh made it back off a season long stint on the DL to make 11 starts and post a 5-2 record with a 3.55 ERA. McHugh had pitched well in September and he won the season finale against Boston last Sunday. The last time McCullers pitched prior to last Saturday's loss, in which he looked just terrible, was Sept 24 when he lasted just 3.1 innings when he had to come out of the game because he was on a pitch count. Prior to that he pitched on Sept 6 and he was out for almost three weeks with 'arm fatigue' whatever the hell that is and THAT was the first time he pitched since July 30. I don't know why Hinch felt compelled to screw over McHugh for McCullers because, in my mind, you can't trust McCullers. He's missed most of the second half of the season and he hasn't pitched all that well when he has.

McHugh is joining a host of pitchers who didn't make the final squad. Guys like Tyler Clippard, Francis Martes, James Hoyt, Tony Sipp, Michael Feliz just to name a few.

I'm stoked about the game tomorrow. Peacock vs Fister with the game beginning at 1:30 PM. I will have an afternoon and evening of Astros, Cowboys and Texans. Who's got it better than us? Now we just need all three to win!

Edited October 8, 2017 by eagle eye

[WildCard]

It looks like the AL Pennant may come down to Houston's team vs. Beaumont's Team, aka Cleveland. Cleveland is hard to dislike with Westbrook's Jay Bruce in right field, former Beaumont Golden Gator Sandy Alomar Junior coaching first and former Lamar Cardinal Mike Sarbaugh coaching third. The two best teams in league playing for the pennant is the way it should be.

[eagle eye]

The Astros couldn’t close out the Red Sox yesterday and they sort of looked bad not doing it. After repeating the formula from the first two games of the series, jumping out to an early lead via a home run (or two) they hang on until the offense could add on to the lead in the middle innings. Houston began with an RBI single from Josh Reddick and a two-run homer by Carlos Correa in the top of the first as it looked like same story different chapter for the Astros. But, who knew those 3 runs were all they were going to score for the whole game? It wasn’t like Houston didn’t have chances, they had runners in scoring position in the 5th when Reddick and Jose Altuve led off the inning with singles only to fail to score a run. That was the Astros best chance at scoring a run but Houston had a baserunner in every single inning of the game. Every single one. Boston can thank David Price for a lot of that because he came on in the 3rd after starter Doug Fister was knocked out of the game after 1.1 innings of work and his replacement, Joe Kelly, managed to get through 1.2 innings before Price came on. It just wasn’t the Astros day as they banged out 13 hits with 2 walks which is a terrible hit to run ratio.

Manager AJ Hinch at times during the year exercised an early hook of his starting pitchers and he did it again yesterday. After getting the first two batters out in the 3rd Brad Peacock allowed back to back hits to Mitch Mooreland and Hanley Ramirez. Mooreland doubled and Ramirez drove him in to cut the Astros lead at the time to 3-2. Ramirez’ hit was made even worse by LF Marwin Gonzalez who decided to play soccer with a carom off the Green Monster that allowed Ramirez to advance to 2nd base. The Astro still had the lead and there were two outs but Hinch pulled Peacock in favor of Francisco Liriano. Bad move, AJ. Liriano’s second pitch to Rafael Devers ended up in the bleachers in center field when he crushed a hanging slider. Deficit Astros, as the score was now 4-3. Lance McCullers came into the game in the 4th inning and as is his recent history he had a couple of good innings followed by a disaster. The 7th inning saw McCullers give up back to back hits to lead off the inning when Hinch pulled him in favor of Chris Devenski. When Devo is on nobody can touch him but when he is not on everyone slaps him around like a red-headed step-child. Devo didn’t retire a single batter but he allowed both of McCullers’ runners to score plus 3 more of his own. It wasn’t all Devo’s fault; Joe Musgrove came on a gave up a 3 run homer to Jackie Bradley Jr scoring 2 inherited runners from Devenski and one that ended up credited to him. The 7th inning was a 6-run disaster for Houston and effectively iced the game for the Red Sox. The score after that 7th inning was Boston 10 Astros 3 and that’s how the game ended. It’s the playoffs and to expect a sweep was not realistic and now that it’s in the past we turn to Game 4.

Game 4 will feature Charlie Morton for Houston and Rick Porcello will go for Boston. Morton had a good season for Houston going 14-7 with a 3.62 ERA. Morton had issues earlier in the season getting past the 4th or 5th inning but he righted the ship and had a nice year. Porcello was the 2016 AL Cy Young Award winner but in 2017 he has had mixed results. For the season, he went 11-17 in 33 starts and posted an ERA of 4.65. The question on the Astros minds must be, will we get the somewhat crummy 2017 version of Rick or will we get the Cy Young winner from last year? In September Porcello went 2-2 in 27.1 innings pitched in 5 starts with an ERA of 5.93. That is somewhat encouraging. If it’s any help, baseball man for the MLB Network Tim Kurkjian thinks Houston will close out the series tonight. That would be awesome if he’s right because the Astros rotation would be set for the showdown with either New York or Cleveland and, of course, they would win the series which is the immediate goal.

