Astros' latest blunder vs. Angels another example of how Houston has bungled prime opportunities

The American League West has been a mess all season, just begging someone to take it over. Nobody can stay over .500 for more than a few days at a time. The Rangers can’t hit. The Mariners can’t beat bad teams. The Athletics and Angels stink out loud. The Houston Astros were supposed to have taken control once they worked their way to the top and had stopped making life hard on themselves. 

So naturally, they dropped two of three at home to the Angels, the team with the second-worst record in the American League. And the series finale was a laugher in the wrong way, an 18-3 game where Zach Neto turned a start from Peter Lambert, their most consistent starter, into batting practice. Lambert got run out in the fourth, an inning in which the Angels scored six runs. They got four more in the fifth. Lamonte Wade Jr. pitched the ninth, so you know what that means.

Astros can't get out their own way in lowly AL West race

Getting blown out happens, even to a bad team. Starters have bad nights, even from the best rotations in baseball. And especially to one that’s been missing Hunter Brown, Cristian Javier, and others throughout the season. But the pattern is the problem. Houston is 64-64 heading into the weekend. Yes, they’re a game up on the Rangers, but it’s hard to know if they’re even a good team. Every soft stretch of the schedule that should be a chance to separate seems to push them back to the pack.

It happened against the Mariners, who are 9-2 against them this year. Seattle was supposed to be good, but isn’t, though they’re still in the race because nobody is good. Now it’s happened against the Angels. The Astros at least won the season series over them, but 7-6 isn’t good enough against one of the worst teams in baseball. 

The pitching is the obvious issue. Lambert’s line – 3.2 IP, 8 H, 9 R, 3 K, 2 BB – happens, but it’s really magnified in these situations. In August, with the Astros trying to hold off a Rangers team that has been average-at-best all year, it’s the difference between being able to use September to prep for the playoffs and having to fight for everything they want in October. 

The bullpen has mostly been outstanding since Josh Hader returned, but many of the questions that were asked in the offseason are still around. Some have stepped up, but they’ve been very lucky to play in a division (and in a league) where you can have fatal flaws and have them not actually be fatal.

It’s almost more frustrating that this type of inconsistency isn’t losing Houston the race because nobody is winning it. The Rangers are hovering right around .500. The Mariners are eight games under. Neither has been able to put together a sustained run that would actually punish the Astros for their issues. 

So Houston gets to lose two of three to a terrible team and wake up the next morning still in first place. They’re still the favorites to win the division. They’re fine on paper. But that’s not going to hold up against good teams left on their schedule, and it hasn’t held up against bad teams all that often. It certainly won’t hold up in October.

Even with that in mind, it can be fixed. They still have Yordan Alvarez, and the rotation is at least getting healthy-ish. But they certainly have their flaws. And it’s not lost on anyone that the list of what has to go right isn’t all that different from what it was earlier in the year. 

The Astros have a history of getting hot at the right time. But it feels like they’ve been waiting for that time all year, and haven’t realized that maybe it’s already passed them. They may still win the division because nobody else seems to want to, but the odds are that one of the three teams will make a run over these last five weeks. Houston needs to make sure it’s them, and not one of the other two.

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