Houston Astros: The Good and the Bad Heading to the ALCS

Jeremy Pena, Yordan Alvarez and Alex Bregman were almost exclusively the Astros offense in the ALDS.

If there’s an MVP-A and MVP-B for the first round series the Astros had against the Mariners, it’s the bullpen and the middle of the Astros’ batting order.

It’s amazing and concerning all at once how many of the Astros runs this series depended on those three hitters. Eleven of the Astros’ 13 RBI this series were from those three. And of those 11 RBI ,six of them were Alvarez or Bregman driving in Pena. Pena was another one driving himself in with the game winning solo shot in game three meaning seven of the 13 runs scored this series relied on three batters working off each other.

It’s not good if more than half your runs come from only a third of your lineup and it’s certainly not sustainable in the postseason. They’ll need backup if they want to advance further.

Gurriel’s bat seems to be back which is a positive sign. Even the times he made an out he hit the ball extremely hard.

He nearly was the Astros hero in the top of the 16th smashing a ball into the right center field gap that according to Statcast had a 10 percent catch probability which Julio Rodriguez turned into 100 percent catch probability with his incredible speed.

Kyle Tucker had a rather unimpressive series going four for 15 with seven strikeouts against one walk. He did have the solo shot in game two that got the Astros on the board first but beyond that he has not looked great at the plate.

It will be interesting to see if Gurriel slides into the five spot of the lineup to then get on base in front of Tucker’s power and behind Alex Bregman’s strong on-base skills. It would also revert the Astros back to the left-right-left alternating lineup.

Gurriel’s lack of power may keep the Astros from making that change. Regardless the Astros could use some other players to wake up. Specifically the little big man.