Must find top form
In the face of a rare challenge from AL West, Astros must play to their championship form
The last time the Astros were challenged like this? • A.J. Hinch’s first season in orange and blue, when the rebuilding ended, the fun finally began and Houston reclaimed its status as a baseball town. • Having fun now? • Yeah, not so much.
The Oakland Athletics — thirdlowest average home attendance in MLB; again one of the lowest payrolls in the sport — are better than baseball’s reigning champs as I type this.
That wasn’t the case two months ago, when Oakland was a whopping 12 games out of first place. It should be permanently changed by the end of September, when real baseball begins and the Astros return to the postseason for the third time in four years.
But the A’s have taken a critical series from the Astros with Sunday’s finale to be played. Oakland has also won five of six contests against Hinch’s club, including three of four during the last matchup at Minute Maid Park.
Even worse: The Astros — slumping, barely hitting, missing Jose Altuve — are tied with the A’s for first in the American League West.
Tied!
Home-field edge gone
What has this world come to? It was 7-1 Oakland on Saturday at the old, decaying Coliseum. It was 4-3 A’s on Friday night, via a 10th-inning walkoff and ninthinning blown call, which immediately turned into a joyous celebration at home plate (for the home team).
The Astros have somehow misplaced their home-field advantage (33-29) and are 1-7 in their last eight games, while scoring three runs or fewer in six of those defeats.
That resilient 6-2 road trip against the Mariners, Dodgers and Giants — in the middle of a chaotic, highly controversial trade deadline; with All-Star names stacking up on the disabled list — feels like a month ago. And while reality should return, I’ve been saying for more than a month that Oakland wasn’t going away any time soon.
Give credit to A’s
Astros drop series to A’s, face legitimate race in AL West
That was a Chronicle headline July 12 — before the new injuries piled up, the front office shook up the clubhouse and Oakland pulled even with a deeper, more experienced and much more expensive team.
“(The A’s) are playing really good baseball. They’ve got a good, young core over there that can really play,” Astros outfielder Josh Reddick said last month.
“The A’s don’t get a lot of credit for how good they truly are,” George Springer said the same day. “I don’t understand why they don’t get a lot of credit for it. But they’re a good team. They can compete with anybody and beat anybody.”
See: Friday and Saturday at the Coliseum.
Dallas Keuchel gave up five runs on nine hits during Oakland’s latest win. The Astros totaled two hits and their lone, meaningless run arrived in the ninth inning.
Carlos Correa’s average has dropped to .253. Reddick’s hitting .245 after batting a careerhigh .314 last season. Evan Gattis is down to .236.
Slumps happen. Proven, respected players press at the plate when they don’t have to. But, overall, the Astros have underperformed during this recent slide, while we’ve all searched for answers to the misfiring.
Still, last year’s Astros were 76-47 after 123 games, just two games ahead of the 2018 pace. The names are mostly the same — and Gerrit Cole was added. The division is the only thing that has changed.
These Astros would easily be leading the National League West and East, and be in first in the NL and AL Central. But this time last year, the 2017 Astros had been dominating the AL West for months and held a 13-game division lead that would never be threatened.
A season later? Seattle is living up to its big-city payroll — and recently swept four games from the Astros in downtown Houston — and the Billy Beane A’s have again become the best story in baseball, 15 years after “Moneyball” was published.
This should end up right. The Astros on top of the West, back in the playoffs for the third season in four years under Hinch’s guidance. Boston (a ridiculous 87-36) and the 2017 champs potentially facing off in the ALCS, a year after the Astros advanced to the championship series by winning in the Fenway Park rain.
But, yes, the 2018 Astros are being threatened — simply making and returning to the playoffs isn’t a guarantee. Which means now is the time for Hinch’s club to make another stand.
All-Stars set to return
Springer and Correa are back. Altuve is set for a Class AAA rehab assignment. All those injured All-Stars soon won’t be a valid excuse.
Maybe these Astros will be better for this. They were pushed, tested and exhausted last August. A 20-8 September and the best postseason run in franchise history followed.
The collected talent is deeper and stronger than every other team in the game. They’ve been through it all in the last year and have seen everything a baseball season can offer.
But it has been three long years since the Astros were tested by the West in the middle of August’s heat.
It’s time they found their fire again.