To All the Haters and Doubters, Cry

Almost no one thought the Astros could beat the Twins in Minnesota in a three game series. The MLB’s best home team versus the worst away team. Seems like a no brainer, right? Wrong. For the Athletic, only Joe Posnanski picked the Astros to win this wildcard series. Not a single writer at the Ringer picked the Astros. Both Jared Carrabis and Dallas Braden, hosts of Starting 9 the baseball podcast on the Barstool Sports network, chose the Twins to win in two (2) games. Almost everyone doubted this injury ridden, playoff veteran filled team.

The game started much like Tuesday’s game, where the Astros did nothing in the top of the first inning and the Twins loaded the bases to also do nothing. Jose Urquidy got out of the jam and then finished his day after 4.1 innings of one run ball. Brooks Raley came in and gave up the run that was charged to Urquidy’s line, but the damage could have been much worse.

The offense was fine once again this game. Getting on base in timely fashions with some clutch hitting from Kyle Tucker. Three runs won’t be enough to win a series against some of the teams that will be going through the postseason, but that’s something to worry about later when the time comes. Also, Carlos Correa did the whole opposite field home run thing that I absolutely adore.

Combine that bat with this arm:

And go ahead and give the man 10 years $300 million. Correa saved the day on defense and offense. His bat has come alive going 3-6 this series and two walks. The Astros are going to need more than just Correa’s bat in the next few series, but it is refreshing to see playoff Carlos.

Last, but certainly not least, we have some absolute STUDS in the pitching room. Yesterday it was staff ace Framber Valdez coming in relief and shoving five scoreless innings. Today it was Christian Javier and his invisiball. Javier wasn’t nearly as dominant as Valdez was, but Javier pitched three scoreless innings and got out of multiple jams. The home plate umpires were horrendous these last two games, and our pitchers didn’t let it frustrate them. The future of the pitching room is looking pretty, pretty good.

Ryan Pressly came in the ninth inning and recorded two strikeouts. The inning was fairly stress free considering all of the late game blows and losses that this team has experienced in the shortened season. This team can turn into a wagon real quick, and I’m not sure the league, or any baseball reporter is ready for it.