So let me get this straight. When the Astros were without almost their entirety of their rotation, including Ronel Blanco, Cristian Javier, Luis Garcia, J.P. France, Spencer Arrighetti and Hayden Wesneski, that was alright. That was manageable. But now that the Astros are without Yordan Alvarez, Jeremy Pena, Jake Meyers, Isaac Paredes, Brandon Walter and Lance McCullers...NOW it's a problem? Being on skeleton crew pitching scenario, that works. But you don't have enough magic beans to get your way out of your four best hitters being down? Slacking, aren't we, Astros?
That really is the root of it. The Astros were looking really good, flying high above the AL West and keeping the Mariners at bay, and then a bunch of people got hurt. Paredes and Alvarez before the break, Meyers the other day. And now the lineup feels...barren. They're down to leading off Taylor Trammell, batting Victor Caratini third, putting Jacob Melton ahead of Yainer Diaz and starting Zack Short. It's gotten to the point where not even yet another quality start by Framber Valdez can be backed up.
...against the Nationals.
Seeing as I've been waiting for the Astros to be exposed, I've been loving this. Obviously those guys are gonna come back and save the day, but even still you're still talking about down years from Alvarez and McCullers. And the way this team was built, losing Jake Meyers really shouldn't wound you that much. You've had George Springer and Kyle Tucker. Jake Meyers is a .300 hitter, but he's not those guys. He has 3 home runs and 21 RBIs in 89 games. No wonder they wanted to replace Tucker with Altuve back there.
Not only has this team been slumping, it just doesn't have much to work with. Who's their standout now? Christian Walker and his 115 strikeouts? Altuve and his shit defense? Yainer Diaz is FINE this year, he's hitting .245 with 13 homers and 40 RBIs, and because he's still healthy he's so much more valuable. It's honestly really sad to watch. Much easier to watch is seeing teams like the Nats, the A's, the Mariners, the Rangers and the Guardians pummel the shit out of this team. Nick Kurtz's 6-for-6, 4 homer day was against the Astros, and it was glorious. On their July losing stretch, 8 of the losses were against AL West competitors, and four were against teams with a 4 game deficit behind them for the division.
And of course, both teams are getting hot. The Rangers have had a really impressive stretch, fueled by the return of Corey Seager. The Mariners are getting hot again as well, thriving after the addition of Josh Naylor at first. Both of these teams have more of a reason to succeed this year than Houston, and it shouldn't have taken a complete annihilation of the Astros' lineup to get here. Of course, the Astros guys are gonna come back and make it competitive, and you know this team wants to keep anyone else from winning the West because why should anyone else have it? But it would be astounding to see something like this finally halt the Astros' momentum. It's a long time coming, and it would be really sweet to watch.
Coming Tonight: A future Hall of Famer having the closest approximation to a down year he's experienced in a while.
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