THE PALLILOG

A tough act for Framber Valdez to follow, but he's up for the challenge

Astros Framber Valdez
The Astros are up 1-0 in the ALDS. Photo by Carmen Mandato/Getty Images.
Unorthodox or not, Astros keep finding ways to produce on their own terms

Well that was easy. In game one of their American League Division Series the Astros made the White Sox look as though all five AL Central teams are no good this year. We already know that to be true of the other four. Of course anything can happen in one game or in a short series, but except for a poor eighth inning on the mound from Kendall Graveman the Astros absolutely cruised to a 6-1 series opening win.

The Lots of Lance starting pitching matchup played out as a major mismatch in the Astros' favor. Lance McCullers was tremendous until fading a little in the seventh. Six and two thirds scoreless innings from your starter? Yes, please. McCullers made 28 starts during the regular season. In zero of them did he not walk a batter. Thursday against the White Sox, zero walks (he did hit one guy). Tough act for Framber Valdez to follow in game two. Chicago starter Lucas Giolito has an easy act to follow after the Astros chased Lance Lynn in the fourth. The Astros have owned Lynn over their last several matchups. Giolito has been a different story.

Jose Altuve is occasionally the guilty party of some of the Astros' occasionally silly baserunning. Thursday, he made a spectacular baserunning play with as a good a slide as you can make to beat the tag on the throw home from Chisox third baseman Yoan Moncada on an Alex Bregman grounder. Altuve slid past the catcher and tapped home plate as he went by. Just tremendous.

Part of the beauty of sports is sometimes good decisions can blow up in your face, other times bad decisions can work out fine. This season Kyle Tucker was definitely the Astros' best offensive player. If you throw out April it wasn't particularly close. The Astros' lineup is loaded so it's not as if there are lightweights ahead of Tucker in the batting order. Still, slotting your best offensive player seventh in the order as Dusty Baker had Tucker in game one is silly. The simplest move would be to move Tucker up to second in the lineup and drop Michael Brantley to the seven spot. So of course Thursday Brantley had two hits while Tucker went 0-4. Baseball!

Couple the Astros comfortable win over the White Sox with the Rays dusting the Red Sox in their opener Thursday night, an Astros-Rays American League Championship Series rematch isn't inevitable, but the needle sure is pointing in the direction of the Astros being in St. Petersburg next Friday night.

Belichick returns to Houston

The Texans play the Patriots Sunday. Not exactly compelling. Much more the exact opposite of compelling. The Texans are off of one of the most pathetic showings in franchise history in taking a 40-0 beating at Buffalo, the Pats off losing Tom Brady's return to Foxboro. One reckons there will be a few no-shows who opt for almost anything besides entering NRG Stadium. Though the Texans are only one game back of the pacesetting Tennessee Titans in the thus far punchline awful AFC South.

Countdown to liftoff

Inside two weeks to the start of the Rockets' regular season. The Rockets won't be compelling but the presence of rookie Jalen Green and several other young talents sure makes them more interesting than the Texans. That's not meant as damning with faint praise, though watching glue dry would be more compelling than the Texans.

The NBA is celebrating it's 75th anniversary season. As the regular season opens in a couple of weeks, the NBA will unveil its 75 at 75, a panel selected list of the top 75 players in the league history. A quarter century ago the NBA unveiled its 50 at 50. Such rankings will always cause arguments, which is part of the fun. Shaquille O'Neal being on the 50 at 50 was laughably premature, now of course he's a no-brainer for the top 75, and would be an easy selection if the list was the top 25 at 75. Interesting that in unveiling the 75 at 75, the NBA has decided not to protect the 50 players who made the 50 at 50. Kind of awkward to inform Bill Walton, or Nate Archibald, or the family of Pete Maravich (as the case may be) "We're sorry to inform you that you are/he is OUT."

Buzzer Beaters:

1. CBS opted for Alabama-Texas A&M in primetime Saturday night. Uh oh. Blowouts aren't ratings magnets.

2. The Big 12 is clearly football inferior to the SEC but Texas-Oklahoma is about 100 times more interesting than Tide-Ags figures to be. More ultimately successful in Austin: Tesla or Steve Sarkisian?

3. Sports greatest Lances: Bronze-Parrish Silver-Berkman Gold-Alworth (until proven a blatant cheater Armstrong would have been a lock)

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Spurs defeat the Rockets, 109-106. Photo by Alex Bierens de Haan/Getty Images.

Victor Wembanyama scored 29 points, Jeremy Sochan added 17 points and 12 rebounds, and the San Antonio Spurs held on to beat the Houston Rockets 109-106 on Saturday night in their home opener.

Wembanyama added seven rebounds and three blocks while shooting 10 for 17 from the field.

Chris Paul added three points and nine assists, including a drive and feed to Sochan for an open layup that put San Antonio up 104-99 with 1:35 remaining.

After trailing by 22 points in the first half, Houston was within one possession for much of the final minutes. The Rockets went on a 21-8 run in the opening six minutes of the final quarter, turning an 18-point deficit into a 95-90 lead for San Antonio.

Jalen Green had 27 points for Houston. Fred VanVleet added 18 and Dillon Brooks had 16.

Takeaways

Rockets: Houston wasted a good finish with a poor start. After shooting 34% through three quarters, including 17% in the second period, the Rockets shot 60% in the final quarter.

Spurs: San Antonio went 2 for 13 on 3-pointers after opening the game 6 for 7.

Key moment

After struggling mightily at times last season to get the ball into Wembanyama’s hands around the rim, a pair of passes from Paul yielded much promise and thunderous celebrations. Paul’s first lob resulted in an alley-oop dunk for Wembanyama with 2:12 remaining in the first half that put the Spurs up 57-38. Paul and Wembanyama repeated the alley-oop dunk a minute later, giving the Spurs a 59-38 advantage.

Key stat

San Antonio coach Gregg Popovich has stressed the need for his team to be more physical and the Spurs responded, outrebounding Houston 57-46.

Up next

The Rockets face the Spurs again on Monday to close out a two-game set in San Antonio.

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