[eagle eye]

The Astros did it and I’m exhausted. I really needed a moment of relief but I couldn’t find anyone who wanted to put on goggles and spray beer and champagne on each other and scream bloody murder over the joy of winning the ALDS series against Boston. Oh well.

Seems all the worrying about using Justin Verlander in yesterday’s series clinching win was all for naught. The ALSC begins on Friday so either Verlander again pitches on short rest or Dallas Keuchel will lead things off for the Astros. I think you’ll see Keuchel in Game 1 with Verlander up in Game 2. Potato – potahto – it’s all the same. The two men are interchangeable in my mind. If the Yankees prevail Keuchel has been very good against them in the past. He’s also fared well against Cleveland so, again, potato – potahto.

What is very cool about the Boston series is every game featured a different set of heroes. Game 1 it was Bregman, Altuve and Evan Gattis. In Game 2 it was Carlos Correa, George Springer and Altuve. Game 3 even in the loss there were heroes. Springer, Altuve and Yuli Gurriel and in yesterday’s game it was Springer, Gurriel and Carlos Beltran. There is one I left out but I shouldn’t have and that’s Josh Reddick. He had a great series offensively and defensively and if Mookie Betts doesn’t rob Reddick of a home run in Game 3 that may have been a whole different ball game altogether. That’s the cool thing about the Astros, they are dangerous up and down the lineup and that’s why pundits feel they would be hard to beat in the playoffs. The Astros offense is nice but they have ++ starting pitching and when the bullpen is on they are unhittable. The trouble is, when the bullpen is off, it gets really uncomfortable around the Astros clubhouse because we all know the roof is about to cave in.

It's on to the next round. This is the first time Houston has been in the American League Championship Series. Their previous trips had all been in the National League. The Astros had been in the ALDS two years ago when they blew a 5 run lead against Kansas City in what would have been the series clinching win but the aforementioned bullpen sky-is-falling thing happened and KC won that series and went on to win the World Series that October. You can understand why I get nervous with these Astros, after 2015’s bullpen meltdown in Game 4 at home and subsequent Game 5 loss in Kansas City has made me very wary of trusting the Astros not to choke. This team seems different but I’ve thought that before. In 1998 and 1999, In 2001 and, of course 2005 when Houston went all the way to the Big Show only to fall flat to the White Sox who swept them in 4 games. I want to trust. I really do.

[eagle eye]

The Astros had good fortune smile on them last night when the Yankees defeated the Cleveland Indians in Game 5 of the ALDS to advance on the new acronym, ALCS. This is after the Yankees were down 2 zip and after Yankees manager Joe Girardi failed to challenge a call that could have resulted in a Yankees win in Game 2. Girardi received some measure of redemption and he won't have to hear about his mistake for the next 100 years. He also has gotten his team to the ALCS which was pretty much unexpected this season. They will play in Houston on Friday and Saturday nights at which point the series will move to New York on Monday for Games 3,4 and 5. Hopefully, the Astros won't need any more than that to advance but, if it does, it will be ass-cheek puckering time in Houston. Houston will have Dallas Keuchel and Justin Verlander going in Games 1 and 2 and they will also be up for Games 4 and 5. If Houston can win in 5 games it's likely the starting pitching rotation will reset itself with Verlander leading off the World Series followed by Keuchel. Potato - potahto, remember.

 

Now that Houston has home field the next challenge is actually take advantage of the advantages they have been given. The biggie is getting home field but the other big deal is the top of the Astros rotation is in tact. The Astros starting rotation is set up while the Yankees is no slouch. Masahiro Tanaka will start Game 1 while young Luis Severino will go in Game 2. Severino is young but he's got a wicked fastball that clocks in the mid 90's.

 

Linked below is a breakdown of how the Astros and Yankee match up going into the series. The troubling thing is the Yanks have a big advantage with their bullpen. You'll see in the article, the Yankees have nothing but heat as they have gone the way of the Chicago Cubs, even acquiring Aroldis Chapman to bolster a strong pen. This advantage is a big one especially when you consider Houston's 'pen is likely to have a meltdown or two during the series. The lack of consistency by the bullpen is a definite disadvantage. Scary series coming up, Wild Card team on a roll? Yeah, I really don't like this. I will have to stock up on blood pressure medicine for this series.

[eagle eye]

Ah, Monday! The sun is bright, the air is cool, the humidity is down. This is a Monday that beats all Mondays. After a really nice weekend, especially to this sports fan, today is just icing on the cake. No, I’m not sick, I’m not on drugs and I am crazy but that’s beside the point. This is a great Monday!

