Astros Playoffs 2018: Mission difficult, not impossible
Astros 2018: The playoff weeks in review and preview
Head to head playoffs: Astros vs. Red Sox
In praise of the 2018 Houston Astros
Playoffs 2018: The week in review, the week ahead
Random Thoughts on an Astros’ August
Opportunity awaits: Astros need to go full throttle to the All Star break
The ALDS matchup that will be getting national attention is the Red Sox – Yankees media darling series, where the East Coast bias wishes they could meet again in the ALCS and the World Series. But there is another ALDS matchup occurring outside prime time that is likely a closer match than the two team’s records (Astros 103-59 / Indians 91-71) would indicate.
The week of 9-24 through 9-30 in review
The Astros had a 4.5 game lead and their magic number to clinch the division was 3 to begin the week.
Free Blog Weekend is a Chipalatta tradition. Basically you can blog about whatever you want relative to the 2018 Astros.
If you told an Astros fan before the season that the Astros would be the AL West Champs they might have yawned at you and said “But of course”. If you told them they were in for a tough struggle and would only pull it out in the last week of the season their interest might be piqued by the tale. And if you told them the Oakland A’s were their closest challengers and outplayed the Astros for more than 1/2 the season they might have gone “Huh?”
The week of 9-17 through 9-23 in review
The Astros began the week with a solid 4.5 game lead over the unbelievably hot A’s. The Astros started the week in a wobbly fashion losing 2 out of 3 to the Mariners at home. But they cranked things up with a 3 game sweep of the Angels. If they do clinch this division – the 9 run rally that turned a 5-1 loss to a 10-5 win on Saturday against the Halos may be the game that kicked them over the top. The A’s came so close to cutting the lead to 2 1/2 games, but by the end of the week, the lead was jacked back up to 4.5 games and the magic number to clinch the division was down to three.
It’s kind of unfair. Fans wait forever – up to 56 seasons (depending on our age and when we began cheering for them) for their Houston Astros to win a World Championship and then after they do, in a blink of an eye, the celebration is over and the angst over the next season returns. Is this why Yankee fans are sometimes the most miserable human beings on the planet. The 27 championships are in the rear view mirror and here they are in misery because their team falls short of the apex. Nine-year drought! OMG!!!
The week of 9-10 through 9-16 in review
The Astros lead was a tenuous 2.5 games over the A’s heading into this big week. The Astros swept the Detroit Tigers on the road and came back from a first game loss to win a three-game series with the Arizona D’Backs. The Astros in reversing a season-long trend took four of their five wins on the week by one-run margins. The A’s split the week 3-3 and the Astros finished Sunday with a 4.5 game lead over Oakland and now face the next week with a magic number to clinch the division of 9.
This week’s discussion on whether the Astros would have drafted Alex Bregman if they had drafted Kris Bryant instead of Mark Appel brought to mind other “what if” questions.
