It may not be fair. Most coaches would tell you it’s not right. Regardless, Joe Espada’s tenure as the Houston Astros manager will be defined by these next seven games. Espada needs to find a way to guide his wounded, flawed team into the playoffs. Somehow, some way, some will. The Astros streak of making baseball’s postseason cannot end on his watch at eight straight seasons. Not like this.
Espada cannot swing the bat for struggling $60 Million Man Christian Walker. He cannot turn Framber Valdez from a September pumpkin back into a near ace. He cannot suddenly grant Zach Cole and Cam Smith experience under pressure. He cannot give Isaac Paredes a return to timing after all those months away. (Though he could not bat Paredes third so soon.)
Yes, there is plenty Espada cannot do, so many things out of the manager’s control. But he must find to a way to help navigate these Astros into the playoffs, no sure thing anymore.
An October without the Astros in Houston is like a Christmas without Santa Claus, an early morning without caffeine, a picnic without a blanket. It’s hard to imagine Astros owner Jim Crane stomaching that as his franchise’s 2025 reality.
“They’ll be ready to go,” Espada vows of his players. “They’ll be ready to go. There’s no doubt about that.”
Once again, these Astros need to pull themselves off the mat, shake off the kind of blow that would knock out a lesser team, and respond. Does this injured group have another one in them?
“We’re relentless, right?” Astros reliever Bryan King tells PaperCity. “We’ve been battling stuff all year. And there’s no doubt we’re a tough team. You’re going to get tested. We have been tested from the start of the year. I think that’s helped us. It forged a fire that we have something deep within us. We know what we want to achieve.
“And that’s what we’re going to try and do.”
The Houston Astros’ Playoff Reality
Espada’s Astros are in some trouble now though, maybe the first real make-the-playoffs trouble since that miss of a 2016 season, back when the Golden Age of Houston baseball was still beginning. The Mariners are rolling, having beaten Houston’s two best starting pitchers, smashing home runs, standing one Sunday Night Baseball win from sweeping their nemesis right out of their own ballpark. If that happens, plans for another division title for Jose Altuve and Co. will be all but gone. Replaced by much more frightening realities.
Like holding off the Cleveland Guardians or Boston Red Sox to make sure the Astros are not left out of the playoff party entirely.
“We’re relentless, right? We’ve been battling stuff all year. And there’s no doubt we’re a tough team.” — Astros reliever Bryan King
The Guardians suddenly cannot lose and are now only one game back of the last Wildcard playoff spot in the American League, making former Astros manager A.J. Hinch and the Detroit Tiger sweat heavy in the division too. Closing the regular season with a week of road games against the putrid Athletics and Angels should give Joe Espada’s team every chance to right the ship.
But the Titanic captain couldn’t believe when he sank either.
This Major League Baseball season is in for a wild finish, the dream close for Rob Manfred’s more playoff teams push. One team out of the Guardians, Red Sox, Astros and Tigers is not going to make the playoffs. The Astros have to make sure they don’t turn into Exhibit A for the crazy chaos.
“They’ll be ready to go. They’ll be ready to go. There’s no doubt about that.” — Astros manager Joe Espada on his players
These current Astros, younger and less pressure experienced than you might think as an overall roster (at least the healthy parts left), will rely on the core leaders that remain to show them the way. But even Jose Altuve and Carlos Correa do not have as much pressure on them as Espada does.
“We’ve got some incredible leaders on this team,” King tells PaperCity. “Tuve, Carlos. They set the tone for us. They set the tone for us. And they bring the energy. It’s been such a cool thing to work with them, play with them.”
Down 6-0 after losing 4-0 the night before, the Astros give themselves a chance against Seattle in game two of this series. Shortstop Jeremy Peña, who only keeps raising his game when his team needs it most, smacks a grand slam soaring high into the Crawford Boxes. Just like that, it’s 6-4. And the Astros get the tying runs in scoring position in the bottom of the eighth inning.
Daikin Park is roaring, as throaty and energized as it’s been all season. “Let’s Go Astros! Let’s Go Astros!” sounds like a chorus that you can imagine rattling in the Mariners’ brains. Then Yainer Diaz strikes out on three pitches, leaving it to pinch hitter Christian Walker, the Astros’ forever struggling offseason free agent prize. This is a chance for Walker to almost completely rewrite his Houston reality.
He promptly. . . strikes out on three straight pitches too. That extends Walker’s streak of misery to 0 for his last 18. Would-be co-ace Framber Valdez’s misery goes back even longer, a full 10 starts of a 6.16 ERA.
“I feel bad,” VaIdez says, standing against the front wall in the Astros’ clubhouse, having made potentially his last home start as an Astro. “I haven’t been able to give the best of me. So I recognize that. I haven’t been able to give the team the wins.”
On a night when the Astros organization once again does everything right, with Crane announcing a donation of $2.5 million to build youth baseball and softball fields in Ingram, Texas, which is trying to rebuild after the Central Texas floods that killed at least 135 people, 37 of them kids, the team fights back on the field.
The Mariners need a Victor Robles diving catch for the ages in the bottom of the ninth to put the Astros away for good on this Saturday night. Now Joe Espada must make sure his team rises yet again. And fights even harder.
Just how relentless can you be? Espada and everyone else is about to find out. Somehow, some way, some will?