Three numbers and the Astros offense is no joke

The Astros bested the Blue Jays earlier this afternoon in a lively game of baseball.

In case you missed the fireworks, like I did, then you didn’t witness the Astros clobber the Blue Jays into 19-to-1 oblivion.

Don’t worry as it does happen to the best of us. Life goes on. Thank goodness for MLB TV and the archive feature!

Houston’s offense, in particular, showed the kind of high octane power we are familiar with seeing from the NBA’s Houston Rockets this past season. How about the NFL’s Houston Texans, you ask? Well, let’s just say scoring points was not a strong suit of Houston’s pro football team.

Excuse me for mentioning basketball AND football in a baseball blog post. But I felt like the comparison had to be stated for my fellow Houston sport fans out there.

The Astros are just scary good. Seriously, this team in my opinion has more firepower than the 1998 squad. However, this thought is based on my emotions today and not statistical evidence. I will get to that eventually. And this is just 1/162 of an entire baseball season.

Nonetheless, today’s victory was still impressive.

Very impressive.

4

Houston’s lineup is loaded with quality batters. For example, there were four Astros in today’s lineup with an OPS higher than .966.

Jose Altuve, Marwin Gonzalez, George Springer and Carlos Correa lead the Astros batters in this particular metric. This quartet is a primary reason why the offense is considered to be one of the best in the game. Somehow, Gonzalez is the lone player of this group that did not make the All-Star game. That’s a baseball travesty.

60

Lost once again in another Astros offensive onslaught was the team’s starting pitcher. Today it was Brad Peacock, who posted a 60 game score.

6 IP, 5 H, 0 ER, 5 BB, 4 SO, 102 pitches

While Peacock had issues with walks, he performed well for the Astros. As Dallas Keuchel and Collin McHugh inch closer to a return, Peacock’s future in rotation is in limbo. But he has helped his case the last couple of months.

60, again

60 is a popular number today for the Astros, right? This time it stands for wins.

Yes, the Astros have 60 wins on the season. Before the All-Star break of all things. If you have to run your eyes in disbelief I don’t blame you. In a way, this is the Astros dream season. Minus the rotation injuries.

Unfortunately for the ones that care, but the Dodgers were the first team to 60 wins yesterday.

Before you read too much into the tweet above, remember the “Amazin'” Mets of 1969 won the World Series over the Orioles.

And if you haven’t yet noticed, the Dodgers are quite good. They are arguably the best team in baseball. But so are the Astros. After all, everyone is entitled to their opinion. Compelling cases are found on both sides.

Next: Astros: Tyler White and Forrest Whitley tabbed as Minor League Players of the Month

Houston is in an enviable position. The key goal is continue to play well and get healthy. The All-Star break affords the Astros a chance to step back and reflect on the first half of the season.

**Statistics courtesy of MLB.com**