What a game! The Rays had taken a 4-3 lead in the top of the 9th.

The announcers were saying that closer Alex Colome was one of the best in baseball. An all-star this year.
He had 28 saves, only 1 blown save all year, and a 1.76 ERA entering the game. Things were looking dire.

Carlos Correa led off the bottom of the 9th with an opposite field home run to tie the game on the first pitch he saw.
And then Evan Gattis, the very next hitter, crushes one onto the railroad tracks in left field to win the game 5-4

Back-to-back home runs to walk it off! I guess that all-star closer of the Rays thought it was a home run derby!

Everything tightens up in the AL wild-card race. Seven teams still vying for the top two spots.

Evan Gattis said during his post-game interview, "I was just looking for a good pitch to hit!" LOL

It's probably easier to follow the American League wild-card race by just looking at the loss column.
This late in the season you typically only follow that number more than anything else.
You can't really penalize a team for playing more games or less games so the W-column is deceiving.

1st wild card
Red Sox 57 losses

2nd wild card
Orioles 59 losses
Tigers 59 losses

Outside looking in
Mariners 60 losses
Astros 61 losses
Royals 61 losses
Yankees 61 losses

The Yankees just blew out the Orioles again today by a final score of 13-5.
So that sent the O's to 59 losses. They're inching closer to the rest of the pack.
In fact, for the time being, the Tigers just tied them before their game tonight.

And the Royals play the Red Sox tonight. I'll probably want the Royals to win again.
Just so that first AL wild-card spot can inch back closer to the rest of the pack as well.
I wouldn't mind seeing a seven-team tie for the two wild-card spots in another week or so. LOL

From an Astros perspective they just have to keep winning games. Otherwise they won't have a chance.
6-1 in our last 7 games following a 5-game losing streak. It's crazy how fast things can change.
Just last Thursday we were 6.5 games behind the Orioles for the 2nd wild-card spot. I was ready for free agency this off-season!

A chance to be two games back of the 2nd wild-card spot with a win tonight.
Dallas Keuchel is on the mound. It's important for him to set a good tone for the ball club.

1. George Springer (R) RF
2. Alex Bregman (R) 3B
3. Jose Altuve (R) 2B
4. Carlos Correa (R) SS
5. Evan Gattis (R) C
6. Yulieski Gurriel (R) DH
7. Marwin Gonzalez (S) 1B
8. Teoscar Hernandez (R) LF
9. Jake Marisnick (R) CF

A.J. Hinch is going with the same lineup as last night.
I like it, but I wish A.J. Reed would step up and claim first base.
He just hasn't been that good (hitting .178 with 3 home runs in 101 at-bats).

At least some of our other rookies have been making some nice strides...

Alex Bregman went 2-for-22 in his first 22 MLB at-bats (hitting 6th in the lineup).
But since then he's hitting .276 in his last 98 at-bats. With 4 home runs and 14 RBIs.
Part of it may be that he's hitting #2 in the lineup. With Altuve protecting him in the order.

Alex Bregman dazzles everybody with his defensive play at third base. He's a natural with the glove.
Even in the minor leagues he was flashing around some stellar defense at shortstop, third base and left field.

This is just an example of the type of plays he can make look routine at third base.
And this wasn't even the best play he made in the past week. Just one I could find on YouTube.



The Astros, as a team, are ranked #1 in all of baseball with a .988 fielding percentage.
Our infield with Bregman, Correa and Altuve, in particular, are all vacuums with the glove.

Correa took a lot of negative flack for his defensive struggles as a 20-year-old rookie last year but he's been very good this year.

Alex Bregman's hitting is just a bonus. If he keeps improving at the plate like he is. I was a bit defensive, no pun intended, when the Astros had drafted Alex Bregman #2 overall in the draft last year. Because he was just a small shortstop out of LSU. I didn't realize he would make the quick transition to third base at the Major League level and become as exciting as he's been to watch.

If the Astros make the playoffs they will have earned it - It's still a long shot that the Astros will make the playoffs this year. Only because of their brutal schedule left: 6 games with the Rangers, 6 games with the Mariners, 4 games with the Indians and 3 games with the Cubs. That's playing the best team in the National League and all of baseball, along with playing the two best teams in the American League. LOL, but all we can ask for is an opportunity.

