Day to Day

I am in a bit of a difficult funk today. One of my friends from the choir, in his mid-70s, went to Costco yesterday. He collapsed for some reason, landed face-first on the concrete floor, had a brain bleed, and the doctors don’t expect him to survive. This highlights the day-to-day importance of our lives and leaves me quite distracted at the moment.

Based on this, I’ve made a decision for my short-term mental health. On the writing side of this blog, we will concentrate on this 2026 team and how they are progressing (or not progressing) towards the playoffs this last week of the season. This blog will not be concentrating on the mess the team has going forward after the season. No Crane interference. No Bagwell shadow. No Joe Espada future. No trades, free agent decisions, prospect promotions.

So, where are the Astros sitting on September 23, 2026?

The Astros and Rangers are tied for first place in the AL West at 78-79. Due to the tiebreaker that means if the playoffs started today the Astros are the champs and the Rangers are the chumps.

The wild card aspirations of either team are poor, as they are trailing the White Sox by three games for the last WC spot. Similarly, they are trailing Cleveland by four games for the second seed in the AL. With five games to go, both wild card and second seed are mathematically possible but highly unlikely.

The two teams’ best pathway to the playoffs is winning the West. Period.

On Tuesday, the two teams’ paths may have diverged (though this could be totally different by Wednesday).

The Rangers were leading the Mets 3-2, when they brought in normal starter Nathan Eovaldi for a relief stint. Three runs later they were trailing 5-3 and went on to lose 6-3.

The Astros, famously, held a team-only meeting called by the normally quiet Yordan Alvarez. Alvarez reminds one of Gary Cooper or John Wayne, an epic larger-than-life hero of few words. He is the Astros best player but frankly may have been wilting under the pressure of Triple Crown and MVP expectations.

Whatever, Yordan said, may not have been as important as what he did. He knocked in the Astros’ first run in the first inning and then blasted a two-run homer for their last runs in a 7-0 beating of the Mariners. He also drew an intentional walk and came close to a homer in the sixth inning on a laser shot to the wall.

The biggest hit of the night might have been the three run homer by cold as ice first baseman Christian Walker to give the team a 4-0 lead. More of that would certainly be welcomed.

Losing Cristian Javier to groin discomfort may hurt the team when they are looking for starters next weekend at the Sacramento band box. Of greater importance was Jeremy Pena getting plunked by a pitch, leaving the game, but getting good news from the X-rays.

But right not we are living day to day.

As we have seen so far, this roller-coaster of a snail’s-pace playoff race may change five times in the next five days unless one of the teams goes on a roll.

By this time tomorrow our feelings may be totally different about this team and this race. But for today, we are OK. 

←

15 responses to “Day to Day”

  1. I’m sorry to hear about your friend. As they say, old age is not for cowards. Concerning the Astros, they are a huge tease. I give up on them and then they pull me back with hope. They remind of this girl I dated in college. She was beautiful, but very protective of her charms. She would call the next day and say that if I had stayed just a little longer. That’s our Astros

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply

  2. Dan, I’m terribly sorry. On this little island I’ve chosen to live on, I know most everyone, at least those aging like I am. People keep leaving us.

    I just left a post on the last page, and I followed your suggestion without knowing it at the time. Positive, for me anyway. And no mention of anything beyond Sunday. Basically one game at a time. If you’d like to move it over this way, it would save me from writing another similar post.

    Stay well.

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply

  3. Here’s daveb’s comment from the previous post.

    From daveb

    Have our Chipalatta faithful wandered over to the NFL? I would be hard to blame anyone.

    Guys, the Astros are all tied up again, just a few wins away from a division title. Once again, they control their own destiny. Hard to say exactly what happened last night, but it looked a bit like the M’s have mailed it in.

    I didn’t even know that Javier left after two innings with an injury. I thought it was another planned bullpen game. Whatever, it worked.

    And then I noticed that Pena had led off the game with a single, and instead of waiting around on first so that Yordan would not be intentionally walked, he promptly stole second, forcing the issue. And then Yordan was not walked and drove in his first run of the night with a base hit. Go figure.

    Of course, the Astros then loaded the bases with nobody out and got nothing more. Typically that would have set the tempo for an Astro game against the Mariners, but not last night.

    After months on the shelf, we lost Brice Matthews while he laid out for a fly ball. And that grass looked so nice and soft out there compared to the slow pitch outfields some of us played on all over Houston for so many years. And Varsho has a sore wrist. I kind of hope it stays that way, through Sunday anyway. So we lost three guys and got a win. Can we give the baseball gods three guys a night in exchange for a win?

