THE PALLILOG
Astros in command position to have home-field advantage in ALDS
Sep 17, 2021, 9:52 am
Astros face the lowly Diamondbacks next. Composite image by Jack Brame.
If the Texans reeeeally want to open some eyes, opportunity knocks for them Sunday in Cleveland. They had a solid and easy opening win over the Jaguars, but Jacksonville is pitiful. The Browns are AFC contenders coming off an 11-5 2020 season, and in their opener led the Chiefs in Kansas City 22-10 before seeing the game slip from their grasp (or having Pat Mahomes rip it from that grasp). The Browns are favored by 12 and a half, making the Texans the biggest underdog in the NFL this week. I expect the Texans to lose along the lines of 27-13, but merely note that the only way to pull off a huge upset is to be a huge underdog.
The rest of the AFC South fell on its face week one. The Titans (at Seattle), Colts (home vs. the Rams), and Jaguars (home vs. the Broncos) are all underdogs this week. If the Texans are 2-0 while everyone else in the division is 0-2…
Astros take on the D'Backs
Off taking three out of four in Arlington from the awful Rangers the Astros and the White Sox losing two straight at home to the Angels, the Astros are in command position to at minimum have home-field advantage in their American League Division Series. They lead the Chisox by three games and have the tiebreaker sewn up. The Astros trail the Rays by four games for the best record in AL. This weekend at Minute Maid Park the Astros get the even worse than the Rangers Arizona Diamondbacks. The D'Backs are 47-99. With a 4-12 finishing kick they can match their franchise record for losses, put up in 2004. The great Randy Johnson went 16-14 that season for a team that went 51-111. The Big Unit was clearly the best pitcher in the National League, but lost out on the Cy Young Award to Roger Clemens who won his seventh. The Rocket went 18-4 for the Astros and was incredible, but clearly not as good as Johnson was. Had Johnson won the Cy he would have six as would Clemens. But that's ok, because Roger got jobbed out of a Cy Young he absolutely deserved in 1990, another he probably deserved in 1992, and a third for which he had a strong case with the Astros in 2005. At 43 years old in mid-August of '05 Clemens had an earned run average of 1.32 before "fading" to a league leading 1.87 finish. Whatever one believes of went into Clemens's late career brilliance, he was incredible to watch.
Turn back the clock
As the Astros close in on their fifth straight postseason appearance, next week takes us to the 35th anniversary of the 1986 Astros securing their playoff spot. September 23, 24, and 25 of 1986 has to rank at or near the top of the most fun regular season three day stretches in franchise history.
On the 23rd Jim Deshaies threw a two hit shutout as the Astros shutout the Dodgers 4-0. That was the game in which Deshaies set a Major League record by striking out the first eight opposition batters (the Marlins' Pablo Lopez broke the record this year by striking out the first nine Braves he faced July 11). Dodger manager Tommy Lasorda was so flustered he pinch hit for his pitcher in the third inning with two out and nobody on in a 2-0 game. Pinch-hitter Larry See popped to second.
The next night Nolan Ryan fired eight innings of one hit ball (reliever Charlie Kerfeld gave up a hit in the ninth) as the Astros blanked the Giants 6-0.
The following afternoon Mike Scott threw his National League West Division clinching no-hitter in the Astros 2-0 win over the Giants.
Those Astros would lose an epic National League Championship Series to the New York Mets. ESPN's latest 30 for 30 debuted this week, a four-parter about the '86 Mets called "Once Upon A Time In Queens." It's phenomenal, with a good chunk of part three about the Mets-Astros LCS. Worth a watch, whether as an Astro fan of that time wanting to work up some fresh bile for the Mets of that time, or as a period piece.
Buzzer Beaters
1. Salute to Sal. Royals' catcher Salvador Perez hit his 45th home run of the season Thursday, tying Johnny Bench's single season homer record for a player who is primarily a catcher. Bench did it as part of a vaunted Cincinnati lineup that became known as the Big Red Machine. Perez's Kansas City team is 12th among 15 American League teams in runs scored, dead last in the AL in homers.
2. So John Wall and the Rockets evidently agree that his playing for them this season is of no interest. Finding a trade sucker (errrr, partner) to take the two seasons nearly 92 million guaranteed dollars left on Wall's deal without the Rockets having to trade away draft picks and/or take back other absurd contracts? Good luck.
