The Pecan Park Eagle

“ALRIGHT! ~ ALRIGHT! ~ ALRIGHT!”

The Boston Red Sox used their second win in a row on Thursday to expand their lead to one full game over the Houston Astros in the “Reversal of Fortunes” race. Starting tonight, Boston will entertain the Yankees and retiring star Derek Jeter at Fenway for three game while Houston closes with three in Flushing against the Mets. In the middle of the down-slide, BoSox fans can smile a little more this morning. The long season is almost over. Then it will be time for rest, and for the club to develop A  fresh perspective on what the club needs to do to recover from what has amounted to an almost complete collapse.

Whether they beat out the Red Sox for a better 2014 record, or not, the Astros can take some comfort in the sense that the club has now stopped the bleeding streak of three straight 100 plus loss seasons going into 2014. Now we need to see who the Astros hire as their next full-time field manager for 2015. It will also be interesting to see who gets protected on the forty-man roster. Both are much more involved stories for another day beyond the finish of the present season. Time and space are still the allies to fresh perspective.

SCORES OF GAMES PLAYED THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 25, 2014:

BOSTON 9 – TAMPA BAY 1.

HOUSTON, DID NOT PLAY.

SCHEDULE OF GAME FOR FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 26, 2014:

NEW YORK (AL) @ BOSTON

HOUSTON @ NEW YORK (NL)

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THE PECAN PARK EAGLE DAILY MLB 2014 BATTING CROWN EYE:

NOTES, 9/26 AM: Friday morning. –With Jose Altuve taking a day off with the Astros as they travel to New York to finish the season with games there against the Mets, Victor Martinez of the Tigers took full advantage of the situation by going “3 for4” against the Minnesota Twins at Comerica Park to help his club to a 4-2 victory in the first of a four-game season-ending weekend series. Victor’s three hits included his 32nd HR of the season in the first inning and later in the game, his 33rd double of the year. Martinez’s big crank on the pressure vice raises his batting average to .337 for a .003 point gain in one game on Jose Altuve t- a gain that leaves the Tiger contender only .006 points back of the .343 mark of the idle Astro slugger for the 2014 American League and MLB total batting average titles.

By having his big night, Martinez did what he had to do to make this weekend the contest we always knew it might turn out to be. Now a bad series by Altuve in New York could fumble away the batting titles goal to the Detroit Tiger star and deprive Houston of its first batting champion of all time. Yeah, we know. The Pecan Park Eagle is biased in favor of our Astro homeboy, but try to see our point of view on our need for this accomplishment as something of a compensation while our Astros club fights to find its way out of these sacrificial doldrum years. After all, it’s not like Detroit has never seen a local batting champion in their many years of competition. – If they get it again, they will have earned it by a tremendous last minute push of heart and talent by Victor Martinez, but we like our guy’s chances with a .007 lead and all the chips on the table in these last three ball games. If Jose Altuve continues to hit like Jose Altuve of 2014 for one final three game weekend series, there will be no chance for Victor Martinez to catch him,

Go. Jose’. go! – Just hit, baby!

The Eagle Eye on Jose Altuve’s pursuit of the 2014 American League and MLB batting average championships will continue daily through the balance of the season. For now, it’s a two-man race between Altuve and Victor Martinez of the Detroit Tigers. Should that change, so will our reporting format. – Bill McCurdy

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The Unofficial Silver Boot II competition between the two State of Texas based MLB teams, the Houston Astros and the Texas Rangers, comes down to a long shot weekend for a tie as the highest possibility for the Rangers that would deny the Astros the honor by the rules governing same record finishes. “In the event of ties, no Silver Boot II Award will be given out by its sponsor, The Pecan Park Eagle.  No great or lasting disappointment is expected, anyway, since the award itself is little more than a digital congratulation a time-relevant future column.

In our case, it’s the thought behind the Silver Boot II Award that counts. The Houston Astros already have wrapped up the Official Silver Boot Award and Trophy by taking the personal 2014 head-to-head series with Rangers earlier, in spite of getting swept by Texas in that last series in Arlington. All that sweep did was position the Rangers for a possible tie by season’s end. And to keep that possibility alive, the Rangers defeated the A’s tonight, 2-1, in Arlington.

As we noted earlier in this column, the Astros are in New York to finish the season with three games against the home team Mets, starting tonight. The Rangers play three more at home, also from tonight through Sunday, against Oakland.  Any win by the Astros or loss by the Rangers will give the Astros the not-so-coveted and totally figurative second Silver Boot.

Here’s how things look in this half-baked race:

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Have a nice Saturday, everybody!

Tags: the red sox-atros reversal of fortunes race

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