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Tight games....Astros behind 5-4 in the bottom of the 9th, Rangers and Twins tied 6-6 in the bottom of the 9th in Arlington, and the Mets tied Seattle in the bottom of the 8th, but Crawford led off the 9th with a home run....8-7 Mariners lead.
ETA: Astros lose 5-4.
ETA2: The free runner in the 10th 'helps' the Astros, with Correa driving in that runner for a 7-6 Twins lead at the moment (still top of the 10th). We'll see if that whips around the other way in the bottom of the 10th when the Rangers get a free runner.
ETA3: Mariners win 8-7, so the Astros fall 1 game behind the Mariners.
ETA4: Twins scored 3 in the top of the 10th, so the Rangers will have their work cut out for them in the bottom of the 10th. Looks as though the Astros will be 1 game behind the Mariners and the Rangers will remain 1 game behind the Astros.
ETA5: With two out and only the free runner on (who happens to be Seager), Heim singles Seager home for a 9-7 Twins lead. Both teams benefit. I still don't like the free runner in the 10th.
ETA6: Smith strikes out looking, so the Twins win 9-7.
Tight games....Astros behind 5-4 in the bottom of the 9th, Rangers and Twins tied 6-6 in the bottom of the 9th in Arlington, and the Mets tied Seattle in the bottom of the 8th, but Crawford led off the 9th with a home run....8-7 Mariners lead.
ETA: Astros lose 5-4.
ETA2: The free runner in the 10th 'helps' the Astros, with Correa driving in that runner for a 7-6 Twins lead at the moment (still top of the 10th). We'll see if that whips around the other way in the bottom of the 10th when the Rangers get a free runner.
ETA3: Mariners win 8-7, so the Astros fall 1 game behind the Mariners.
ETA4: Twins scored 3 in the top of the 10th, so the Rangers will have their work cut out for them in the bottom of the 10th. Looks as though the Astros will be 1 game behind the Mariners and the Rangers will remain 1 game behind the Astros.
ETA5: With two out and only the free runner on (who happens to be Seager), Heim singles Seager home for a 9-7 Twins lead. Both teams benefit. I still don't like the free runner in the 10th.
ETA6: Smith strikes out looking, so the Twins win 9-7.
Well, we'll just take the good with the bad. We've lost the series with the Yankees, so now, the Astros will need to dust themselves off. Javier takes the bump tonight, and we really need to see a return of the Cristian Javier from the first half and not the garbage pitcher we've seen him be in the second half. I just hope that that long-term signing wasn't a mistake.
Well, we'll just take the good with the bad. We've lost the series with the Yankees, so now, the Astros will need to dust themselves off. Javier takes the bump tonight, and we really need to see a return of the Cristian Javier from the first half and not the garbage pitcher we've seen him be in the second half. I just hope that that long-term signing wasn't a mistake.
At least no one in the clubhouse (players and others) will give a thought towards what is going on in the games within their division.....Seattle already lost, and Texas already won by one run with a walk off home run in the ninth. The Astros will either be tied with Seattle (games ahead/games behind wise) or tied with Texas.
^^^^ forgot to hit the send button when I composed the above.
Just saw the graphic on TV...Yeah...Javier = 7.46 ERA in his last 11 starts .
ETA...now we just need 5 or 6 more of tonight's Inning #1 out of Javier .
After this three game trainwreck of a home series, I think I am going to walk away from the Astros for a bit. I am tired of their frustrating play both hitting and pitching.
The Astros certainly didn't do themselves any favors. This was a team that once had the Yankees' number, but not this time around.
After a promising start to Game 3, Houston laid another egg. They also wasted a good outing by Cristian Javier. So, now, the Astros must travel to Arlington tomorrow for a series with the Rangers. These guys had better get motivated quickly. If not, then the Astros are going to find themselves back behind the Rangers and in third place by Wednesday.
Near the top of a blank 8 1/2 x 11 sheet I wrote 4 column headings.....Date, Astros, Rangers, Mariners.
Under Date I wrote the date and the day of the week, and under each team I wrote the team's opponent for that day (I looked at the overall MLB scedule for each day...it's on ESPN.com)
If the team = playing at the opponent's home, I put an @ in front of the opponents name.
If the team = off that day, I wrote OFF.
There are 28 days remaining in the scheduled regular season (9/4 - 10/1). The Astros have 24 more games and 4 days off, the Rangers and Mariners each have 26 more games and 2 days off.
21 days fit on the front of that sheet, and 7 on the back.
I then took out another blank 8 1/2 x 11 sheet and wrote one column on the far left, with 3 entries/3 rows covering the whole sheet.....titled 'Astros Play', 'Rangers Play', and 'Mariners Play'.
Under each row name I wrote the total (counting from the first sheet) of how many times the team plays the other two......so....under 'Astros Play' = Mariners 3x and Rangers 3x....Under 'Rangers Play' = Astros 3x and Mariners 7x, and under 'Mariners Play' = Astros 3x and Rangers 7x.
Then for each of the three.....'_____ Play' I drew an arrow over to the right side of the paper and wrote 'Other _______ (# of games not against the other two) Games =' and then wrote the team and the number of games against that team......the '# of games not against the other two' being 18 for the Astros and 16 each for the Rangers and Mariners.
I then went to the standings on ESPN.com, turned the 8 1/2 by 11 sheet over, and wrote the MLB standings...listing games won and lost, best to worst of all of the teams involved (15 including the Astros, Rangers, and Mariners).
Starting to the right of the team name and won-loss record of each of the 15 teams, I made three columns....Astros, Rangers, and Mariners......and as I moved down each column (after writing the columns), I looked off to the side at the team and wrote the number representing the number of times that team/team represented by the column will play the team listed to the left over the remainder of the regular season.
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Findings:
The Astros have the easiest remaining schedule of the three, and the Mariners the hardest.
Of the 18 games the Astros have remaining that aren't against the Rangers or the Mariners, 12 of those 18 are against sub .500 teams, and nine of those 12 are against the two worst teams in baseball...the Royals and the A's (6 against the Royals and 3 against the A's....the Royals are currently the worst, 1/2 game worse than the A's). The Astros other 3 games against a sub .500 team are against the Padres, and they also have 3 games against Arizona, and Arizona is barely above .500. The Astros only have 3 games remaining against any of the 3 teams with the best records among the 15....The Orioles, the Dodgers, and The Rays...with all 3 of those against the Orioles.
The Mariners, of the 16 games they have remaining that aren't against the Astros or Rangers, 7 of those 16 are against two of the three with the best records among the 15....4 against the Rays and 3 against the Dodgers. Only 6 of those 16 'non Astros nor Rangers games', are against sub .500 teams...3 against the Angels and 3 against the A's.
For their 16 games they have remaining that aren't against the Astros or Mariners, the Rangers have zero games against the top 3 of the 15 (Orioles, Dodgers, and Rays), and they have 9 games against sub .500 teams (3 each vs. A's, Angels, and Guardians), but the other 7 games they have are against (as of now) Wild Card 'contenders' (4 with Toronto, and 3 with Boston).
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