Hinch’s club shows some heart, but there are too many holes
They are worn down and beat up.
Trusted reinforcements aren’t coming.
And the 2016 Astros can’t beat the best team in the American League West.
The Rangers are no longer your local nine’s primary concern, either. That honor belongs to Seattle, which is suddenly second in the division and a halfgame ahead of the slumping, backsliding Astros.
I saw the same fiery heart we’ve seen the last two seasons Sunday at Minute Maid Park.
I also saw an aching club barely held together by glue, tape and string. I’m sure there was some dirt and putty mixed in there,
too.
It just became hard to distinguish the last-second filler from the daily truth as the innings piled up and manager A.J. Hinch did everything he could to keep another series out of the relentless Rangers’ hands.
A MacGyver-like Hinch earned his pay before 33,909 dressed in orange, red and blue. Tony Kemp’s dentist deserves a raise. Jose Altuve had a standard two-hit day, rookie Joe Musgrove had the smokeand-mirrors act down in his first start, and Ken Giles would’ve been named the MVP of game No. 111 — six strikeouts in 12⁄3 innings; escape artist in a basesloaded ninth-inning jam — if the Astros had been good enough to take down the Rangers.
‘We’re a beat-up team’
But for the ninth time in 11 tries this season, they weren’t. And with Texas a rather convincing 24-8 inside the ring since 2015, a few exhausted words from Hinch perfectly summed up the state of the Astros as the AL West title slipped further out of their sight.
“We’re a beat-up team,” said the skipper after 5-3 Rangers in 11 innings cracked the Astros’ 2016 heart a little more.
This also would have worked: “They’ve earned the right to lead the division.”
Hinch said that, too. And while his club has played the Rangers close in the last two series, Texas ultimately went 5-2 in those games. The Rangers (65-47) also made the bold moves the Astros (57-54) declined to make before last Monday’s trade deadline, then took the field Sunday with a Power Five lineup compared to Hinch’s American Athletic Conference card.
There were literally no holes in Jeff Banister’s lineup. And that was on a day Carlos Beltran was held out except for pinchhitting duties and Elvis Andrus didn’t swing a bat.
Lord knows we’ve ripped apart the Astros’ 5-9 names enough. But Sunday? My gosh. These were their batting averages when the day began: .228, .174, .127, .228, .207.
Kemp nearly saved the day by going 3-for-3 after his morning included a dentist trip and a call-up from Class AAA Fresno. But to get the rookie in the game, Hinch had to pinchhit him for nine-hole hitter Jason Castro, giving up the designated-hitter spot and moving Evan Gattis to catcher, all in the hope of finding a little light inside the Astros’ ongoing black hole.
No soft spots for Texas
While writing this, I’ve been peeking over at the Rangers’ box score, trying to find a visible soft spot.
I’ve been wasting my time. There is none.
“They put the ball in play,” Hinch said. “They’re not a high-strikeout team. They’re not a high-walk team, either. So they’re going to do their damage with the bats. … They’ve got a good offense.”
The Astros don’t right now, and it’s obviously not the first time it’s happened this season. They’ve scored just 17 runs in their last nine games. The weak attack let down a staff that struck out 86 during the team’s 2-5 homestand, posting a 2.31 ERA that was washed away by everything from Alex Bregman’s 6-for-48 beginning to George Springer’s being 4-for-30 in August.
Banister’s Rangers were 5½ games out of first place this time last year. Hinch’s Astros are currently just two games off that mark. But the distance between the clubs only grew larger at this season’s trade deadline, and this is the most the Astros have felt out of the race since their slow April stumble.
Hinch had to rely on eight rookies Sunday. Colby Rasmus is dealing with vertigo symptoms and just joined Luis Valbeuna and Luke Gregerson on the disabled list; Lance McCullers is on a twoweek non-pitching break. Hinch said injured pinch hitter Tyler White ideally wouldn’t have played, and the manager joked that he expected Carlos Gomez to throw up while rounding the bases, just before the pinch runner tied the game in the ninth.
For a moment, there was joy and magic at Minute Maid. Then it was back to glue and string, with more dirt, putty and tape.
There might be a miraculous division stealer in this team. There could be a wild-card spot and a second consecutive playoff season. But until the Astros start looking like a winning club again, they’re just filled with glaring holes and increasingly beat up.
A third-place team is also 7½ big games behind the still-in-first-place Rangers.