It is... if that's just luck/randomness.... I'd think twice if I was an Astro walking near lightning.
Playoffs seemed like a certainty for so long. This really sucks. Hope the team snaps out of it but good lord are they struggling.
Its snowballed and hopeless to salvage the road woes. If they get hot at home, they'll still probably need to go 3-3 over the last 6 to ensure a spot.
This season is not over...not by a long shot. I thought we would spilt the series with the Rangers, but we came up a lot short. We were outplayed, outcoached and out broadcasted. Go Astros!
Look Im all for sticking behind the team and all that but NO playoff team can be this pathetic on the road for months and we all just pretend it's going to be okay... because it's not, and we're just not a good team. Simple as that. Learning curve for the players, coaches and organization in general, were only headed in the right track.
Phil Garner was on the radio this morning; he had an interesting take - it wasn't specifically addressing the home/road splits (and he did agree the team could be tight) - but his theory is that they might simply be fatigued; that in his experience, it's common for young players, who are racing past their career highs in games played, to wear down significantly. If true - and Phil Garner knows more than we would, obviously, so I think it has a lot of merit - it might give some insight to the home/road split, in that I assume a tired, worn down kid is probably more comfortable - and better rested - at his home than he would be traveling, sleeping in a strange bed, etc. Overall, I thought it was an interesting point; we use the word experience a lot - but tend to associate it with playoffs. I think what we might be seeing is just a young team possibly running out of gas before the finish line. You look at the Rangers - that's a team loaded with older players who know how to pace themselves and survive the marathon. The Astros, young and not knowing any better, have probably been hitting the red and are now collectively hitting their wall.
I think everyone is still trying to explain away something that maybe just doesn't have an explanation. If they suddenly started sucking on the road, I think Garner's logic would make sense. But they look the same on the road today as they did 3 months ago, and they weren't tired then, presumably. As someone earlier said, we're actually outscoring teams on the road despite the terrible record which is truly bizarre. It might just be one of those very random and inexplicable things that sometimes happen in sports. I do agree, though, maybe specifically on the bullpen, where it seems all the uber-reliable bullpen guys decided to suck at the same time the last several weeks. Those guys really have been performing worse, but the rest of the team seems to have been playing the same as always.
Yeah, my take is that there are probably a lot of different reasons and trying to find a single thread that connects a game in early July to a game in late September is silly. BUT... as of late, I think the fatigue issue has a lot of merit. Actually, they've all fallen off. Here are the key players' Aug/Sep OPS Altuve: .878/.741 Springer: .595 (didn't play in August bu that's abysmal) Correa: .836/.730 Gattis: .778/.675 And then they've dealt with Lowrie and Gomez missing time; Gonzalez, too - which just taxes a presumably tired team even more. I agree they generally look the same... they're generating hits and baserunners... they're just not getting those floodgate-opening hits anymore.
Yeah, I've brought that up previously... Keuchel at a career high in innings, Correa has never played this much in a single year (and since he was injured for half of last year, it's a huge leap). Springer just passed the 162 game mark for his career, and collectively this team just appears to be completely worn out by it all. I know nobody thinks they're "tight" or partly overwhelmed when they get on the road, but that (and the fatigue/comfort issues) all can be cumulative factors. (Not to mention, players are hinting that they're trying to possibly do too much/pressing, simply due to the overall trend of how things have gone on the road) 9-29, losing nearly every close game, every mistake magnified, nearly every player worse on the road vs home.... It's like the same abnormal anomalies that show up in the playoffs every year, but expanded to a very large stretch.
Astros still lead the Twins by 1.5 games, but we basically have to go 8-1, maybe 7-2 on this homestand, because in all likelihood we'll go 2-4 or worse in the final road trip...
If you want to be REALLY positive, even if we have to play in the WC @ New York, you have to at least be hopeful with Dallas Keuchel in a one game, must-win situation. Even though he was awful in his last game, he is still our best chance. Then you would go on the road against KC, which I think the Astros have a better chance beating the Royals than they do the Blue Jays. Then a possible ALCS of Astros vs. Blue Jays/Rangers...that's where my positivity runs out.
Also, it's not like we haven't had recent examples of young teams that turned it all around rapidly, only to fade at the end. The Pirates of a few years back instantly come to mind (and they've merely gotten better and better with more high pressure games/seasons under their belt) Yes, this would be a golden opportunity missed given where they were a month ago, but what would be more ridiculous and unlikely is that this ends up being the team's only chance going forward. I know there's been a handful of examples of teams that never became as good as expected (more so in other sports, and the Cubs with wood/Pryor), but there are plenty of baseball specific examples where a young team makes a leap... And stays around for awhile as the young talent matures.
But on the flipside, you have: Gomez: .572/.992 Lowrie: .535/.859 Rasmus: .700/.876 Marisnick: .551/1.143 Some players are worse, others are better. I'd be curious what the team OPS is over that period. In September, they've actually scored 0.2 more runs per game than their season average (4.5 vs 4.3).