The Houston Astros have a very young team (3rd youngest in all of baseball) with several rookies making key contributions this season. I know they had won the AL wild-card last year and had gotten their feet wet in the postseason, but these rookies weren't a part of that playoff team. It will be interesting to see how they can handle the stress of a playoff race going into the final month of the season.

With a good free agency this winter, I think the Astros can become something special in 2017, 2018 and 2019.
They may be another year away from putting it all together. It's fun watching their progression, game to game,

Baseball is very unpredictable. You just never know. Your goal is to build a young and exciting competitive ball club.
And then once you have that in place, which the Astros currently do, you try to finish the deal with major free agent signings.

This post was edited by Madmartigan on Aug 27 2016 03:09pm

The Astros did what they had to do for tonight's game. 6-2 win over the Rays.

Alex Bregman was 2-for-4 with with a two-run homer, RBI single and a walk.
All 5 of his home runs have come in the last 11 games: Hitting .300 in that time.

The kid played another fine third base with two more outstanding plays in the field. The 22-year-old rookie can play!
When he struggled to hit his first handful of games in the big leagues it was a good learning experience for him.

Springer and Correa had two hits apiece. Jose Altuve is in a rare hitting slump right now (4-for-24) over his last six games. His batting average has slipped down to .356. He may not hit .370 this year like I was hoping for but that's alright if the Astros win games.

Going for the sweep tomorrow against Chris Archer, who's a dominating Ace in disguise, despite the bad numbers this year (7-17, 4.11 ERA). We can't take him lightly, obviously, because he has shut down the Astros a couple times in the past. He was as good a starting pitcher in the American League last year.

But this Astros lineup is entirely different. We're finally getting some production outside of Altuve, Correa and Springer.
It's too bad it took so long for things to come together, offensively, otherwise it wouldn't be so hard to make the playoffs.

Updating the AL wild-card race: Everybody we needed to lose all lost except the Red Sox.
It's going to be difficult to win that first wild-card spot anyways. I'll take the second spot like last year.

1st wild card
Red Sox 57 losses

2nd wild card
Orioles 59 losses

Outside looking in
Tigers 60 losses
Astros 61 losses
Mariners 61 losses
Yankees 61 losses
Royals 62 losses

I'll be cheering for an Astros and Yankees sweep tomorrow afternoon.
Just to see the Astros only 1 game back of the second wild-card spot.

Seven teams are fighting for two spots. It's crazy but it's fun as well.

This is why the MLB owners voted for an extra wild-card spot for both leagues.
It creates more excitement down the stretch. More fans and more teams are "in the hunt."

Also the 32-year-old Cuban star racked up his first two RBIs in the big leagues. A pair of RBI doubles. First multi-hit game as well. I don't consider him a rookie at all. He's old and barely in his prime. A very experienced International player.

So far Yulieski Gurriel has 4 hits in his 10 Major League at-bats. Hitting .400 since being called up.
I'm looking forward to seeing what he can do moving forward. He's the DH we've been lacking for a while.

LOL, he's the old man in the club house and the reason we have the third youngest team in baseball (not 1st or 2nd)!

As a DH his age doesn't matter too much to me at all. If he can hit he can hit. Baseball is a global game.



My impression of Yulieski Gurriel so far is that he bats like Julio Franco. Very odd stance with a quick swing. Remember him back in the day? He played for the Indians, Rangers and Braves most notably. The Astros have been DH'ing him. He may play some left field or first base at some point.

The original plan was to play Yulieski Gurriel at third base which is his natural position.
Alex Bregman, the better athlete and younger player, was going to move to left field.

But Bregman has been so sensational playing third base the Astros have to play Gurriel elsewhere.

I just wish we had more time to put it all together this season. It's going to be a frantic finish!
If there were two or three months left in the season I'd feel pretty good about the Astros chances.

I'll be happy if we show we can beat the Rangers, multiple times, in the six games we have left against them.
Or if we can put on a good show in the four games against the Indians and three games against the Cubs.

The six games against the Mariners will be a tough battle as well: But I'm ready for all of those intense games!!!!

