Never count out the Astros, who know what it takes

There is just a single percentage point separating the first-place Astros from the second-place Mariners in the AL West, where they have set themselves up to give us one more great August-September race to the finish line. The Astros just swept the Red Sox in Boston. The Mariners just swept the Mets. The Astros scored 10 against the Red Sox on Sunday, and the Mariners put 12 on the Mets. At the head of the stretch, it was as if they both wanted you to know they’re good to go.

But what we are being reminded of again, in a season when it looked as if the Astros might finally go away, is this:

They don’t go away. Even though there are better records in the American League -- five to be exact, in New York, Baltimore, Cleveland, Minnesota and Kansas City -- you tell me if you’re willing to bet against the Astros if they make it back to October, despite the way they stumbled around the first three months of the season.

And they didn’t just stumble. Sometimes it looked as if they would go down and stay down. They started the season being swept in a four-game series by the Yankees, a team the Astros have owned in the postseason for years. The Astros were 1-5, then 4-10, then 7-19 and then 12-24, at which point they were in last place in the AL West behind even the A’s and Angels.

The Astros were still 34-40 on June 19. They didn’t finally get their record over .500 until June 30. When it appeared they were ready to roll after that, they fell back and seemed to fall down again, and were just 57-55 a week ago.

Only now, they have won five in a row. They still don’t have Kyle Tucker, who fouled a ball off his right shin in the first week of June and hasn’t played since. There was the thought that Tucker might return in August, once he started at least running again. Now it seems as if September is a more realistic dream for them and for Tucker, who was on his way back to the All-Star Game before he got hurt.

“We need him bad,” Astros general manager Dana Brown said a week or so ago.

Justin Verlander, though, will be back sooner. Verlander started the season with a sore shoulder, came back from that, then hurt his neck. The 41-year old didn’t make his first start until April 19 and has made 10 in all, with a 3-2 record and a 3.95 ERA. Last Saturday night, he made a rehab start for the Astros’ Triple-A Sugar Land affiliate, throwing 52 pitches, 36 of them for strikes.

“It's all about JV, depending how he feels for what he needs to get him back here to stay,” Joe Espada, the Astros’ first-year manager, said.

So the Astros are in first place without Tucker and Verlander. They are starting to look more and more like the team that has put together one of the most dominant postseason runs in baseball history starting in 2017, and that means no matter how many fans outside of Houston will never forgive them for that sign-stealing scandal from the ’17 season, or forget:

Seven straight appearances in the American League Championship Series. Four World Series in that time, two of which they won and one of which -- in 2019 against the Nationals -- they lost in Game 7. They lost Game 7 in last year's ALCS to the Rangers, or that would have been their fifth Series since ’17.

Jose Altuve is still there at the top of the lineup, clubbing the Red Sox around this weekend and seeing his batting average climb over .300. Alex Bregman, whose early-season struggles mirrored his team’s, has his average back up to .260. Bregman’s 17th home run of the season against the Red Sox on Sunday was 440 feet, out to Lansdowne Street, and was the longest of his career. Yordan Alvarez is once again looking like one of the biggest and most important bats in the game, a hitter capable of carrying the Astros through October, something he sure has done in the past.

Here is the high praise lavished on Alvarez by Sox manager Alex Cora after Alvarez hit two home runs on Saturday and another on Sunday:

“For me, he’s up there with [Aaron] Judge, to be honest. Being a lefty, he hits lefties. Seems like he likes hitting here [at Fenway]. The wall keeps him close and he can shoot the other way. He’s the closest thing to David, probably, in the game. Very, very, very similar to David Ortiz.”

The Astros can pitch, too, even without Verlander. Hunter Brown, who struck out nine on Sunday, is 10-7. Framber Valdez is 11-5. Ronel Blanco is 9-6 with the lowest ERA among the starters at 3.02. In the Astros’ 5-4 win on Saturday at Fenway, Josh Hader got his 25th save, and he has struck out 78 batters in 51 1/3 innings.

These are the Astros right now, without Verlander and without Tucker. All those records better than theirs in the American League. The Mariners right there with them at the top of the division. But the Astros don’t go away. You ready to bet against them?