The week of 9-3 through 9-9 in review

Heading into this past week with the Astros playing a Twins team that was recently performing well and then playing the best team in the majors in the Red Sox on their home turf, holding serve with a 2.5 game lead over the Oakland A’s would have seemed acceptable. But after winning the first 5 games of the week and holding a 3.5 game lead headed into Sunday, it was a bit disappointing to end the week exactly where they started.

The Astros played well in easily sweeping the Twins at home and won two tough battles against the Red Sox in reaching a seven-game overall winning streak. The Sunday night game was reminiscent of many a 2017 playoff game as the Astros roared back from a 5-1 deficit to tie the game in the sixth inning. A very questionable play review helped the Red Sox take a tie into the late innings where they won it with a bloop to left field in front of the non-diving Marwin Gonzalez.

The week of 9-10 through 9-16 in a preview

The Astros will play six games in the next week, three on the road against the Detroit Tigers and 3 at home against the Arizona Diamondbacks.

Despite losing Sunday to the Cards, the Tigers are coming in on a good roll having won 5 of their last 7 games. On the season, Motown has been bad (59-84) and are currently 13th in the AL in runs scored and 9th in ERA.

The D’Backs have been struggling lately having lost 7 of their last 10 games. They are 76-67 and rely a lot more on their pitching (2nd in ERA in NL) than offense (9th in runs scored).

The Tigers have nothing to play for, but also nothing to lose. The D’Backs are trying to come from behind in the Wild Card race.

Player of the Week: Alex Bregman – the Stare Master

Let’s see….

• In Monday’s 4-1 win over the Twins he hit a solo home run in the first for a lead they never relinquished
• In Tuesday’s 5-2 win, he had three doubles, knocked in the first run of the game and the last run of the game and scored the second run.
• In Wednesday’s 9-1 rout of the Twins, he scored one run, and knocked in five with a double and a homer. He led off the scoring with a 2 run homer in the third and rounded it up with a bases-clearing double in the 8th.
• In Friday’s big 6-3 win over the Red Sox, he had a double and scored two runs, the first and last of the day.
• In Saturday’s tight 5-3 win over the Red Sox, he hit a solo homer to give the Astros a 3-1 lead at the time.
• Sunday he had a walk and his 49th double of the season but was not involved in any of the scoring.
• If you are keeping track in 6 games that is 6 runs, 6 doubles, 3 HRs and 9 RBIs.

Stat focus: Alex Almost 

The Astros’ club record for HRs and RBIs by a third baseman are held by Morgan Ensberg at 36 HR and 101 RBIs in the 2005 World Series run. Alex Bregman probably will not reach either of these numbers though he could have blown past the RBI stat, since he sits at 97 RBIs right now. But since he played SS in place of Carlos Correa during his DL stint, he has only 27 HRs and 85 RBIs as a 3B this season.

Classic Rock Song That Should Have Been a Hit – “The Promise” by Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band

If you have time, please check out this wonderful piece of writing by Joe Posnanski that ties his relationship with his father, his search for his future and the history behind this wonderful song into a single tapestry.

But if you don’t get a chance to read this article, the meat of it is how “The Promise” never had a chance to become a hit song, because Springsteen never could let go of it. It was too personal and he never released it until many years later as one of many other unreleased songs. It would have fit beautifully into his poignant album “Darkness on the Edge of Town”, and could have been a hit, but it is just a lovely song about promises unfulfilled.

What did you think about the week that was or the week that will be?