The All-Star Game and surrounding festivities are now in the rearview mirror and the unofficial second half of the baseball season will be underway on Friday. The Astros hold a five-game lead in the AL West and have already played the most difficult schedule in baseball, winning despite also being near the top of baseball in another stat: missed games due to injury.
For the Astros to continue to play well and get into the postseason, nevermind go beyond the first round, there are some things they have to do. Let’s discuss.
Get healthy.
Yordan Alvarez, Jeremy Peña, Jake Meyers, Zach Dezenzo, Chas McCormick, Jacob Melton, Spencer Arrighetti…these are the players who have missed time but should return. That’s quite a list. We won’t mention the guys gone for the year, but we can note that Cristian Javier and Luis Garcia might be able to return this season, which would be huge.
Just getting a handful of these guys back over the next few weeks and keeping them healthy – without losing anyone else in the process – is critical to the long-term success of the team. Sure, they might make a trade or two, but, ultimately how far the Astros go will be heavily dependent on who is on the field come October.
Continue the great pitching.
It is inarguable that the Astros have the best one-two/eight-nine pitching combination in baseball with Hunter Brown and Framber Valdez on the front end and Bryan Abreu and Josh Hader on the back end. They have also gotten significant contributions from bullpen arms like Stephen Okert, Bryan King and Bennett Sousa among others. Their pitching staff is the reason they are where they are right now.
There was some modest but noticeable slippage over the two weeks leading up to the break with Brown coughing up a couple outings and Hader blowing his first save of the season. This team relies on its pitching so they cannot have a downturn.
Manufacture runs.
While the pitching has been stable, the bats have been feast or famine. Much of that is owed to the inconsistent lineups manager Joe Espada has had to run out there thanks to injuries. No doubt if Alvarez had been healthy, this team would be hitting better even with a down year from Christian Walker. But, in the absence of pure power, they been able to manufacture enough runs while holding teams down with their pitching and defense. Unless and until they get some of their bats back, they will have to tread water in the same way.
Beat the bad teams.
The Astros face the easiest remaining schedule by opponent record in the game, much of that thanks to the AL West being awful yet again. But, they have to win those series or it won’t matter. This is a team that has, historically, had a tendency to play down to competition. With so many creampuffs on the remaining schedule, they would do well to take them seriously and get a comfortable lead in the division by the end of August.
