What's so frustrating is that with just 2-3 more wins throughout the season, this team would probably be ALW Champs again and a bye. It was obvious this team was buckling to the pressure this weekend. I watched Altuve (especially), Bregman, and Tucker swing at pitches they had no business swinging at and weren't swinging at a month ago.
It is amazing how stressed and tired this team is with all of the "Scheduled Day Offs" they have gotten. It is like those days off don't really matter, but having a comfortable lead does. Who knew? Maybe the Atlanta Braves.
The differential in xwOBA between Astros hitting and pitching over the past week has been significantly greater than the season average. They have actually played pretty well outside of their fielding, it's just that in baseball anything can happen over a brief stretch of games. No team can will themselves to winning at a .700+ clip on demand because even if they did perform better they would still need good luck for something like that to happen. The trick is to avoid these situations to begin with.
While what you say maybe true, if they continue to play like the last two weeks, they are toast in the first playoff series. So having a better record pales in terms of need compared to just playing well.
Crazy as it may sound, I expect them to sweep Seattle and make the playoffs. Too many times over the last six years they have come back with their backs against the wall and in the clutch....usually in the playoffs already. They just always seem to find a way to win. I still have confidence they will get it together on the road.
My gut says we take the 3rd wildcard over the Mariners by 1 game when its all said and done. My head says these guys have mentally already checked out.
So because of what Dusty had done to lose early "unimportant" games, now it's starting to rear its ugly head and the consequences are apparent. I want to see Diaz catch tonight because their offense sucks enough already without Maldy out there batting.
Quit, no; tired, yes. Bad defense comes from not focused, or tired, or manager not preaching fundamentals. Then the manager doesn't care about balls and strikes, he probaly think it is part of the game. And too lazy to pull pitchers because he wants a full inning from his relievers. And starting pitchers have been horrid, so many times by the 3rd Inning we have a big deficit. You can make a game out of 1-2 runs, but it seems like the Stros get a big deficit early.
I sincerely wish I could strip the fandom from every single poster in this thread. Good lord. It's not just the ridiculous doom & gloom (though that's certainly reason enough): it's the pissy-baby entitlement of somehow being upset that the team is about to make it's 8th trip to the postseason since 2015 - a number that would tie their franchise total through it's first 52 years. Like, seriously, I do not understand you people...
The real days off that never happened were among Javier, Brown, Framber, and France. Dusty pretended everything just fine though.
Funny how 100 wins or 90 wins makes no difference to the Astros now in the post season. We underestimated the absurdity of the West division and how unclutch and untested Texas and Seattle were.
If you knew me 2 weeks prior you wouldn't think that. 2 weeks ago I turned to the dark side and the Astros started winning. Took one for the team. Be happy to take more lickings if it means more wins so bring it
