This Dodgers-Astros series is beginning to infuriate the hell out of me. The narrative of this season thus far has been 'we have progressed past the need for a competitive Astros team', and now we're midway through and the narrative is now 'sike, no we haven't'. We were doing fine with our fun Tigers stories and our NL West battles, and now we go back to the Astros dominating despite a train wreck of an infield and an injury roulette of a rotation. And now they're beating the shit out of the Dodgers. Just spare me. Please. It's not fun anymore.
Like, okay, they lose Alex Bregman and Kyle Tucker, two very big pieces, and by absolute fricking inertia two perfect fits just slide right into place. Isaac Paredes has been beautiful at third, he's having another amazing season and has 18 homers and 48 RBIs already. And now Cam Smith is heating up in the outfield, he's hitting .292 with an .805 OPS. Like...teams are supposed to like strike out and have replacements that don't work ['y'know, like Brendan Rodgers..], but so many times, this team just falls directly into amazing luck, like some deity just thinks it's better this way. Hunter Brown becoming unhittable the year the Astros' rotation would otherwise crater is infuriatingly good timing.
And that's how you can describe the Astros: half of it is great organizational work, the other half is scarily good timing. No other team who puts that much work and money into the product has luck like this. Even the Dodgers have lost an entire rotation. Even the Yankees are struggling now. But the Astros just keep figuring it out, to the point where Orel Hershiser suggested that there's this possibility that the Astros knew when the breaking balls were coming Friday night. Which, unless there's legitimate evidence, or a new trashcan key or something, is just gonna be a bold claim, but...if you only punish a couple people and just let everyone else do whatever they want, after a while they're gonna try and do the thing you punished them for again. Like it's proof the punishment wasn't bad enough. If you want a kid to stop stealing shit, ground him for a week and make him admit that stealing is morally bad. A somewhat stern talking-to is not gonna change behaviors, despite what some politicians would have you believe.
And it also takes the sting out of another strong Dodgers season, which has been going well even without Snell, Sasaki, Glasnow and Gonsolin. Will Smith has become a .300 hitter, which is pretty awesome considering he's already one of the best catchers in the league. Pages seems to be an everyday guy now, which is very helpful. Betts is finally getting hot, as is Conforto I think. Hyseseong Kim is the exact kind of utility whiz the Dodgers needed.
But with all these injuries, the fact of the matter is that, once again, the Dodgers haven't been left that great of a rotation. Yoshinobu Yamamoto is the only sure bet, and even he's gotten into some rough starts recently. Kershaw and May can wield excellent stuff then get clobbered, Knack is still getting there, and Wrobleski and Casparius are...not optimal options for a 1st place competitor. And yes, you have Ohtani back on the mound finally, but he's being so careful with his innings that he's not really much of a trusted starter. He's really a trusted opener right now. Meanwhile, the Astros have Brown, Framber Valdez, and three rookies who seem to be much better at getting the hang of the majors than the Dodgers's.
That's the other thing. Both teams are riddled with injuries. The Astros also have an entire rotation's worth of injured pitchers. But they still have the momentum, and they can still get things to work because they somehow can get pitchers ready in Triple-A better than the Dodgers can. It blows my mind.
Look, there's a chance the Dodgers take back the momentum today, but I think it's best they just ride it out and regroup after the break. And then hope whatever's keeping the Astros up depletes down the line.
Coming Tonight: Probably a post complaining about the All-Star rosters.
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