Please limit talk in this thread to this series. Other topics should be discussed in the appropriate threads. Play-by-play is not allowed. If you need that, there are other places to find it. Political discussions belong in the D&D forum not in here. All games are broadcast on Space City Network unless otherwise noted. 6-3 Kyle Gibson (R) vs. Justin Verlander (R) 7:10 6-4 Andre Pallante (R) vs. Spencer Arrighetti (R) 7:10 6-5 Miles Mikolas (R) vs. Ronel Blanco (R) 1:10 MLBN (out-of-market only)
With each lost series the leash gets shorter and the hole gets deeper. There are only 8 weeks until the trade deadline; that’s 16 series, and if the Astros want to have a realistic shot at making the playoffs (and justify being buyers at the deadline), they have to win at least 10 of them, but more likely need to win 12 of their 16 series between now and 7/31. This isn’t necessarily “must win”, but it’s more must win than any series in June in the last few years.
They should be favored in every game…. Just like they were favored in 2 out of the 3 Twins games. Yordan/Bregman swinging it well. Bullpen (minus Pressly) pitching well. Three starters who are either on an uptrend or have been consistently good to great all season. No excuses… but a series loss (or sweep) and you’re looking for a potential miracle (2004 or 2005 Astros type run).
June has 23 more games. They really need to get to .500 but that would take a 16-7 month. That would end my worries but nothing about this teams makes me confident they can do that. Still, they simply must be much better than .500 I'm going to hope they can go 14-9 Win 4 of 6 vs Cards and Angels Win 1 of 3 in SF Win 1 of 3 in Detroit Sweep 3 in Chicago (Sox) Win 1 of 3 vs Orioles Win both vs Rockies at home Win 2 of 3 vs Mets in NY. 14-9 for a 15-10 month and 3 games under .500 entering July. The schedule says they can steal a couple more but at least this fends off a funeral.
For June: 8-17 or worse: season is over and Astros should be firmly positioned as sellers 9-16 to 13-12: season on life support and a dramatic improvement in July is required 14-11 to 16-9: things are looking up and just need to keep it going 17-8 or better: we’re back, baby
I wish I shared the optimism expressed by some on this board, but I just don't see "IT" with this team. I will watch this series VIA push notifications. I have to assemble a new seating are for outside lounging. Thats like a 6-beer task. Plus, the next three days are supposed to be highs of 80, 78, 78. Thats fire pit weather.
The hardest commodity to assemble/retain is reliable starting pitching. The Astros as currently constructed, and as of today/this moment, have that. When it was unreliable in April, they were god-awful. At the moment, they’re just mediocre. The lineup has a solid 1-6 but within that group there has been inconsistency. Then you get to the 7-9 guys that are all over the spectrum. The bench is actually not bad… but when 7-9 is all over the place, guys expected to be bench guys now get more starts. The bullpen is actually on an uptrend minus Pressly. Montero/Scott have pitched better than anybody here was expecting. Hader has stabilized and his usage is even a tad bit more reasonable (but still feel he’s getting thrown out there more than he should be). Brian Abreu wanes from ok to filthy… he tends to find his dominant groove at this point in the season. But since the April hole happened, and the lineup has been spotty the last 2 weeks, they now have very little room for error going forward. 88 could win the division. It’s not that hard to get to that… but one more bad month and they’re likely done. And to be fair, they didn’t have “IT” last year and still somehow stumbled within 1 game of the WS again.
The Astros are currently 4-6 in their last 10 games and they are 8 games under .500 and 7.5 games behind the M's and 3.5 games behind the Rangers. They recently lost a series to the Angels - lost a series against the Mariners (which they should have at least split), and then followed it up by losing a series to the Twins (which they should have won). They now play a mediocre Cardinals team....... followed by the Angels.... Giants..... Detroit.... White Sox. The Astros have 15 straight winnable games against mediocre to bad teams before facing the Orioles.... then Colorado and the Mets. If the Astros are not at .500% by the time they finish their series with the Mets, they will not be over .500% this year. They need to not just win these series, they need to sweep some of these series....... the Angels, Giants, Detroit and White Sox are not really expecting to be good.
Team has a lot of issues, but where we are in the standings has a lot to do with a couple of players Yordan has homered in 8 of our 60 games, we are 7-1 in those games, 19-33 in the others. He has been good, but he hasn't been Yordan. We need him to be Yordan Pressly has given up runs in 9 games, we are 2-7 in those games Yordan will likely come around, Pressly has pitched into a lot of bad luck, but he still shouldn't be pitching the 8th inning right now. Not till he strings together some good performances
