STATE OF THINGS
Texans win means Houston pro sports dominance in Texas
Oct 9, 2018, 6:50 am
The Rockets have dominated the Spurs an Mavs. Tim Warner/Getty Images
Sunday was a great win for the Houston Texans and an even sweeter victory for Houston sports fans. That win gives this city bragging rights in almost every major sport. The Rockets finished the season 7-1 against the other Texas teams; the Spurs and Mavericks. The Astros walked out of 2018 with a 12-7 record against the Texas Rangers and now the Texans won their game against the Cowboys. That’s a winning record for this city in three of the big four sports, and when Houston gets an NHL franchise they will dominate the Dallas Stars as well.
But it’s not just that these teams won, it’s how they won. In the Rockets’ three wins against the Spurs they averaged a 14-point margin of victory. James Harden averaged 27 points a game while Chris Paul averaged 19. Against Dallas, they won all four games, averaging a 13-point margin of victory. Harden again averaged 27 points and Paul 20. Their only blemish on the season was a 17-point loss to the Spurs on April 1 in a game where Chris Paul did not dress.
This had to feel pretty good for basketball fans because it seems like every year we hear about how good the Spurs are. We listen to them drone on about all the championships they have won under Greg Popovich, and how good they are even when their regular season record doesn’t reflect it. No one likes the Mavericks because Mark Cuban still owns the team and can’t shut up about it. Owning the best record in the state is an easy way to quiet all that noise.
The Astros weren’t quite as dominant, winning only 12 of 19 games against the much-despised Texas Rangers, but winning the season series two years in a row is sweeter all the same. They even won eight straight against Texas during the heart of the season. They hit 27 home runs, outscored their opponent 85-69, and won by an average of 3 runs a game.
This is the second consecutive season the Astros finished with a 12-7 record against the Rangers and their second consecutive season winning more than 100 games. Maybe beating up on the team from North Texas is a boost in the right direction. The Rangers are a mess right now, so this will probably be a trend for several more years. But as long as we remember that they wouldn’t swap home games during hurricane Harvey last season we want them beaten as often as possible. It wasn’t a perfect record, but that is an extremely difficult feat over 19 games. We are just happy to take home the Silver Boot Trophy again.
And as Houston is celebrating another Astros postseason run, the Texans got to face their in-state rival Dallas Cowboys. Heading into the weekend Dallas led the all-time series 3-1; Houston having only won their first meeting in 2002 to start the franchise. The game would finish in overtime, Texans victorious, 19-16. As ugly as the game was, the team’s stars came out to play. DeAndre Hopkins had 151 yards receiving, Deshaun Watson had 375 passing. The defense held Dallas to 292 yards of total offense, pulling in two interceptions and sacking Dak Prescott twice. The victory would secure Houston’s dominance in the three major sports for 2018.
This is a once every four-year thing. That’s how often the Cowboys and Texans play each other. The Rockets and Astros play their in-state rivals every year and every year the results can change. I don’t see it changing much in the next few years because both of those teams are built for sustained success while their opponents are trending downward. The Texans have a lot of talent and maybe in four more years when they face the Cowboys again they will win by an even greater margin. For now, enjoy it Houston; your teams dominated the state of Texas.
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After finishing up with the Guardians the Astros have a rather important series for early May with the Seattle Mariners heading to town for the weekend. While it’s still too early to be an absolute must-win series for the Astros, losing the series to drop seven or eight games off the division lead would make successfully defending their American League West title that much more unlikely.
Since their own stumble out of the gate to a 6-10 record the Mariners have been racking up series wins, including one this week over the Atlanta Braves. The M’s offense is largely Mmm Mmm Bad, but their pitching is sensational. In 18 games after the 6-10 start, the Mariners gave up five runs in a game once. In the other 17 games they only gave up four runs once. Over the 18 games their starting pitchers gave up 18 earned runs total with a 1.44 earned run average. That’s absurd. Coming into the season Seattle’s starting rotation was clearly better on paper than those of the Astros and Texas Rangers, and it has crystal clearly played out as such into the second month of the schedule.