Some tough games are coming up. I feel more optimistic but the Astros still need to get the job done.
If they can have a 6-0 home stand, 5-1 at worse, against the Rays and Athletics (2-0 so far) it will help.
You almost surely have to beat all the bad-record teams at this point with a brutal schedule left.

Overlooking the Rays is a mistake. They recently won two games from the Red Sox and Rangers (4 wins last week). So needless to say, I expect a dog fight as the Astros try to sweep Chris Archer and the Rays tomorrow afternoon. And then the Athletics have spanked us a couple times this year. That's going to be an intense series early next week.

At this point, every game feels like a postseason game for the Houston Astros.
It's good in a lot of ways because the sense of urgency is now there. It wasn't there before for some reason.

This post was edited by Madmartigan on Aug 27 2016 09:35pm

One of the nice catches that Alex Bregman made. Robbing Evan Longoria of a double past the third base line.



Anything hit in his area is going to be an out. His reflexes and quickness is second to none on the team.
He beats everybody at the ping pong table in the club house. Even Springer, who was the former champion.

The Jake Marisnick catch made the play of the night on MLB.com,
He plays hard and with actual effort. I wish he had been the starter all along.



Of course hindsight is 20-20. Who knew Carlos Gomez would be so bad?
If that had been Gomez in center field that's a double or triple for the Duff man.

I think the Astros pissed away at least 25 % of their season this year.
Way too many losses. It's amazing they can still win a wild-card spot.

Jose Altuve with another home run in consecutive games. He broke out of his recent week-long slump.
Now hitting .355 with 22 home runs and 88 RBIs. A .415 On-base percentage. His BA took a dive last week.

A lot of good MVP candidates in the AL this year, The Astros have to win a wild-card spot for him to win, IMO.
If the Astros miss the playoffs I think Mookie Betts will win it: Hitting .322 with 30 home runs, 96 RBIs and a .361 on-base percentage.

You can hand the award to Josh Donaldson of the Blue Jays again if you wanted to. He's a superstar all around.

I don't even care about the MVP anymore. I'm just enjoying the final 30 games this season. Playoffs or no playoffs.

We just need to finish this season strong and hope for the best. We'll be 2 games behind the Orioles for the second wild-card spot after tonight. It's a shame we didn't sweep the Rays yesterday or else we'd be only one game back. We can't seem to get over that hurdle. We get two games out and then fall back to three or four back.

We're taking care of business against the bad teams finally.
The Athletics had our number most of this season.
But the Astros can sweep them later today. It's a must win.

1st wild card
Red Sox 59 losses

2nd wild card
Orioles 60 losses

Outside looking in
Tigers 61 losses
Astros 62 losses
Royals 63 losses
Yankees 63 losses
Mariners 64 losses

The Astros are still two games back of the Orioles for that second wild-card spot. One game back of the Tigers.
Maybe the Boston Red Sox will start to lose a few more games to open up that first wild-card spot.

We have to sweep the Athletics today, enjoy the day off on Thursday, and get ready to win at Arlington against the Texas Rangers for three games Friday through Sunday. A ballpark the Rangers have owned us for the past two years. But our wild-card hope is on the line so we better be ready to ball our hearts out this weekend.

The Astros only have 29 games left after today. I don't know if they'll make the playoffs but it's going to be fun to watch.

I Was starting to feel nervous for a second. The Astros were trailing 3-1 in the bottom of the 8th.
But they put up a 3-spot sparked by a wild pitch and a few triples by Springer and Altuve.

Now the Astros lead 4-3 in the top of the 9th.
Ken Giles is trying to finish off the save and the sweep over the Athletics.

And that was a quick 1-2-3 for Ken Giles! The Astros won 4-3.
Wow. Everything turned around so fast. A loss today would have hurt us in the wild card.

Looks like everybody won today (Red Sox and Tigers). We need the Blue Jays to beat the Orioles tonight at least.
May as well get to one game back of the Orioles and Tigers for that second wild-card spot.

The Astros have the day off tomorrow and then the big showdown at Arlington against the Rangers on Friday Night.
Dallas Keuchel will pitch. He shut out the Rangers 5-0 (complete game) not too long ago but that was in Houston.