They are straight up murdering teams. I realize that the Astros have the best ERa post all star break and two legit aces. But that Toronto lineup is one I don't want to face. I'm hoping the Yankees can win that division and make Toronto a wild card team to face the royals.
The postseason could be anyone's ball game, and good pitching always trumps good hitting. Jays do look good right now though.
Not a great matchup since they have powerful righties and our best pitchers are lefties that aren't really flamethrowers. Throw in the short porch in left and that almost completely takes the inside corner away from our pitchers. Definitely need our offense to overachieve if this series does happen.
Our first year in the playoffs after 4 years of 100 loss seasons. I really don't care, I'm just happy we're super relevant in September. Feels so good.
People forget Springer has been injured nearly 2 months. His return plus Gomez playing to his capabilities makes our offense great.
Offense can carry you in the regular season... but pitching will be what rules the post-season. Astros have a 1-4 that can matchup with anybody... and they have an extra 2 guys (from their 6 man starting core) that can be ready in a moments notice.
Our team is young, talented and fearless. We were supposed to be close to a .500 team this season with hopes of a wild card in another season or two. Right now we're 5 games ahead in 1st place of our division and still have a shot to win home field in the 1st round. We don't care who we have to face in the 1st round. Our starting pitching has the best ERA over the past few months and our overall ERA is the best in the AL. With that being said, our pitching will give us a chance to win every game down the stretch including the playoffs. Our offense either clicks and explodes for 6+ runs on any given night or our MLB leading HR game plays into affect and we score just enough runs with a few swings to win close games. Our offense may strike out a lot, but with our speed, power from 1-9 in the lineup and fearless attitude, we can play with any team especially when our starting pitchers only give up 0-3 runs most of the time. With Springer coming back soon, Gomez and Rasmus finally getting hot, Correa and Altuve doing their thing and Gattis swinging like a beast, our offense should be clicking right on time for the post season
TOR is definitely murking everyone right now. But the postseason is all about who is hot right then. Whoever is rolling the week going into the playoffs is right where you want to be. It's crazy how some teams, who are clearly the best over the course of the season, fall victim to less talented, 'hotter' teams. We see it year after year with Wild Card teams going to to--and often winning--the WS. It's because they hit their streak at the right time. Hopefully TOR is peaking 40 games too early.
Toronto isn't a great matchup because their hitters crush lefties, but the advantage is that Houston has a lot of power righties themselves. IMO a worse matchup would be the Royals or any team that has a home park that is difficult to hit HR in.
As has been mentioned, the playoffs are about who's hot at the time. When healthy our offense can be as explosive as anybody's, and our pitching is also excellent. If we get there we could just as easily win it all, or be swept. I fear nobody, it's all about what we do.
I think who's "hot" at playoff time is just the result of who wins and then people retroactively deciding they were hot. KC went 11-11 to close the season last year and then won their first 8 playoff games. SF closed the season 6-9 and then won a World Series. In the NL, the Nationals and Dodgers were the hot teams, both closing with 8-2 spurts and both got eliminated in the 1st round. Teams get hot or cold in an instant, so how teams are doing in the weeks leading up to the playoffs has almost no bearing on how they do a week later.
The 90's Astros were amazing hitter but got shut down in the playoffs year after year because the opponents pitching was sick against us and we could hit a damn thing.
You don't have to be hot in the lead up, just when you're there. We've seen numerous examples of a team that clearly wasn't close to the best go to and win the WS. Being the "best" team doesn't correlate very well to who advances. Which is the point we're making. It's largely a free for all, although teams with multiple dominant pitchers is usually the best recipe.
Personally think we would beat them in a series but a one game wildcard would be tough. Price with their offense vs lefties would be a bad matchup.
