Houston Astros: Three reasons why you'll see the toughest October ever

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ARLINGTON, TX – SEPTEMBER 27: Yuli Gurriel /

Three Strikes of October

I was trying to come up with a way to title my three ideas on how to deal with October. I figured I go with strikes because, in baseball, the pitcher is the one who holds the key to determining the outcome of the game. While we can’t determine the results even if we want to, we can determine how we react to any scenario taking place.

So I came up with three ideas that I’m going to be using for the playoffs. It’s an experiment that might work to a degree. Y’all may choose your own method and that’s ok too. But feel free to try my ideas.

#1 Expect Every Defensive Inning to be a Battle

You dream of going 1-2-3 in nine innings for most of the game so that your offense can score and win for you. But there’s going to be innings where the opposition will threaten. Whether we’re up three in the eighth and the leadoff hitter reaches base or we’re up one in the sixth and the bases are loaded with one out, that’s when battles will take place.

#2 Don’t Expect 11 wins in a row.

People will say we’re going to win all 11 games. But the truth is, we probably won’t. If we reach the World Series, we might be taking some losses along the way. The tricky part is to avoid three losses in the ALDS and four losses in the ALCS and World Series. We have won 11 or more games in each month. But October is the toughest month to play in. So losing will be expected as well.

#3 Prepare to Lose

This is probably a shocker to y’all. But having believed we would win only to see us lose is tough. I feel that this is tip would help us out if we lose. We can still expect to win. But not having any backup plan or alternate thought of losing will be tough to overcome. I’ve seen fans believe we’re destined to win and then the rug gets pulled from underneath us and it hurts like hell. Those who are proven wrong when losing happens tend to get paranoid and say the world is against us and lose faith.

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This is not promoting paranoia when I say that. This is basically saying that we have to be prepared to say the reason that we lost is that we didn’t have enough to win. You can throw in extra reasons in there as well.

I got this tip from a Cubs fan, who before last year, always felt the team would disappoint in the end. I’ve already seen Houston Astros fans saying that the team will disappoint. We don’t need to openly say that.

To the public, you should say how confident you are that your team will win it all. But don’t be too cocky or else it would not be pretty if we do lose. Still, losing is a possibility. Whether it’s in the first round or the World Series, we all must be ready to lose.

Another Way Of Preparing to Lose?

But in real truth, we cannot get swayed with the notion that if we’re winning, it’s game over. It’s a basic approach. When the 27th out is recorded and we’re ahead in the game, we can be happy. But it’s back to business. We have to take it one game at a time, one inning at a time, one pitch at a time.

This is a player’s routine, but it can be a fan’s routine. It’s not easy, but by staying focused and not letting down our guard, we can expect good things to come from it mostly.

Quick story. One year in high school, our baseball team won the first game of a playoff round and then lost two straight to be eliminated. Next year, we’re playing the same team that eliminated us. We won the first game again. This time, we remained focused and swept them the next game.

So remember, we have to stay in a businesslike mode for the 10 games we win before the 11th game. We win a fame, be happy, but move on. Do this for 10 games and then, we win the 11th game, be happy and celebrate the hard work.

Next: 2017 Postseason Roster Predictions

There’s no guarantee we’ll win either zero or eleven games. It’s up to the team to make sure they win. Starting Thursday, the quest begins. There’s a good chance we can lose to Boston and we have to be ready to accept that scenario just in case.

But it’s also up to us not let our guards down.

That’s why this October will be the toughest one to date.

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Houston Astros: Three reasons why you’ll see the toughest October ever

By Kenneth Cline | Oct 2, 2017