The Pecan Park Eagle

“ONLY ONE MORE GAME LEFT TO PLAY ON THIS ASTROS ROAD TRIP!” – AVERAGE ASTROS FAN

It’s important to keep in mind that the Astros’ 7th loss in their 8th game of this mercifully about-to-finish 9-game road trip at San Francisco last night, after all, was to Madison Bumgarner, but it’s still hard to take that our Houston-based 2nd biggest home game winner in the American League is also tied with the Boston Red Sox as the 2nd worst road club in the Junior circuit. Were it not for the fact that the Los Angeles Angels of our ALC division have a similar Jekyll and Hyde record this year as home winners, but roadkill losers, it’s not likely that the Astros would be holding on to first place by their fingernails as they are currently.

Take a look at these two charts on the top five home winners and top five road losers in the American League for 2015 through all games of August 11th and draw your own conclusions, if any.

The Astros left home for this 9-game swing with a licking-their-chops 2 game lead over the Angels after a sweep of the Halos at home. They will come home today with a current road trip tab of either 2-7 or 1-8 with only luck to thank for the fact that may still be able to retain a tie or one game lead for 1st place in the ALC.

We have no personal memories of any club that every got all the way to the Word Series and then also won – on luck alone. Our pitching has not always been bad during this stretch, but we are still watching the Astros staff suffer critical moment failures that give away winnable games. Our hitting also has devolved into something that is almost totally dependent upon the “bash or bust” performance of players who only reach base when they have a chance to trot around the bases.

Our base running and defense continues to be spotty and our shortage of higher average and OBP table-setter hitters continues to rob us of all the other scoring opportunities that are the heart of a consistent winning team.

What do these two charts say to you? The Pecan Park Eagle encourages your comment on this question – and the main one that’s on all our minds. – Where do you see the 2015 Astros season going from here? And do the Astros look for other personnel changes now – for the sake of saving the team’s current season chances?

Check out the charts, your own reflections – and let us hear from you via a public comment at this column.

TOP 5 AL HOME GAME WINNERS THROUGH 8/11/2015)

TOP 5 AL ROAD GAME LOSERS (THRU 8/11/2015)

Thanks very much!

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