Garner says (grabbing his package) “I got yer double-digit win-streak right here!” Yep, the streak that people kept telling me could happen (but hadn’t since moving out of the ‘Dome – and that was a while ago now, folks)…happened. And the other thing that people kept telling me would happen when the win streak happened, getting back into play-off contention, happened too. Shows what I know.
So what now? Well the Astros have (following Monday’s slaughter of the Reds) 25 games left and a 1-game deficit to make up over the Cubs. The Giants are also in the way, but unlike the Cubs, the Astros have 3 left with them in SF which will decide that little battle one way or the other. The Astros have to keep winning at a ridiculous clip as the Cubs have a schedule softer than my dog’s poo after he’s been in the garbage, and they have three more games to play whilst being 3 games better off in the loss column.
Mushrooms
My sympathies to the residents of Florida, but the Astros have a wild card to win and you poor folks are just in the way. The BBGs appear to have enlisted the help of Mother Nature to mess with the Cubs. The rain-out of the weekend series in Florida means that (a) they still have one tough opponent on their schedule; and (b) they will have to gorvel their pitchers to make up those games. One game may be made up in Chicago this weekend (which ain’t so good for us), but there’s also a double-header likely on 9/20 that will mess with their rotation and have them traveling through the night on consecutive days.
Oh, and Hurricane Ivan is a possibility to arrive in Miami at the same time as the Cubs. Sometimes, the BBGs just don’t know when to quit.
Winning Ways
It’s not hard to see from where this streak has come. The Astros had scored 595 runs prior to the streak, at an average of 4.68 runs per game. Couple that with the pre-streak ERA of 4.12, and you can see why the club was struggling to stay above .500. In actuality, the team ERA went up during the streak, to 4.30, but when the offense churns out 9.5 runs per game, such fractional pitching increments become meaningless. The Astros, quite obviously, have been walloping the opposition in the runs department, and that will lead to a lot of comfy wins.
Or mostly comfy wins, as the bullpen continues to be patchy. Monday being the case in point when Bullinger was on the verge of needing help to close a win when given a 9-run lead and 3 outs to get. Make no bones about it, the offense needs to continue to bang out close to 10 runs a game to keep this momentum going.
The Road Ahead
The soft part of the remaining schedule is about to come to an end. Once the Astros leave Pittsburgh (at which time they could conceivably be ahead in the wild card race), they travel to St. Louis and San Francisco, and get a return series with the 3rds all interlaced with supposed lay-ups against the Brewers (2) and Rockies. Before we even get to the post-season, therefore, we will find out whether this offense can hit good pitching enough that it can still overcome what good hitting will do to the rag-tag pitching staff that remains following this year’s pitching nightmare.
And they have to beat the Brewers down the stretch, which was something they found impossible to do last year when they coughed up the division to the wretched Cubs.
Keep Your Arses Covered
I’ll make this clear: I’m pulling for the Astros as hard as any of you. Well, perhaps not as hard as Alkie, but I think that goes without saying. Also, I’m loving this offensive spurt (don’t know why that phraseology came to mind after an Alkie “pulling” reference, but never mind). The trouble is that the pitching remains untrustworthy, with Pettitte and Miller on the DL, and Redding recalled to start the nightcap in Thursday’s double-header in Pittsburgh. And that’s not even considering Oswalt’s rib that may not last the season and Clemens showing signs of fatigue after nearly a full year of flipping off Father Time.
Yes, folks. I’m taking this one game at a time. I’m just trying to help the ball club and, the Lord willing, good things will happen. Sometimes you win, sometimes you lose, but there’s always a Hurricane in Florida.