While it’s natural to focus on and fret over one’s own team's woes when they are plentiful as they have been for the Astros, a reminder that not all grass is greener elsewhere. Alex Bregman has been awful so far. So has young Mariners’ superstar Julio Rodriguez. A meager four extra base hits over his first 30 games were all Julio produced down at the ballyard. That the Mariners are well ahead of the Astros with J-Rod significantly underperforming is good news for Seattle.
Caratini comes through!
So it turns out the Astros are allowed to have a Puerto Rican-born catcher who can hit a little bit. Victor Caratini’s pedigree is not that of a quality offensive player, but he has swung the bat well thus far in his limited playing time and provided the most exciting moment of the Astros’ season with his two-out two-run 10th inning game winning home run Tuesday night. I grant that one could certainly say “Hey! Ronel Blanco finishing off his no-hitter has been the most exciting moment.” I opt for the suddenness of Caratini’s blow turning near defeat into instant victory for a team that has been lousy overall to this point. Frittering away a game the Astros had led 8-3 would have been another blow. Instead, to the Victor belong the spoils.
Pudge Rodriguez is the greatest native Puerto Rican catcher, but he was no longer a good hitter when with the Astros for the majority of the 2009 season. Then there’s Martin Maldonado.
Maldonado’s hitting stats with the Astros look Mike Piazza-ian compared to what Jose Abreu was doing this season. Finally, mercifully for all, Abreu is off the roster as he accepts a stint at rookie-level ball in Florida to see if he can perform baseball-CPR on his swing and career. Until or unless he proves otherwise, Abreu is washed up and at some point the Astros will have to accept it and swallow whatever is left on his contract that runs through next season. For now Abreu makes over $120,000 per game to not be on the roster. At his level of performance, that’s a better deal than paying him that money to be on the roster.
Abreu’s seven hits in 71 at bats for an .099 batting average with a .269 OPS is a humiliating stat line. In 2018 George Springer went to sleep the night of June 13 batting .293 after going hitless in his last four at bats in a 13-5 Astros’ win over Oakland. At the time no one could have ever envisioned that Springer had started a deep, deep funk which would have him endure a nightmarish six for 78 stretch at the plate (.077 batting average). Springer then hit .293 the rest of the season.
Abreu’s exile opened the door for Joey Loperfido to begin his Major League career. Very cool for Loperfido to smack a two-run single in his first game. He also struck out twice. Loperfido will amass whiffs by the bushel, he had 37 strikeouts in 101 at bats at AAA Sugar Land. Still, if he can hit .225 with some walks mixed in (he drew 16 with the Space Cowboys) and deliver some of his obvious power (13 homers in 25 games for the ex-Skeeters) that’s an upgrade over Abreu/Jon Singleton, as well as over Jake Meyers and the awful showing Chas McCormick has posted so far. Frankly, it seems unwise that the Astros only had Loperfido play seven games at first base in the minors this year. If McCormick doesn’t pick it up soon and with Meyers displaying limited offensive upside, the next guy worth a call-up is outfielder Pedro Leon. In January 2021 the Astros gave Leon four million dollars to sign out of Cuba and called him a “rapid mover to the Major Leagues.” Well…
Over his first three minor league seasons Leon flashed tools but definitely underwhelmed. He has been substantially better so far this year. He turns 26 May 28. Just maybe the Astros offense could be the cause of fewer Ls with Loperfido at first and Leon in center field.
Catch our weekly Stone Cold ‘Stros podcast. Brandon Strange, Josh Jordan, and I discuss varied Astros topics. The first post for the week generally goes up Monday afternoon (second part released Tuesday) via YouTube: stone cold stros - YouTube with the complete audio available via Apple Podcast, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts.