The Orioles and Tigers are now tied for that second AL wild-card spot with an identical 72-61 record.
And the Astros are only one game behind both of them with a 71-62 record. Only 29 games left...

A.J. Hinch announced a pitching change for the big three-game series with the Texas Rangers this weekend.
With the day off tomorrow he decided to give Dallas Keuchel an extra day of rest on top of that. Hopefully it pays off.

The pitching matchups for the Astros at Rangers series will look like this.

Doug Fister versus A.J. Griffin on Friday Night: 7:05 PM
Dallas Keuchel versus Derek Holland on Saturday Afternoon: 3:05 PM
Joe Musgrove versus Yu Darvish on Sunday Afternoon: 2:05 PM

These next 10 games for the Astros will be against the three best record teams in baseball.
3 at Rangers, 4 at Indians and 3 versus the Cubs. Needless to say it doesn't get any tougher than that.

If we don't bring our A-game in all ten of these games all of our playoff hopes will be over.

We'll see what happens. I wish we could have gotten Lance McCullers back off the DL.
He is still two weeks away from a return. Unfortunately we're playing a murderer's row right now.

It's going to take a Herculean effort for the Astros to make some noise against the best teams in baseball. I know in my hearts of hearts that we're still another off-season and a couple good free agent signings away, from becoming a legitimate World Series contender in 2017, but it would be really fun to make the 2016 postseason as that second wild-card team for a consecutive year.

That second wild-card spot is all you really need. You earn a one-game playoff with the first wild-card team. And in one game anything can happen. It doesn't matter how much better that other team is. Which for now it's the Boston Red Sox but I would call it a coin flip either way regardless if they have home field advantage in that game. Look what happened last year when the Astros played the Yankees at Yankee Stadium, for example.

I'm just ready for Friday Night's Astros versus Rangers game. I may lose my sanity with the day off on Thursday.
In fact i'm going to take a deep breath and find something relaxing to do and enjoy the day. No stress or anxiety.

The Astros are about to start a critical three-game series at Texas.
The first game is about to start: Doug Fister has to pitch a good game.

A few hours ago A.J. Hinch again pushed Dallas Keuchel back because of arm soreness.
He'll now start Tuesday Night at Cleveland and won't pitch against the Rangers.

This is definitely concerning because Keuchel has had a dead arm all year long after pitching so many innings last year.

It will be Joe Musgrove and Collin McHugh pitching in the other two games in this series.

And Hinch is giving Gattis a day off from catching (DH-ing him) with Jason Castro at catcher.
This means Yullieski Gurriel will not be in the starting lineup tonight. He'll likely pinch-hit later in the game.

1. George Springer (R) RF
2. Alex Bregman (R) 3B
3. Jose Altuve (R) 2B
4. Carlos Correa (R) SS
5. Evan Gattis (R) DH
6. Colby Rasmus (L) LF
7. A.J. Reed (L) 1B
8. Jason Castro (L) C
9. Jake Marisnick (R) CF

I just don't like that lineup. Jason Castro is too weak of a hitter. Hitting .218 with declining defense behind the plate.
Jake Marisnick only hits .212 but I can live with one bad hitter at the end of the lineup. Especially a guy who is solid on defense.

I just hope our bats can do something against A.J. Griffin tonight.

It's like why did we pay Yullieski Gurriel so much money if he isn't going to play every day?
He's already had like three games off. And he's hitting .318 in 22 at-bats. Looking good the few times he does play.
The dude has a lightning quick bat and looks like the next Julio Franco. And we rest him again. My goondness gracious...

Also A.J. Reed is hitting .176. I'd much rather see Gurriel playing first base if not DH-ing.

Sigh, we go into a huge series with the Rangers, only one game out of the second wild-card spot, and it just feels like we lost before it started. Hopefully the Astros will give me something to cheer about, not only tonight, but in this three-game series against the Rangers.

TL:DR- The Texas Rangers have owned us for the past two years. The Rangers are our daddy!
This isn't our best lineup or pitching. We need all the luck we can get just to win this three-game series!

This post was edited by Madmartigan on Sep 2 2016 06:08pm

Adda boy Alex Bregman. He goes yard for a quick 1-0 lead.
He's been absolutely scorching since his 2-for-22 slump to start his big league career.
The problem is the Rangers lineup may score 10 runs tonight. LOL. 1 run ain't doing us much.

congrats Ryan. Big win for Houston today over the Sooners

about to be locked

3month bumb.

this is astro year, believe it.

up for the 2017 champs

bats coming alive this season

even guys like marisnick stepping up their offensive game this year

bullpen still scares me shitless though, i hate gregerson and giles falls in love with that slider too much and gets burned

need to get another starter to round out that rotation and should be gravy then

11 game win streak ended by the bullpen and that giles slider lol