FALLING BEHIND IN THE COUNT
Astros aren’t playing like winners, but with expanded playoff field, anything is possible
We’re little more than 50 games into the season and still don’t know what to make of the Astros. In this coronavirus season, that many games puts baseball into the pennant chase.
It is the most unusual playoff race in Major League Baseball history.
Though their miserable September — four wins in their last 16 games — continued Friday night with a lackluster performance that would make you wonder if they’re even interested in the playoffs, the Astros have a legitimate chance at making the postseason with a losing record.
Because it’s 2020, we’re not even bothered by a sub-.500 team advancing to play for a chance at winning the World Series. Hindsight won’t even blink at this historic anomaly.
It has been that kind of year, beginning with MLB commissioner Rob Manfred telling us that the Astros’ 2017 championship wasn’t as pure as the driven snow. Perhaps we should have figured that out when it snowed a record three times the winter after that World Series parade.
As they stumble toward the finish line, the Astros were
25-26 entering play on Saturday. That was “good” enough for second place in the AL West. Fortunately for the Astros, the team allegedly chasing them is Seattle, which is 22-29 and has no business being anywhere near the playoffs.
One could say the same about Houston. It’s as if this is basketball or hockey.
Remember that time Moses Malone dragged a 40-42 Rockets team to the NBA Finals?
Thanks to the sports plagues I grew up with in Houston, Moses leading Houston sports fans’ exodus out of Loserville into scaring the Boston Celtics in the NBA Finals was the highlight of my childhood.
That may be the case for young baseball fans should the Astros find some sort of magic this postseason. And without a doubt, it will take some magic.
Perhaps a ridiculous hot streak is around the corner for a team that has gone from the best OPS in all of baseball (.848) in 2019, to 10th in the AL at .719 this season.
The question of whether manager Dusty Baker should shake up his lineup, as if he has a cupboard full of all-stars sitting on the bench, is hilarious.
You gotta dance with them what brung ya.
On a side note, there is not a better description of Texans than Molly Ivins’ classic take that “Texans are just like everybody else, only more so.”
Well, this year’s Astros are just like they have been in recent years, only less so.
Less hitting. Less pitching. And a lot less winning. (Not to mention, less popcorn and beer, and fewer fans in the stands.)
The Astros, who won a team record 107 games a year ago, their third straight 100-win season, haven’t been below .500 in September since 2014.
This feels like the end of a glorious era.
The Astros have suffered significant injuries, including seasonlong ones to their best starting pitcher and best reliever. Key position players have been in and out of the lineup as well, and they have had a ragtag bullpen largely as a result of veterans’ trips to the injury list.
The Astros were hoping against hope for Justin Verlander’s return until the announcement on Saturday that he will have Tommy John surgery. That is another blow to the Astros’ title hopes, but Verlander had not pitched since opening day.
Maybe if their best hitters start delivering as the team has grown accustomed to over the years, the World Series wouldn’t be such an unrealistic dream as it is now.
Baker has been saying, “You know these guys can hit,” since spring training. Most of those guys aren’t hitting.
That would be a problem against strong pitching staffs atop the American League standings.
Right now, Houston would find itself in a playoff matchup with the A’s, who are second in the league in runs allowed per game and ERA, and against whom the Astros scored a total of 25 runs in the 10 games.
That’s in the quiet neighborhood of the 27 runs Houston scored in the 11 games prior to Saturday’s game against the Diamondbacks.
Almost all indicators are that these Astros aren’t good enough to make a playoff run.
Were it not for the odd circumstances presented by 2020, we wouldn’t even be talking about the possibility.