COLD AS ICE
Angry at the Astros for their lack of hitting? Not as much as this guy
Oct 19, 2017, 5:23 am
LIke most of the Astros, Marwin Gonzalez has been a disaster at the plate in this series. Stan Grossfeld/The Boston Globe via Getty Images)
A New Year’s Day tradition is the Coney Island Polar Bear Club, where men swim in frigid waters.
Needless to say, there is shrinkage in the packages of male swimmers.
The distance to Yankee Stadium is 25 miles and if I did not know better I would think the Astros bats were getting ready to swim. For the last three games, the best hitting team during the regular season has shrunk. The come home for Game 6 and (hopefully) Game 7 at Minute Maid Park just one win from elimination in the American League Championship Series, down 3-2.
There is no swag.
Confidence appears to have disappeared into timid bats. Yankee pitchers looked like men against boys in the three straight home wins. And the Astros hitters tried to be Babe Ruth, swinging for the fences only to ground out or hit weak fly balls.
Where have the mucho grande cajones gone?
Let’s check the numbers against the Yankees. The Astros are batting .147 against the Yankees and have scored a paltry five runs. They have gone 11-for-92 (.120) with five extra-base hits, no home runs and 25 strikeouts in the three games in New York. With runners in scoring position, they went 2-for-21, including 0-for-8 in Game 5.
George Springer is 2-for-18 in the series. Josh Reddick is 0-for-17. Alex Bregman (2-for-17) and Marwin Gonzalez (2-for-15) are struggling, too. Even Jose Altuve and Carlos Correa were muted in New York. They went a combined 2-for-22 in Games 3-5.
Dallas Kuechel, who has dominated New York, was mortal, giving up four earned runs in 4.2 innings, striking out 8 while giving up 7 hits. It did not matter if it was Judge, Sanchez or Gregorius. Joe Girardi’s hitters think they are Ruth, Gehrig, Mantle or Joe D.
Down 3-2, they will face Luis Severino at Minute Maid Friday night. Justin Verlander must continue his mastery as an Astro. But unless the bats come alive, they will be the Not Ready For Prime Time Players and there will be no Game 7.
In five games your heroes have scored a total of nine runs! That’s right, just nine runs. The bats have been colder than a prostitute's heart.
Regardless of how jaded I am covering H-Town Sports over the years, I have bought World Series tickets for games at Minute Maid. I will show up. Let's see if the bats do as well.
Chirp!
It’s May 1, and the Astros are turning heads—but not for the reasons anyone expected. Their resurgence, driven not by stars like Yordan Alvarez or Christian Walker, but by a cast of less-heralded names, is writing a strange and telling early-season story.
Christian Walker, brought in to add middle-of-the-order thump, has yet to resemble the feared hitter he was in Arizona. Forget the narrative of a slow starter—he’s never looked like this in April. Through March and April of 2025, he’s slashing a worrying .196/.277/.355 with a .632 OPS. Compare that to the same stretch in 2024, when he posted a .283 average, .496 slug, and a robust .890 OPS, and it becomes clear: this is something more than rust. Even in 2023, his April numbers (.248/.714 OPS) looked steadier.
What’s more troubling than the overall dip is when it’s happening. Walker is faltering in the biggest moments. With runners in scoring position, he’s hitting just .143 over 33 plate appearances, including 15 strikeouts. The struggles get even more glaring with two outs—.125 average, .188 slugging, and a .451 OPS in 19 such plate appearances. In “late and close” situations, when the pressure’s highest, he’s practically disappeared: 1-for-18 with a .056 average and a .167 OPS.
His patience has waned (only 9 walks so far, compared to 20 by this time last year), and for now, his presence in the lineup feels more like a placeholder than a pillar.
The contrast couldn’t be clearer when you look at José Altuve—long the engine of this franchise—who, in 2024, delivered in the moments Walker is now missing. With two outs and runners in scoring position, Altuve hit .275 with an .888 OPS. In late and close situations, he thrived with a .314 average and .854 OPS. That kind of situational excellence is missing from this 2025 squad—but someone else may yet step into that role.
And yet—the Astros are winning. Not because of Walker, but in spite of him.
Houston’s offense, in general, hasn’t lit up the leaderboard. Their team OPS ranks 23rd (.667), their slugging 25th (.357), and they sit just 22nd in runs scored (117). They’re 26th in doubles, a rare place for a team built on gap-to-gap damage.
But where there’s been light, it hasn’t come from the usual spots. Jeremy Peña, often overshadowed in a lineup full of stars, now boasts the team’s highest OPS at .791 (Isaac Paredes is second in OPS) and is flourishing in his new role as the leadoff hitter. Peña’s balance of speed, contact, aggression, and timely power has given Houston a surprising tone-setter at the top.
Even more surprising: four Astros currently have more home runs than Yordan Alvarez.
And then there’s the pitching—Houston’s anchor. The rotation and bullpen have been elite, ranking 5th in ERA (3.23), 1st in WHIP (1.08), and 4th in batting average against (.212). In a season where offense is lagging and clutch hits are rare, the arms have made all the difference.
For now, it’s the unexpected contributors keeping Houston afloat. Peña’s emergence. A rock-solid pitching staff. Role players stepping up in quiet but crucial ways. They’re not dominating, but they’re grinding—and in a sluggish AL West, that may be enough.
Walker still has time to find his swing. He showed some signs of life against Toronto and Detroit. If he does, the Astros could become dangerous. If he doesn’t, the turnaround we’re witnessing will be credited to a new cast of unlikely faces. And maybe, that’s the story that needed to be written.
We have so much more to discuss. Don't miss the video below as we examine the topics above and much, much more!
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