Houston Astros: 3 thoughts on why August remains unfriendly for team
The Houston Astros are in a tough stretch known as August, the make-or-break point in the season. Here are three thoughts as to why it remains unfriendly.
The Houston Astros are in a tough stretch of a season known as the month of August. August is the month that most teams hit a wall and take a hit both physically and mentally. With one month left in the regular season, the Houston Astros will have to fight out a tough stretch in baseball if they want to regain themselves in position to win the division and claim their second World Series.
Houston Astros fans — nobody likes a losing streak.
I don’t. You don’t. We all don’t.
Ideally, we would like to see our teams go 162-0 and then win eleven straight postseason games to finish undefeated in World Series play. But that’s not what happens in the sport. Teams go through hot streaks and they go through low streaks. Teams get tired and banged up. It affects the psyche of the fans and the players.
When teams have a winning streak, there comes a feeling that you’re unstoppable and no one can stop us. But when there’s a losing streak, it’s the longest low anyone can go through the longer it goes on. Right now, the Houston Astros are in the midst of that low having lost five games in a row. This is the second-longest losing streak of the season after the Houston Astros lost seven in a row against the Toronto Blue Jays, Cincinnati Reds and New York Yankees.
One day, the Houston Astros were winning eight games in a row and it seemed like this would be easy. With 78 wins, the Houston Astros were 22 wins away from their third straight 100-win year, which is still doable. Five games later, there still twenty-two wins away. The series against the A’s has the Houston Astros leading the division at 6.5 games now. It will either be 5.5 or 7.5 after tomorrow. Even though the Houston Astros will be in first, the feeling of momentum is tough.
This got me thinking about August in particular and I’ve noticed a trend here. August hasn’t been a kind month to the team in the past few seasons. The win-loss ratio in August is either around .500, above or leaning heavily towards the losing. Here’s what I mean.