3. Greatest Browns: Bronze-Bad, Bad Leroy Silver-Otto Graham Gold-Jim
It’s been an excellent weeklong stretch of games for the Astros tempered by the news of yet another season-ending injury to a starting pitcher. To get the bad news out of the way, it comes as no surprise that Ronel Blanco needs Tommy John surgery and is done until at least the middle of next season. While Blanco had not been nearly as good through nine 2025 starts as he was last season, he was still taking his regular return and on average getting into the sixth inning. Blanco turns 32 years old at the end of August. He’s not even salary arbitration-eligible until 2027. That last fact may be good news for him. The Astros will likely keep Blanco next year in hopes he can contribute in the second half of the season, since they will pay him barely the Major League minimum salary ($780,000 next year) That’s in contrast to Jose Urquidy, who in the midst of his salary arbitration years would have cost about three and a half million dollars to keep, so the Astros non-tendered him.
With Blanco joining Hayden Wesneski in the “See you next year! Hopefully.” club, it struck me as interesting that the Astros let Lance McCullers throw 102 pitches in his Wednesday outing vs. the Athletics. That’s eleven more than he had thrown in any of his prior four starts. McCullers holding up physically would be a huge boost, but the new essentials in the Astros’ rotation are Framber Valdez and Hunter Brown. Framber has settled in to the tune of a 1.93 earned run average over his last four starts. Brown’s season ERA is 2.00. Brown has had five days of rest before all eleven of his starts this season. This Sunday is Brown’s presently next scheduled outing. He would work on four days of rest if on the mound Sunday against the Rays.
Taking the last two games from the Mariners was huge (for the second half of May anyway). Keeping the good times rolling by sweeping the two-game miniseries from the A’s was less significant but still nice. Maybe not quite nice enough to have Frank “The Tank” from the movie Old School belting out “We’re going streaking!!!” but it did give the Astros their first four game winning streak of the season. They still have not lost more than three straight.
On a heater!
Speaking of streaking, time for annual mention of one of my all-time favorite baseball factoids. The 1916 New York Giants hold the MLB record for the longest win streak with an incredible 26 in a row. Earlier in the season the Giants ripped off 17 in a row. Combine the two streaks and that’s 43-0! The 1916 New York Giants finished in fourth place. In all their other games the Giants went 43-66. The American League’s longest ever winning streak is of fairly recent vintage. The 2007 Cleveland Indians won 22 straight. There have been only two other winning streaks since 1900 of at least 20 games. The 1935 Chicago Cubs won 21 straight. The Art Howe-managed 2002 Oakland A’s won 20 in a row, and were the inspiration for the movie Moneyball. The Astros have three 12 game winning streaks as the longest in their history.
Expect the unexpected
Tuesday’s win over the A’s brought the Astros to the one-third completed point of the regular season. Isaac Paredes was definitely their best offensive player to that milepost. His “on pace for” numbers were the best on the ballclub 33 home runs and 93 runs batted in. Paredes also led in runs scored with 29. The last Astro to lead the team in all three of those categories was Alex Bregman who did it in both 2018 and 2019. That Bregman was clearly a better player than this Paredes, but Isaac healthy and making “only” 6.625 million dollars this season is a heck of a lot better value than Bregman at 40 mil for the Red Sox, especially given that while Bregman was off to a sensational start for Boston, he’s now out for at least a month with a quad injury.
Hunter Brown is on pace to win 20 games. The last Astro to get there was Gerrit Cole on the last day of the 2019 regular season. The day before that Justin Verlander won his 21st game.
The Cleveland Guardians’ bullpen was awesome last season, by far the best in the league with four relievers who each pitched in at least 74 games posting ERAs of 1.92 or lower, headlined by closer Emmanuel Clase’s microscopic 0.61. One-third of the way through this season for the Astros: Bryan Abreu sat at 1.90, Steven Okert 1.82, Josh Hader 1.57, Bryan King 1.52.
For Astro-centric conversation, join Brandon Strange, Josh Jordan, and me for the Stone Cold ‘Stros podcast which drops each Monday afternoon, with an additional episode now on Thursday. Click here to catch!
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