ALWAYS BE CLOSING
Houston Astros within striking distance of clinching top seed in AL
Sep 27, 2022, 1:09 pm
Astros magic number down to two. Photo by Christian Petersen/Getty Images.
Bielak with an impressive start, Astros rally late but come up short as Diamondbacks take series
With no game on Monday, the Astros are rested and back in action Tuesday night at Minute Maid against the Arizona Diamondbacks. Luis Garcia (13-8, 3.90 ERA) will make the start for Houston, with Zach Davies (2-4, 4.03 ERA) pitching for the D-Backs. Lance McCullers was originally scheduled to pitch, but was scratched due to an "illness."
McCullers has been scratched with an “illness,” according to the Astros.
— Chandler Rome (@Chandler_Rome) September 27, 2022
Magic number: 2
The Astros currently sit atop the AL sporting a 101-53 record, 6.5 games ahead of the 94-59 New York Yankees. So the Astros could clinch the AL on Tuesday with a win over the Diamondbacks, and a Yankees loss. The Yankees face the Toronto Blue Jays on Tuesday night. The Yankees are 1.5 run underdogs according to online betting sites.
The Astros can also clinch by winning their next two games, regardless of what happens with the Yankees. Both the Yankees and the Astros are playing well currently, as both clubs have won 7 of their last 10 games.
With the Yankees game starting about an hour before the Astros take on the Diamondbacks, the Astros may know the results of Yankees-Blue Jays while they're trying to finish off the D-Backs. So be sure to watch tonight's Astros game because we could see some fun celebrations if the Astros manage to win and the Yankees fall to Toronto.
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Yordan Alvarez’s hand injury is worse than it originally appeared.
The Houston slugger felt pain in his right hand on Friday while hitting and a small fracture that was previously believed to be a muscle strain was discovered. The fracture is about 60% healed.
General manager Dana Brown said he believes the fracture in Alvarez’s fourth metacarpal wasn’t discovered in initial imaging on May 6 because there was too much inflammation and fluid.
Alvarez has been out since May 3 with the injury. They had hoped he could come off the injured list this weekend.
“The immediate plan for him right now is to just let it rest,” Brown said. “And he’ll still continue to do other baseball activity like the running, he could probably go out in the outfield and catch. He can do everything else except for pick up a bat. And so, we don’t even want him hitting off tees even though he feels good enough to hit off a tee. Just let it heal completely and then you’ll be back.”
Since Friday’s imaging showed that the fracture was already more than halfway healed, Brown doesn’t believe it will keep him out too much longer.
“We’re hopeful that because he’s healed so much that ... he’ll be back sooner rather than later,” Brown said.
Alvarez was asked when he expects to return.
“I wish I had a magic ball to tell you,” he said in Spanish through a translator. “The good news is that it’s healing well, but I need rest because the fact that I was keeping on doing swings, it was taking it back, taking it (longer) to heal.”
Brown added that they think the fracture occurred when Alvarez tried to play through the initial muscle strain. Brown said he played for almost two weeks after initially noticing the problem before the first imaging was done.
“The muscle strain was real,” Brown said. “I really think that when he was fighting through those weeks knowing that it wasn’t the same feeling as some of his hand problems in the past ... maybe that’s when he may have caused a little bit more damage.”
Alvarez hit .210 with three home runs and 18 RBIs in 29 games this season before landing on the injured list.