Houston Astros Say They Aren't Satisfied with Recent Hot Streak
The Houston Astros have turned the season on its head as they reached a .500 record for the first time after Tuesday's win against the Colorado Rockies.
After being 10 games under in the middle of May, things are looking great for this team and spirits are high. Chandler Rome of The Athletic spoke with multiple people throughout the Astros' clubhouse. Emotions ranged from relieved to not satisfied.
One person who has surely let out a sigh of relief is first-year manager Joe Espada.
When the season was at its lowest, he already had people calling for his job. Now, those talks have slowed down as the wins have piled up.
"The guys have worked really hard to get to this point. It wasn't easy the first couple weeks of the season, but I think we have turned things around. We have to keep going. There's a lot of baseball left, but we're playing our best right now," said Espada.
It wasn't all joy, though, as veteran reliever Ryan Pressly was one of the players who spoke out to say that there has not been a relief to get back to even.
"There's no sense of relief. This team expects to win. It's nice to win series and get some sweeps and have a good homestand, but it's all for nothing if you go back into your old, same ways," said the star reliever.
The improvement Pressly has had is a big reason why Houston has seen better results.
With his ERA north of 6.00 by the end of April, there were some serious doubts about his ability to pitch in his new set-up role. After his sixth straight scoreless outing his ERA is now down to 4.40.
Pressly is one of the many players who have had to step their performance up from either poor starts to the year or bigger roles thanks to injuries.
"This is a team that fights through stuff. Injuries, ups and downs, struggles, they stick to each other," said Espada. "They fight. We don't stop believing in each other. That's what champions do. We have to keep it together and let this play out."
The Astros are now just 4.5 games behind the Seattle Mariners in the race for the AL West and are just three games behind in the battle for a Wild Card spot.
If they can continue to do what they have been doing for the past few weeks, earning a playoff spot is very realistic.
DYLAN SANDERS
Dylan Sanders graduated from Louisiana State University with a degree from the Manship School of Mass Communication in 2023. He was born in raised in Baton Rouge, LA but has also lived in Buffalo, NY. Though he is a recent graduate, he has been writing about sports since he was in high school, covering different sports from baseball to football. While in college, he wrote for the school paper The Reveille and for 247Sports. He was able cover championships in football, baseball and women's basketball during his time at LSU. He has also spent a few years covering the NFL draft and every day activities of the New Orleans Saints. He is a Senior Writer at Inside the Marlins and will also be found across Sports Illustrated's baseball sites as a contributing writer. You can follow him on Twitter or Instagram @dillysanders