Tonights game was a microcosm of Houston baseball over the past two years. None of it came easy, but the Astros did just enough to pull through.
After last nights game many Houston fans were paranoid that the Astros would find a way to blow the AL West title. Perhaps it was irrational, but Valdez and the offense yielding a 3-1 deficit didn’t help matters. Luckily some power hitting helped spur a comeback.
Kyle Tucker hit a solo shot in the bottom of the fourth to cut the deficit down to 3-2. After another zero from Framber, Caratini got on base to start the bottom of the 5th. JP bunt Victor over to set up Heyward with a RISP opportunity.
With the count 1-1, Heyward took a high fastball into the right field seats to make the score 4-3.
Ideally, Valdez would have had an easy shut down inning, but this isn’t 2022 Astros. Instead, Valdez allowed two consecutive base runners to reach safely.
On the next AB, did induce a weak groundball to Pena; however, Houston could only get the out at first.
With runners on second and third and only one man out, the Astros needed a strikeout badly. Fortunately, Valdez had just enough left in the tank and struck out JP Crawford.
Espada brought in Abreu to get the final out, and he did just that.
Abreu handled the Mariners in the 7th, but Pressley ran into some trouble in the 8th. Again, two baserunners reached. After a wild pitch by RP, the Mariners had runners on the corners with one out.
Pressley buckled down though and facilitated a weak pop up to LF.
Espada brought Hader in to face JP Crawford with two outs and runners in the corners. Josh mowed through Crawford easily to bring the Astros within three outs of a division title.
Houston did nothing at the plate in the bottom of the 8th, so it came down to Hader versus some of Seattle’s best hitters.
After Hader’s performance on Sunday, fans would be right to be on the edge of their seat. However, Hader was dominant, retiring all three Mariners hitters in only 11 pitches.
It is hard to believe, but the Astros clinched another AL west division title.
final score Houston 4, Seattle 3
Thoughts:
After the Astros lost to the White Sox on June 18th, I basically said the Astros were not a good team in 2024. Since then, the Astros have played like a 100 win team. We all knew they were good enough to make the playoffs, but I don’t think anyone could have predicted a turn around like this.
The rest of the season is tantamount to spring training. The Astros need to give their starters some time off and lineup their pitching.
About a month ago, I said that Verlander was cooked and shouldn’t be in the starting rotation. Most of the comments disagreed with my take, but who would disagree now?
The wildcard series is basically a coin flip, so the Astros may very well lose. Regardless, it is pretty cool that the Astros are still playing relevant games in October.
Division titles are not easy to come by, before 2017 the Astros had not won a division title since 2001. I know this may be hard to hear, but winning a division title is an accomplishment in its own right. No matter what happens, let’s be happy the Astros found a way to win another division title this year.
Lastly, I made some bold takes this year. Some of them were correct, some of them were premature, some of them were a bit hyperbolic, but I appreciate all the comments. Thank you TCB nation!