    These are easy games to watch. Go to bed with a book. Wake up and cue up the condensed game without checking the score first. Then read the box score and drink the coffee.

    daveb

    Like

    Reply

    • I thought the same thing when we loaded the bases with no outs in the first and then got nothing after that. Christian Walkers 3 run HR was a God send. He has 20 this tear but there’s just no consistency about him except that it’s usually bad but I’ll take the 3 run bomb any day. Kudos to the bull pen as five pitchers shut out the M’s with 9 K’s and only 5 walks. Van Wey was my hero of the night. He looked very good. Where have they been hiding him (Sugarland)? I won’t jinx the guys with for tonight with hopeful comments but lets see if the guys can duplicate last nights feat tonight. The games on ESPN which usually means the Astros play poorly. Maybe tonight will be an exception to the rule.

      Like

      Reply

  5. This is what daveb was talking about from the previous post

    daveb7says:

    Have our Chipalatta faithful wandered over to the NFL? I would be hard to blame anyone.

    Guys, the Astros are all tied up again, just a few wins away from a division title. Once again, they control their own destiny. Hard to say exactly what happened last night, but it looked a bit like the M’s have mailed it in.

    I didn’t even know that Javier left after two innings with an injury. I thought it was another planned bullpen game. Whatever, it worked.

    And then I noticed that Pena had led off the game with a single, and instead of waiting around on first so that Yordan would not be intentionally walked, he promptly stole second, forcing the issue. And then Yordan was not walked and drove in his first run of the night with a base hit. Go figure.

    Of course, the Astros then loaded the bases with nobody out and got nothing more. Typically that would have set the tempo for an Astro game against the Mariners, but not last night.

    After months on the shelf, we lost Brice Matthews while he laid out for a fly ball. And that grass looked so nice and soft out there compared to the slow pitch outfields some of us played on all over Houston for so many years. And Varsho has a sore wrist. I kind of hope it stays that way, through Sunday anyway. So we lost three guys and got a win. Can we give the baseball gods three guys a night in exchange for a win?

    These are easy games to watch. Go to bed with a book. Wake up and cue up the condensed game without checking the score first. Then read the box score and drink the coffee.

    Like

    Reply

  6. Thoughts

    • I know it is not a long trip from Seattle to Sacramento, but why are they playing a night game tonight?
    • It would be wonderful to see Yordan go on a tear here the last week of the season from a team standpoint. From an individual standpoint he is likely going to fall short of the triple crown in the RBI category – trailing by 8 RBIs. But along with tying for the lead in home runs – he is currently leading in the slash categories BA/OBP/OPS (.314 to .309 BA) / (.431 to .387 OBP) and (1.032 to .905 OPS). Those last two are quite some large margins.
    • It is a shame that Javier pulled up lame here at this point. He had become a pretty reliable 3rd starter the last month and had been looking a lot like his old self. They say he will make his next start – paint me dubious.
    • Does Christian Walker have some magic left in that old bat? Well, if the opposing pitcher will keep throw him hanging sliders in the middle of the plate instead of fastballs at the top of the zone – maybe.
    • When Javier went out after 2 innings – I said oh —–. But they filled the seven innings with the lesser members of the bullpen, who did a good job and saved Abreu and Hader for some closer games.
    • And I just read that Okert will not return in the regular season – might return for the playoffs – that does not make me happy.

    Like

    Reply

  7. Our no name pitchers kept it even, but unfortunately Hader couldn’t find the strike zone. Even with the guy on second, we had our opportunity.

    I was really surprised not to see Pena in the line up.

    Not much of a roster for Joe to work with at this point.

    Apparently Varsho has had a wrist cyst issue for about three months now, which is what has forced him out of the line up. It helps explain why he has been throwing like he has. And maybe it explains the .535 OPS as an Astro.

    After 158 games, no clarity.

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply

    • Earlier in the week I saw a graphic of the ten, lowest batting qualifiers in wRC+. I know a lot of people don’t like those composite stats that try to do things like even out ballpark influence in just how good/bad a hitter is, but Varsho was 5th worst in the league. I believe Cam was 8th worst.

      Like

      Reply

  9. Thoughts

    • I’m not up to saying much today – my friend Larry from choir passed away today.
    • Not surprised that Pena was out of the lineup – Joe seems to do this whenever there is an injury even if the Xrays say no problem.
    • 44 pitches for Hader? He not only couldn’t handle the second inning last night – now you burned him for at least tonight
    • The team drives me crazy when it scores early and then just stops.
    • Pecko turned into a pumpkin – but we are expecting a lot from guys who are just guys.

    Like

    Reply

Leave a comment