Houston Astros: Three things to mull as the team hits stretch run

Thing #1: Eyes on the Teams

Our lead is big right now. But that doesn’t mean it won’t falter. Our lead may shrink down to single digits if we continue to struggle. So we have to be focused on every other team that will make their move. We can’t focus on other teams too much because that will ultimately cause problems to where our obsession will derail us away from the Houston Astros.

We don’t want the Houston Astros to feel like they have no support because we have to act like we’re the best fans ever and we mean it. So in order for us to avoid falling out of love with the Houston Astros, we have to balance our focus. I’m not talking 50-50. I’m talking 60-40 or 70-30. We need to lean towards the Astros side. But we also have to eye on the competition in the AL.

Why?

Well aside from the obvious reason that we want to protect our AL West lead, we have to look out for potential playoff opponents. Assuming we finish with the best record in the AL, we’re playing a wild-card team. Now at this point, the Twins and Yankees are the two reps of the American League Wild-Card game where one will move on to play the top seed. Although we have tremendous success against both teams in the regular season, the playoffs are a different animal.

But the American League is tightly contested in the bottom. There is a two-five game difference separating the competition for the two wild card spots. The Angels, Blue Jays, Mariners, Orioles, Rangers (do not count them out just yet), Rays and Royals are still in the hunt. As September goes on, the teams will shrink and it will be down to two-four teams fighting for two spots.

So consider this? As the number one seed in the American League, the pressure would be on us to beat the wild-card team. We’re expected to beat them wild card team and we should. The Wild-Card team has no pressure whatsoever.

We’re literally playing two games right now. Game one is keeping a fresh team in Houston and have fans be ready for an October run. Game two is watching the other teams and see how good can we be against them in the playoffs.