GAME CANCELED
Astros, Guardians season finale canceled by rain
Sep 29, 2024, 5:51 pm
The Astros regular season is officially in the books. Photo by Jamie Squire/Getty Images.
The regular season finale between the Guardians and Houston Astros was canceled Sunday after a lengthy delay, preventing Cleveland third baseman José Ramírez from a shot at hitting his 40th home run and joining the exclusive 40-40 club.
With Houston set to open its AL wild-card series at home on Tuesday, and with a forecast of steady rain expected for several more hours, the game never started and was called following a 3-hour, 5-minute delay.
The Guardians finish at 92-69 and the AL Central champions will host an ALDS game on Oct. 5. They'll play either the AL West champion Astros (88-73) or Detroit Tigers, who clinched a wild-card berth.
Cleveland manager Stephen Vogt and Houston manager Joe Espada met on the tarped field with the umpiring crew, head groundskeeper and Guardians' front office members for 15 minutes at about 2:20 — 55 minutes before the scheduled first pitch.
The hearty fans who stayed inside Progressive Field during the long delay watched the Browns-Las Vegas Raiders game on Progressive Field's giant scoreboard.
Ramírez finished with 39 homers, leaving him short of becoming the seventh player in MLB history to hit 40 homers and steal 40 bases in the same season. The six-time All-Star also ended with 39 doubles, one shy of a rare 40-40-40 season, which has only been accomplished by Alfonso Soriano in 2006.
Cleveland's jump in the standings after winning 76 games in 2023 also led to a bump in attendance as the Guardians drew more than 2 million fans at home for the first time since 2017.
TRAINER'S ROOM
Astros: LF Yordan Alvarez (knee sprain) was scheduled to do more baseball activities in Houston, and as long as he continues to make progress, it's likely he'll be on the wild card roster. The swelling in Alvarez's knee has gone down and Espada was cautiously optimistic about the slugger's availability this week.
Guardians: RHP Alex Cobb (middle finger blister) had his usual velocity during a 35-pitch simulated game. He'll throw another on Thursday and Vogt said the team is moving forward with plans to have him pitch in the postseason. Cobb has been sidelined since Sept. 1, and made just three starts since being acquired in a trade on July 30.
UP NEXT
Astros: Host the No. 5 seed Detroit Tigers in the wild card on Tuesday.
Tigers ace Tarik Skubal with square off with Framber Valdez in Game 1.
Guardians: Will rest and await wild-card winner in ALDS, starting Oct. 5.
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As of 9:42 Central Daylight Saving Time Friday night, the Astros (and all other baseball players) are officially the Boys of Summer, officially so far as the season is concerned anyway. When the summer solstice arrived last year the Astros were nine games off the lead in the American League West. So in addressing the rhetorical axiom “what a difference a year makes,” the difference in the Astros’ case is a whopping 14 games as they start the weekend atop their division by five games. At this point in the season last year the Astros’ record in one-run games was a brutal 5-14. In 2025 they are 13-7 in games decided by the narrowest of margins.
That the Astros are just 4-5 in road games against the two worst teams in the American League is no big deal, other than that every game counts in the standings. Still, just as was losing two out of three at the pathetic White Sox earlier this season, it is no doubt disappointing to the Astros to have only gotten a split of their four-game set with the Athletics. The A’s had gone 9-28 in their last 37 games before the Astros arrived in West Sacramento. The former-Oaklanders took the first game and the finale, as the Astros’ offense played bi-polar ball over the four nights. Two stat-padding explosion games that totaled 24 runs and 35 hits were bookended by a puny one-run output Monday and Thursday’s 5-4 10-inning loss. Baseball happens. Nevertheless, as the Astros open their weekend set versus the Angels, they have gone 17-7 over their last 24 games to forge their five-game division lead.
The New York Yankees’ offense has been by a healthy margin the best attack in the American League so far this season. The reigning AL champions snapped a six-game losing streak Thursday. The Yankees mustered a total of six runs over those six losses, including being shutout in three consecutive games. The baseball season is the defining “it’s a marathon not a sprint” sport. With 162 games on the schedule, combined with the fact that the gap in winning percentage between the best teams and the worst teams is smaller than in any other sport, making much about a series, or week or two of games is misguided, apart from all the results mattering.
The future is now
Without context, statistics can tell very misleading stories. Cam Smith is having a fine rookie season and has the looks of a guy who can blossom into a bonafide star and be an Astro mainstay into the 2030s. But it’s silliness that has anyone talking about the big month of June he’s having. Superficially, sure, going into Thursday’s game Smith’s stat line for the month read a .321 batting average and .874 OPS. Alas, that was mostly about Smith’s two monster games in the consecutive routs of the Athletics. Over those two games Cam went seven for nine with two home runs and two doubles. Over the other 14 games he’s played this month Smith is batting .213 with an OPS below .540.
Cam Smith is a long-term contender for best acquisition of Dana Brown’s tenure as General Manager. If his career was a single game Smith is still in the first inning, but if his career was a stock it’s a buy and hold. If the Astros were for some reason forced to part with all but two players in the organization, I think the two they would hold on to are Smith and Hunter Brown. Jeremy Pena would be another strong candidate, but he turns 28 in September and is two seasons from free agency (unless the rules change in the next collective bargaining agreement). Smith is 22 and under Astros’ control for another five seasons, he’s not even presently eligible for salary arbitration until the 2028 season. Brown turns 27 in August and is currently ineligible for free agency until after the 2028 season.
Angels in the outfield
Hunter Brown pitches opposite Yusei Kikuchi Friday night. Kikuchi was Dana Brown’s big in-season move last season, and Kikuchi was excellent with the Astros which set up to get the three-year 63 million dollar deal he landed with the Halos. After a slow start to his season Kikuchi has been outstanding the past month and a half, with a 2.28 earned run average over his last nine starts. Brown’s 1.88 season ERA is second-best in the big leagues among pitchers with the innings pitched to qualify in the category. Only Pirates’ stud Paul Skenes has a better mark, barely so at 1.85.
Kikuchi was a stellar rental who helped the Astros stretch their consecutive postseasons streak to eight. There was an absurd amount of vitriol over what Dana Brown gave up for him. Joey Loperfido is 26 years old and having a middling season at AAA. Will Wagner is 26 years old and back in the minors after batting .186 with the Blue Jays. Jake Bloss is the one guy who maaaaaybe some day the Astros wish they still had. Bloss is out into 2026 after undergoing Tommy John surgery.
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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