The Houston Astros are struggling as of late, but that does not mean they should be concerned.
The Houston Astros fell to the Toronto Blue Jays Saturday night 3-4 following their offensive slugfest Friday night, which resulted in a 16-7 victory. In their last ten games, the Astros are a measly 3-7 losing two consecutive series to the Tampa Bay Rays and the Detroit Tigers. One of the major concerns are the offensive outburst that the Astros are becoming used to.
Following their losses in this ten game stretch, the Astros have come back the next day and made it abundantly clear they’re the better team. Heading into their series against the Philadelphia Phillies, which began this stretch, Houston was coming off of a loss to the Baltimore Orioles. The Astros in game one against the Phillies plated 13 winning game 1, 13-4.
After taking the series against Philadelphia, the Astros headed down to Detroit where they would lose the series, but followed up their series finale loss to the Phillies taking game 1, 6-5. Starting to see a theme here?
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The Astros then headed down to Tampa Bay where the Rays would take 3 of 4, and advance their conversation for the playoffs. But, following their series finale loss to the Tigers, the Astros defeated the Rays 14-7 in game 1, which brings us full circle to this. The Astros are becoming the kind of team that after losing can come out of the dugout swinging, and this will paid dividends in the playoffs.
I mean let’s be realistic. The Astros are currently 14.5 games up in the AL West, and the only threat are the Seattle Mariners who haven’t made a postseason appearance in 2001. These remaining games of the regular season are going to be very similar to what the Los Angeles Dodgers are doing, and that is figure out the schemes that work, and the lineups that pose the greatest threat to other teams.
Have the Astros lost a lot of games lately? Yes. Have the Astros laid down and accepted they’re already a lock for the playoffs? No, because there is still a lot to play for. This team has been built from scratch, and the front office knows this team has the makings of a possible World Series contender. The American League is down this season with perennial dynasties such as the Boston Red Sox, New York Yankees, and last seasons American League champion Cleveland Indians all still trying to figure it out.
The Astros have the advantage of already knowing they’re going to be playing in October, and no matter what happens will be guaranteed home field advantage at least in the first round. Just by taking a look at this seasons results against potential playoff matchups the Astros are 12-12 if the playoffs started tomorrow. The only teams that have seemed to matchup with the Astros are the Cleveland Indians and the Kansas City Royals who have won or split all their series against Houston this season. Yes, the Boston Red Sox took 2 of 3 earlier this season, but the two teams haven’t played since.
The Astros are not perfect, and simply put you don’t want to be the Dodgers. The game of baseball is a funny thing, and if there is one thing that you don’t want it is peaking too soon. Houston there is no problem here, and this all is just a chess game until October rolls around. So sit back, and enjoy watching this team as they gear up for what looks to be a very deep postseason run.