POINT BLANK
Joel Blank: The Warriors are coming. Are Rockets fans ready to step up?
May 7, 2018, 7:24 am
Steph Curry and the Warriors are coming. Patrick Smith/Getty Images
You asked for it, you got it! Toyota Center better be rocking when the Rockets need you the most!
It's the matchup everyone wanted to see ever since the Chris Paul trade. The two teams that everyone wanted in the Western Conference Finals are about to tango. The Rockets have been obsessed with the Golden State Warriors for over a year. Halfway through the season, Daryl Morey came out and admitted that this team was "obsessed" with the champs and built for a matchup with Golden State. The Warriors are the reigning champions and are the team that everybody has marked on their calendar as must see TV. They are the gold standard, pun intended, and it's one thing to pack the house to see them play in the regular season, it’s on another level when it can determine who goes to the Finals. The obsession is now a reality and dreams can come true if the Rockets and their fans can live up to the expectations that they have set for themselves.
Houston played all year to capture home court advantage and have a series deciding contest in their house. They felt like they were evenly matched with Golden State and the difference could be having that Game 7 on the Toyota Center floor instead of at Oracle Arena. With that in mind, they took care of business in the regular season and even took it a step further and assured themselves of home court throughout the NBA Finals by having the best record in the entire league.The time is now to make sure that there is some value in that achievement and Red Nation needs to step up big at the biggest time of the year. That means showing up on time and staying late, while they cheer loud and make sure that the world knows this can be a basketball town too. Texas is known as a football state, and that goes for the city of Houston too. They do a great job supporting the Texans, but have also proven to be a heck of a baseball community as they rocked the roof off of Minute Maid Park during the Astros run to a World Series title. Why then has it taken so long to do the same thing for the hometown hoop team?
So far this postseason, and let's be honest, in the regular season as well, attendance at Rockets games has been anything but stellar. Whether it's traffic, parking, ticket prices, family commitments or other excuses, Houstonians are quick to be on the defensive, but not as quick to jump behind their basketball team and support their efforts to return the community to the days of Clutch City. I don't wanna hear any of the excuses and believe me, I have heard them all season long as you have called the radio station and tried to defend your actions, or lack thereof? I know the failures of playoffs past have not helped and James Harden has let you down. But that was then, this is now and you could help write the script for the future. I'm not looking for more defensive fans, I'm looking for a solution that puts butts in seats, and does so on time. Maybe a match up with the Warriors is just what the doctor ordered and the inspiration that H-town needed?
Look across the league and all the cities that have a team that participated in this year's playoffs and for the most part you will find a community that is passionate about their hoop squad and fans that are rabid. They are in their seats way before tip off and raucous, creating an environment that makes it difficult for the visiting team to hear, let alone execute a play. Meanwhile in Houston, the regular season laissez-faire attitude of the fan base has continued over into the first round and a half of the postseason. With Houston one game away from the Conference Finals and likely meeting the Warriors, it's time to put the past behind us and step up to help this team in the biggest series it has faced since they last lost to Golden State in the 2016 West finals. Fans forget that a season full of hard work that earned them this huge edge if it comes down to one final game, can all be lost if this team falters in one of its first three home contests against the "Dubs." This Rockets team did its part by earning the best record and all the accolades that come with it, it's now time for the fan base to do their part and back this team when it needs you the most. I don't care if it's a 7 o'clock game or an 8:30 late night affair, I expect you to be there and be on time. I would love to see a sea of red T shirts on rabid Rockets fans as they welome the squad with the best record in the NBA onto the floor for pre-game warmups, instead of a sea of T shirts stuck on the backs of empty chairs as people continue to dress up like empty seats come tipoff time.
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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