One of the things that makes this Monday so special is the fact that Houston’s very own Astros have a 2 to nothing lead in the American League Championship Series or ALCS for short. Game 3 is coming in about 9 hours and, if all goes well we will head into Wednesday up 3 games to none. Suddenly, I’ve got this urge to play the Beatles, “Good Day Sunshine” over and over again. Whether or not you like the Beatles doesn’t matter, all that matters is, I like the Beatles and I’m in a really good mood.

Charlie Morton vs CC Sabathia is the pitching matchup tonight. Morton finished the regular season with a 14-7 record in 25 starts with a 3.62 ERA. His only start of the post season so far was Game 4 against the Red Sox in which he got no decision in 4.1 innings of work. He was pulled with a 3-2 lead for no apparent reason other than he walked the last batter he faced and was replaced by Justin Verlander who promptly gave up a 2-run home run to give the Red Sox a 4-3 lead at the time. Ironically, that was a week ago today. Morton has a chance to lead the Astros to a commanding 3-0 lead over the Yankees but it won’t be easy because CC Sebathia is no slouch. Sabathia’s regular season record was 14-5 in 27 starts with a 3.69 ERA. Morton is 33 years old while Sabathia is 37. First pitch is going to be at 7:10 PM CDT.

[eagle eye]

Astros lose 6-4 in a game they had won in Game 4 of the ALCS evening the series at 2 wins apiece. Game 5 is today again at 4 o’clock. Not much to say except, “Thank you Ken Giles for sucking last night.”, with a special shout-out to Chris Devenski who has been Mr Inconsistent since September began. I think manager AJ Hinch used another hook to his starting pitcher too early when he seemed to be in full blown panic mode after Aaron Judge homered to lead off the 7th inning. At that point Lance McCullers had been really good, even breaking past that 4th inning barrier that has plagued him since his return from the DL. McCullers gave up only 2 hits in 6+ innings, one of which was the homer from Judge. McCullers only threw 81 pitches in the game which means he could have gone 7 and possibly 8 innings comfortably. Instead he gets the hook and Devenski allowed another run in the 7th. Devenski allowed the first batter he faced, Didi Gregorius, to triple into the gap in center field followed by a sac fly by Gary Sanchez. He then walked Greg Bird. AJ Hinch had seen enough and pulled Devenski and inserted Joe Musgrove who closed out the inning. All the way to the mound to get the ball from Devo I’ll bet Hinch was thinking, “Man, I wish I hadn’t pulled McCullers. STUPID!” Despite all that, Houston still led 4-2 thanks in large part to Yuli Gurriel’s 3 run triple in the top of the 6th. Houston went down meekly in the top of the 8th so it was still 4-2 going into the Yankees half of the inning. Joe Musgrove allowed the first two Yankee batters to reach. Throw in a throwing error and NY had men on 2nd and 3rd with nobody out. Enter Ken Giles stage right. By the time Giles was replaced 5 batters later the Yankees had taken a 6-4 lead and had men on 1st and 2nd. All this after just 5 batters. Giles has 2-two inning saves in this series but when Giles is not on his game he flat sucks. Unfortunately, last night was one of those stinkers. It was reminiscent of the ALDS Game 4 loss to Kansas City in 2015 when the bullpen collapsed and it is just as painful. Luke Gregerson came in and it looked bad because he walked the first batter he faced to load the bases. He was bailed out by good defense on two ground ball outs, one a force out at home to save a run, to end the inning.

Houston’s offense just plain sucks right now. Since Game 1 when they got 6 hits down to last night’s loss they have gotten progressively worse as in 5 hits, then 4 and last night 3 hits. It’s pitiful to see. Last night Houston went 1-6 with RISP. It was worse in Game 3 when Houston went 1-7 with RISP and they stranded a total of 11 baserunners. The most crippling guys in the past two games have been Josh Reddick and Carlos Correa who are a combined 1-13. It hasn’t been Jose Altuve leading an Astros offensive surge it has been Aaron Judge and Didi Gregorius leading the Yankees surge. Did I mention I hate the Yankees? Seriously, who roots for the Yankees? Rooting for the Yankees like going to a casino and rooting for the dealers.

[eagle eye]

I’m not saying anything. Astros-Yankees in Houston at 7 o’clock. Verlander vs Severino. I’m not making predictions, I’m not saying doo-doo about anything. I am not even watching the game. I will be getting into the most comfortable yoga position a fat guy can muster and I will attempt to achieve a deep meditative trance focusing on the positive waves in the universe all aimed at the Astros clubhouse, dugout and field of play. All that matters, Houston wins regardless of who plays well or doesn’t play well. I am closing now so I can begin practicing my transcendental chant. Uhmmmmmmmmmmmmmm, uhmmmmmmmmmmmmm…………………………………………… Edited October 24, 2017 by eagle eye