NOT TIME TO PANIC YET
Marathon race of a baseball season has only just begun for the slumping Astros
There is nothing like a good old-fashioned sports panic. It’s rare in baseball. Because, you know, the most overused phrase in Major League Baseball is “The season is a marathon not a sprint.”
That analogy gets more run than “three strikes, you’re out,” which is heard typically everywhere but baseball.
The Astros, as teams that aren’t hitting are wont to do, are leaning heavily on clichés these days.
The Astros’ recent play — losing seven of their previous nine games and five of their last six — opens the door for questions about this team.
Of course, the answer to all of the questions is the calendar. Opening day was a little more than two weeks ago, and they’re not even one-tenth of the way into the season.
After Saturday’s 3-2 loss to Toronto at Minute Maid Park, the Astros are only 2.2 miles into this marathon.
They have played just five home games. OK, they’re 1-4 in those, but there have 76 more chances.
The Astros’ bats have been so silent that when the Blue Jays took a 3-2 lead in the top of the seventh, it seemed insurmountable, as ridiculous as that sounds.
Actually, the Astros have scored more runs in the seventh inning than any other, but that’s due in large part to four home runs in the frame, twice
that of any other inning.
The seventh is the only inning in which the Astros’ team batting average is over .300. They are hitting below .180 in six innings.
Modern analytics tells us that batting average doesn’t matter as much as we used to
think, but sub-.180 does. That number says from top to bottom the lineup hasn’t delivered.
The Astros have been trifling away at the plate, chasing bad pitches and putting poor swings on good ones. It has been embarrassing.
“We took better quality atbats today,” manager Dusty Baker said after the Astros’ second straight one-run loss at home. “Quality usually equals results, but if you keep having quality (at-bats), if you didn’t have results today, keep having quality it’s going to end up in results.
“This club can hit. We’ll figure it out.”
Of course, it will turn at some point, but the 3.38 runsper-game they post are two runs below their MLB-leading average a year ago.
So, what was this about them not missing Carlos Correa?
Ah, just kidding. Correa is off to a slow start with Minnesota, posting just one home run and three RBIs in 13 games entering play Saturday. The Twins are scoring fewer runs per game than the Astros.
This isn’t a Correa issue. It’s an Astros’ problem. They have scored three or fewer runs nine times in 14 games.
They will wrap up a threegame series with the Blue Jays on Sunday afternoon, then head on a seven-game double-T road trip against Texas and Toronto.
One would expect some get-right in Arlington, as the Rangers have the worst ERA in the American League and entering play Friday had surrendered five more home runs than any team in the major leagues.
If the Astros’ stretch of paltry hitting continues this week, will it still be too early to panic?
MLB’s critical race theory, unlike the other one, has been taught to all ages for a century. It flies in the face of the marathon-sprint mantra.
According to the theory, you can’t win the pennant race in April, but you can lose it.
The Astros are 6-8. The race has just started. They haven’t lost it.
Kyle Tucker, whose batting average jumped from .087 to .140 thanks to three hits Saturday as he ended an 0-for-19 streak, the longest drought of his career, says the Astros’ start isn’t alarming.
“We started 6-6 the past two years and went to the ALCS and the World Series last year,” he said. “This team is so talented, we don’t have to get down because we’re 6-8 now.
“We’re such a good team we could win the next 20 (games). … We’re not too worried; we got a lotta games left.”
Yep. There are many miles left in this marathon.
Would be nice if the Astros start running.
“You have to keep your confidence level up, and just realize that tomorrow’s another day,” Baker said. “Sometimes you get tired of saying tomorrow’s another day, but it is indeed another day.”