
Astros squander a 7-game AL West lead in loss to Red Sox
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Before his injury, Dubin averaged 94.5 mph with a four-seam fastball that, at times, has reached 97. None of the nine he threw Tuesday touched 95. The one Alex Bregman belted for a two-run home run arrived at 93.3 mph. Of the 558 fastballs Dubin has thrown as a big leaguer, only 20 others were slower.
Dubin faced five hitters before collecting the one out this depth-starved club sought. A two-run deficit turned to seven, fitting for a team that finished squandering its seven-game American League West lead with a lifeless 14-1 loss against Bregman and the Boston Red Sox on Tuesday night.
Dubin does not deserve outsized blame. Nor does Espada, who had few other options at his disposal. This is just the embodiment of a bigger problem. Hope alone isn't prudent in the pursuit of a playoff spot or division title. Yet, mid-August has arrived, and the Astros are hanging on to it from every corner of their clubhouse as the Seattle Mariners continue to surge. The two teams are in a dead heat with 42 games remaining, shrinking any margin for error.
'That's what we live for, right?' third baseman Carlos Correa said. 'That's when it gets fun, when there's good competition and good teams out there you have to compete against and try to beat. They're playing great baseball. We just have to step it up a notch.'
An entire city hopes Correa can catalyze this ballclub. Both his aura and baseball acumen are unmatched in the view of his teammates and those who cheer for them. Vibes around Houston and inside the team's clubhouse have never been higher, highlighted by the raucous scene, endless standing ovations and excessive extravagance during Correa's return to Daikin Park on Monday night.
Correa has played in 11 games since the Astros reacquired him at the trade deadline. Houston has won just five of them, a fact Correa's mere presence has helped to mask. The Mariners, meanwhile, are 10-1 across that same stretch. It is unfair to insinuate the Astros have played poorly — a win Wednesday would give them three series wins in a row, after all — but pitted against the Mariners, mediocre or middling isn't good enough.
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Correa himself has been brilliant, raising his OPS by 36 points in just 44 at-bats while heightening the attention paid to small details. He is considered one of the game's savviest players, a 30-year-old infielder multiple team officials have likened to another coach. Monday, Espada even acknowledged he can 'delegate some responsibilities to Carlos.'
'With all the young guys, it's important for them to understand that we didn't get here by just showing up and playing. We got here because we prepare, we study, we analyze, because we took advantage of the flaws of the team we're facing, and we knew what those flaws were,' Correa said.
Before Correa came back, as many as 18 Astros resided on the injured list at once, from reigning All-Stars to former rotation mainstays. Health has improved but is still in a state where no one person — not even Correa — can compensate. The left shoulder strain closer Josh Hader suffered Monday only complicated the problem and forced Dubin into a leverage spot Tuesday.
A timeline for Hader's return is unknown. Ditto for slugger Yordan Alvarez and center fielder Jake Meyers. What they could actually provide on the field is anyone's guess, but just mentioning their names seems to lighten moods and prompt positivity among team officials.
There is hope Dubin can bounce back and become the right-handed weapon this bullpen needs in the wake of Hader's injury. Tuesday, Espada hoped Alvarez will face live pitching this weekend at the team's spring training complex and, perhaps, take another step toward appearing in a major-league game for the first time since May 2.
Monday offered hope for the stabilization of a two-man starting rotation. Pitching on a major-league mound for the first time in 15 months, Cristian Javier struck out five Red Sox across five innings of two-run ball. Sans Hader and setup man Bryan Abreu, the bullpen came within one hit of blowing the game.
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'(Injuries) happen to a lot of teams, it's just been happening to our team a lot more often, especially a lot of the studs that help the team in a big way,' Correa said. 'The organizational depth that we have here is crazy, and that's how we're still in the position we're in today.'
Correa is not wrong. Thirty-seven days ago, the Astros could've staked a claim as baseball's best team. Their injury-riddled roster did not deserve the title, but still boasted a record worthy of the distinction. A skeleton crew bludgeoned the sport's most expensive roster across a three-game sweep at Dodger Stadium, surged 20 games above .500 and started distancing itself from Seattle.
On July 6, the final day of that Dodgers sweep, FanGraphs gave the Astros 85.9 percent odds to win the American League West. Houston has lost 18 of its 30 games since and seen its probability plummet to 43.8 percent, according to those same odds.
'For me, I look at it this way,' Espada said, 'tomorrow we come out (with) Hunter Brown on the mound, we win the game, that's three series wins in a row. That's what we want to try and do.'
That's the hope.
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