Should have been 3-1 or worse case 2-2 without the 'managerial' blunders. Got to get an 8 game winning streaking going. Tucker should be back for Saturday. \
Hinch got ejected too. As he tended to do here, he was arguing with the ump on the field on a reviewed call that was overturned by NY. I never understood why he did that. Call is totally out of the umps hands at that point.
Click needs to hire a driver that'll drop Dusty off at Constellation Field instead of Minute Maid, I bet you he won't even be able to tell the difference.
It’s awful that they only won one game out of four, but at least they fought back late in this game and they won in extra innings, which is not usual. Also, Correa looks a lot better at the plate.
Offensively, these guys have got to figure out how to keep the entire team from going in the tank at the same time. If they can't do it over the next month or so, expect a first round playoff exit. One of the problems with this team is that when the offense gets rolling, it's so easy for everyone to forget that they continue to find these 5-6 game slumps and lose to dumpster-fire teams. It feels like they are mailing in their effort against the dregs and next thing you know, they can't hit or score or win.
This 6 game homestand could be pretty crucial on getting things back on track. And it includes a 3 game series against KC again. Get guys back and win these series stros. Next up for the A's are the Giants
Oh he'll know. As soon as Dusty goes searching for his usual stash of toothpicks in the dugout and comes up empty....oh he'll know
I am not going to say it was a nice win because this series stunk too bad to say anything positive about it. Glad we didn't lose though.
The Astros’ lagging second-half offense leaves them in a tight AL West race https://theathletic.com/2780133/202...-offense-leaves-them-in-a-tight-al-west-race/ The Astros are built around offense. In Yordan Alvarez, Jose Altuve, Carlos Correa, Alex Bregman, Kyle Tucker, Michael Brantley and Yuli Gurriel, they have seven hitters capable of elite production. Their depth and their hitters’ combination of plate discipline and power is why the team came into Thursday tied with Toronto for the major-league lead in OPS+ (113). Although their cumulative stats remain excellent, the Astros haven’t gotten nearly the same level of production since the All-Star break. Coming into Thursday’s games, their offense ranked between 12th and 17th in MLB in batting average (.256, 12th in MLB), on-base percentage (.318, 17th) and slugging percentage (.433, 12th) in the second half after being in the top three in all three categories in the first half (.269/.344/.439). Their drop-off, especially as other offenses have heated up since the sticky-substance ban, is the biggest culprit for their recent struggles. It’s not only the primary reason they lost three of four to a bad Royals team this week but also helps to explain why they are merely 16-14 since the All-Star break. The Astros’ past 13 games have been against teams that will miss the postseason. They went 6-7 during that span, including beating Kansas City 6-3 in 10 innings Thursday. The Astros begin a three-game series against the Mariners on Friday night at Minute Maid Park. Given the caliber of the Astros’ hitters, it seems unlikely the offensive malaise will persist over the final 41 games, especially if Bregman is back from his left quad strain. But their regression has made the division a lot more of a race than it appeared it might be as recently as late July. After both of the AL West’s top teams snapped four-game losing streaks Thursday, the Astros will come into Friday with a 2.5-game lead over the A’s, who have a more difficult remaining schedule. “To me, we haven’t played our best ball yet,” Astros manager Dusty Baker said Thursday. “Hopefully we get Breggy back pretty soon. Slowly but surely, we’re trying to get whole. We’ve been missing some key guys on our team. People want to know, ‘What’s wrong?’ Well, what’s wrong a lot of times is when you’re missing key guys. Nobody gives you any consolation for it. You don’t want to use that as an excuse. But any time I can play my first team against your first team, most of the time I’m going to win in the long run.” Bregman has been out for two months, but the other six of the Astros’ top seven hitters have accumulated enough plate appearances to qualify for the batting title. Plus, Aledmys Díaz has been great as their temporary third baseman since he returned in late July from his fractured left hand. Yes, they recently lost Gurriel for nine games because of a neck issue, Tucker went on the COVID-19-related IL on Saturday and Alvarez missed Tuesday’s game because of an illness. But blaming lineup absences for their recent struggles, especially since Díaz, Chas McCormick and Jake Meyers have played well, is an oversimplification. Since the All-Star break, the Astros have also had a drop-off in production from their two best players of the first half. Before Correa’s two-hit, two-walk performance Thursday, his OPS since the All-Star break was .674, well down from his .895 OPS of the first half. Altuve’s second-half OPS coming into Thursday was .736, which is about major-league average in that span but significantly worse than the .860 OPS he had before the All-Star break. Correa seems to be turning it around, as he has multiple hits in three of the past four games. Altuve’s recent rut was evident through his various attempts to bunt for a hit against the Royals this week. Though he did double Thursday, he has not homered in August after mashing 10 homers in June and eight in July. And as his bat goes, the Astros seem to go. Of his 25 home runs, 23 came in Astros wins. During this week’s Royals series, Baker also cited a lack of familiarity with Kansas City’s young pitchers as a contributing factor in the Astros’ lack of offense. They will be a lot more familiar with their next opponent, the third-place Mariners, against whom they are 6-4 this season.
