Game 5 Thread. April 1, 2024, 7:10 CT. Blue Jays @ Astros

I hope everyone is recovered from the weekend.

If you are a professional baseball player, and the Astros certainly are, you have forgotten....what happened this weekend?

I had to take on some people yesterday for my claiming the Astros were victims of bad luck to a large extent. I noticed that Brian McTaggart titled his game recap, “Luck Continues to Elude the Astros, 0-4.”

I’m particularly perturbed by those who claim the team choked in the ninth inning. If there had been strikeouts or weak grounders, I’d be the first to call it out. But Altuve, Alvarez, and Tucker all put the ball in play in ways that should have, could have ended the game. What happened after they made contact was out of their control.

Alvarez, in particular, after his barely foul, would-be double, hit the longest ball of the game at 106.3 MPH with an xBA of .860. Tucker's final out had an xBA of .620. The odds of neither of those balls finding grass are nearly infinitesimal.

Soon enough, those balls will drop, and we’ll all say how clutch, how gritty, how determined the Astros are.

Let’s hope the luck turns today.

Perennial Spring Training phenom Ronel Blanco gets his first turn ever in the Opening Season rotation against the Blue Jays. If he pitches today like he did this Spring I like our chances. But that’s a big if.

The Astros could really use a breakout game offensively. Maybe today.

Here are the lineups.