Up until the past week, I assumed that the 2024 Astros are a good team that has not gotten good results for various reasons. I do not know if I can continue to believe that.
The offense was terrible tonight. Yes, Jonathan Cannon is a promising young pitcher, but the team made terrible contact all night and was lucky to end up with seven hits. The only extra-base hit was a one-out double in the 3rd by the rookie Trey Cabbage. The team did not have many opportunities to score, but they squandered all of them, going 0-5 with RISP.
The pitching was good tonight against a weak White Sox offense. The staff allowed two earned runs over eight innings. However, Valdez was probably lucky to only allow two runs as he conceded five walks and two hits over six innings.
The only exciting part of this game came in the top of the ninth when the Astros put runners on first and second with two outs. Victor Caratini has come up with several clutch hits this season, but he couldn’t keep the game alive tonight, grounding out to first to end the game. Final score: White Sox 2, Astros 0.
The team is better than what they showed tonight, but how many times have you thought that this season? It is mid-June, and at this point, maybe the Astros are what they have shown, which is a mediocre team who can’t stay healthy.
What is even more troubling is that the White Sox are a terrible team. Yes the 2022 Astros got swept by the A’s, but that team did not need those wins, but this team does. We all know that the team has suffered through injuries but that does not explain the severe underperformance of guys like Valdez, Bregman, Verlander, Diaz, etc.
Perhaps this team has another gear to kick into, but we’ve been waiting for them to do so the past 2.5 months. The window of opportunity for 2024 has not closed yet, but it will get smaller and smaller the longer this team plays like this.
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