No panic attacks despite recent road bumps
OAKLAND, Calif. — The road map is getting a little frayed around the edges for the Astros, who fell to the Oakland Athletics 2-1 on Saturday — their fifth loss in six games of this current trip.
This sport can be a real pain to process when it comes to short stretches since what the Astros are going through might just be statistical noise — a deviation in a 162-game schedule.
The Astros are hitting .213 since leaving home almost a week ago. But maybe the lineup, which appears to exist on a seesaw, doesn’t actually fluctuate as wildly as it seems.
Perhaps being on the road isn’t drastically different from being at home despite how the games have been turning out. The out-of-town record for the Astros has been brutal of late, with 15 losses in their last 18 games away from Minute Maid Park. They also are without a series win on the road since April.
(Home-field advantage in baseball isn’t as meaningful as it is in other sports, but it does exist. Across the majors entering Saturday, host teams had a .545 win percentage. At the same time, it would take a gaggle of late-night partiers, light sleepers and hitters best suited for a home park to really make a team stand out.)
So is this just another bad set of games that happened to come close together for the Astros, or is there some underlying issue here?
“We’ve seen a little bit of streaks here and there,” Astros manager A.J. Hinch said. “This stretch here, we’ve actually hit the ball OK and haven’t got the results we want. We hit the ball hard today, we hit the ball hard yesterday. We’ve got to do better. I think the run production can and will improve. We’re very, very explosive. It’s these lulls that we’ve got to find a way to scratch a few more runs out.” Confidence not lacking
The greatest concern when visible trends arise, no matter their cause, is that player confidence can be affected. If hitters start to believe the lineup’s output is starting to wane or if there is a tiny drop in faith every time the team charter leaves Houston, then there likely is a greater chance at failure.
“I mean, it’s the same routine,” Astros catcher Hank Conger said of being the visiting club. “I think the biggest thing for us is just not letting it get in our head. I mean, you know obviously we don’t play well on the road and we haven’t the whole year, but it could be a random thing.”
On Saturday at O.co Coliseum, walks to the first two batters that Astros starter Collin McHugh (13-6) faced led to two runs after a Danny Valencia line drive in the first inning, and it was over almost as soon as it began. The Astros hit the ball hard but never to the right spots or in the right sequence against righthander Jesse Chavez (6-11).
The Astros got their lone run, for a second consecutive day, on a solo homer in the fourth inning — this time from Preston Tucker.
“I would say no,” Conger said when asked if the thought he and his fellow batters were more up- and-down than other teams. “Because we have a good group of hitters. But I guess the perception is, yes, because we’re considered a high-power, high-strikeout team. But you know, we look at it, and it’s not, you know, not really. I don’t see us going through these really big hills and valleys (individually) and everything like that.
“I guess the general perception is everyone thinks yes, because of the way we are (built). But after watching our whole team the whole year, no. You don’t see too many big dips here or there. These one-run losses are just killing us.”
Three of the Astros’ five losses on this road swing have been by one run. On the year, they are 15-18 in one-run games. Just a matter of time
The return of Jed Lowrie was supposed to lengthen the lineup. So too was the acquisition of Carlos Gomez. George Springer is on his way back from injury. Presumably, at some point, those additions began to pay dividends.
While it is a bad time to have a bad week, that might be all that this is.
“No frustration at all,” second baseman Jose Altuve said. “We know the things that we’re able to do. We’re going to come back tomorrow and try to do it. … It’s not a reason to panic.”