The Pecan Park Eagle

“Old Luke has a right to be tired after that great job he did in the 8th against the Rays last night. I’m afraid we need all of ’em to get and respond to the same message of our near shutout at the trading deadline. If our Astros are going to reach and win the World Series this year, we are most likely going to have to get the job done with the current roster or call-up pitchers we have left standing up when all the play-off fun begins!”

What We Have Here Is Not – Failure To Communicate

Cool Hand Luke Gregerson got the word. No “failure to communicate” that we could see in Luke last night during his part in the disappointing 6-4 loss to the Rays in Game 2 of a 4-spot series. Old Luke seemed to dig down deep from inside in the 8th, retiring the side without another run scoring by the Rays, while striking out all three guys in the one inning he worked. He even made some effort to keep his single base runner from stealing second base. Of course, the guy got it anyway, but Luke didn’t let him score, nor did he then give up 2-run Crawford Box delivery pitch to further ice a disappointing starter loss by Mike Fiers.

We need our own Cool Hand Luke to share whatever he was drinking with the rest of the staff, even with those going through this revolving door at the DL Urgency Care Center that most of them are suddenly discovering.

“Disappointment” definitely is the word for how most of us in Astros Nation feel about the failure of successful deal-making at Monday’s deadline, but that doesn’t do us any good now. We don’t know everything that got in the way of Jeff Luhnow making enough quality deals to hopefully meet our starting and relief pitching needs, but we fully respect star pitcher Dallas Keuchel’s right to express his personal disappointment in the shortfall. If someone is paying any of us the big money to get our job done – and then we find that our employer cannot supply us with the kind of support staff we need to reach the goal we all are hoping to achieve, we would have a right to scream bloody murder too.

The facts today are – that unless some kind of new talent now falls into our pitching roster by divine intervention from “the baseball gods” – every accessible pitcher under Astros control is now really under the gun to do what Cool Hand Luke did yesterday – every time they take the mound. The young guys are going to be asked to produce now at levels that are normally two years or so away for players of their age and experience. The older guys (see Cool Hand Luke) are going to have to consistently produce from levels of potentiality they once took for granted, three to five years ago.

It ain’t fair, but it’s how things are. Unless we choose to buckle – and just start mailing in this golden season as our toll on either disappointment in our current roster, our frustration with the injury parade, or our anger from some belief that the club should have done more to protect us from this glaring vulnerability, we’d better hope the word gets out about all that cool stuff that Cool Hand Luke Gregerson really demonstrated yesterday.

Whether your best is either ahead of you, or behind you, every member of the Astros roster and coaching staff is going to have to reach for their best and use it now. And let’s have no “failure to communicate” on that requirement while Mr. Luhnow does all he can still do to make up for our shortfall disappointment at this week’s deadline.

Go Astros!

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AMERICAN LEAGUE WEST STANDINGS

THROUGH GAMES OF TUESDAY, AUGUST 1, 2017 

AMERICAN LEAGUE WEST SCORES

GAMES OF TUESDAY, AUGUST 1, 2017

 RAYS 6 – ASTROS 4.

 MARINERS 8 – RANGERS 7.

 ANGELS 7 – PHILLIES 1.

GIANTS 10 – ATHLETICS 4.

AMERICAN LEAGUE BATTING AVERAGE

THROUGH GAMES OF TUESDAY, AUGUST 1, 2017

NR * = NEEDS MORE “AB”S TO QUALIFY FOR RANKING.

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