Look! Most of us in Astros Nation still cling to the notion that we’ve got the best team in the American League right here in the Bayou City. For the moment, however, here on the morning of August 10, 2017, we simply do not have a Cy Young quality ace, a dynamic duo one-two punch, or anything resembling baseball’s version of the three musketeers heading up the frontal assault of our five-man starting rotation.
The Astros just lost their second straight in this three game series with the Chicago White Sox, ending the young club’s own six-game losing streak, but still leaving them with a 43-68 season record, but with sweeter dreams of better days to come in the seasons that lay ahead. The Sox are a bad team with some excellent prospects for a brighter future beyond 2017.
Remember those days?
The Astros, on the other hand, are still an excellent club, with some great in-their-best-moments-now players, but they also are a team on the ropes from injury, exhaustion, and, perhaps, the weight of greater expectations that come to teams that grab the mountaintop early in the season.
Keep cool. This series in Chicago is not the here-and-now last hand of the evening. We can do it, if our recovering injured boys can get well – and rested – and back on top of their mechanics for great performance. Panic by them – or any of us – isn’t going to help a damn thing in any positive way. Panic leads to bad decision-making and sometimes to efforts on the field that set up a greater risk for extended performance mediocrity or re-injury of a still-healing wound. And nobody needs that
Our Astros day – the one that some of us have been waiting for since the start of MLB in Houston – is coming, but the one we’re in right now belongs to us too. And we don’t even have to win a World Series to celebrate the joy of the only day that’s ever guaranteed, at least, in some partial beginning form. – And that’s the one we awaken to each morning.
As the famous oldster saying goes, “Every day I awaken with my head above the sunny side of the grass is a blessing.”
And you shouldn’t wait until you are “old” (whatever you think that is) to find and appreciate that gratitude. Nobody – at any age – has a guarantee.
Enjoy!
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AMERICAN LEAGUE WEST STANDINGS
THRU GAMES OF WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 9, 2017
RANK | AL WEST | W | L | PCT. | GB |
1 | ASTROS | 71 | 42 | .628 | |
2 | MARINERS | 59 | 56 | .513 | 13.0 |
3 | ANGELS | 57 | 58 | .496 | 15.0 |
4 | RANGERS | 54 | 59 | .478 | 17.0 |
5 | ATHLETICS | 50 | 64 | .439 | 21.5 |
AMERICAN LEAGUE WEST GAME SCORES
THRU GAMES OF WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 9, 2017
WHITE SOX 7 – ASTROS 1.
MARINERS 6 – ATHLETICS 3.
ANGELS 5 – ORIOLES 1.
RANGERS 5 – Mets 1.
AMERICAN LEAGUE BATTING AVERAGE LEADERS
THRU GAMES OF WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 9, 2017
RANK | PLAYER | TEAM | AB | H | 2B | 3B | HR | BA |
1 | JOSE ALTUVE | HOU | 431 | 157 | 34 | 3 | 17 | .364 |
2 | CARLOS CORREA | HOU | 325 | 104 | 18 | 1 | 20 | .320 |
3 | ERIC HOSMER | KC | 436 | 137 | 22 | 1 | 18 | .314 |
4 | JOSE RAMERIZ | CLE | 426 | 133 | 34 | 5 | 18 | .312 |
5 | DIDI GREGORIUS | NYY | 350 | 109 | 17 | 0 | 18 | .311 |
6 | MARWIN GONZALES | HOU | 306 | 95 | 19 | 0 | 20 | .310 |
7 | GEORGE SPRINGER | HOU | 372 | 115 | 22 | 0 | 27 | .309 |
8 | JEAN SEGURA | SEA | 353 | 109 | 20 | 1 | 6 | .309 |
9 | BEN GAMEL | SEA | 355 | 108 | 20 | 4 | 6 | .304 |
10 | ANDRELTON SIMMONS | LAA | 421 | 128 | 27 | 2 | 11 | .304 |
12 | JOSH REDDICK | HOU | 347 | 105 | 25 | 3 | 11 | .303 |
19 | YULI GURRIEL | HOU | 388 | 114 | 30 | 0 | 15 | .294 |
33 | ALEX BREGMAN | HOU | 370 | 102 | 29 | 4 | 13 | .276 |
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Bill McCurdy
Principal Writer, Editor, Publisher
The Pecan Park Eagle