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Houston Astros’ Losing Streak Exposing Problems and Making Team Better

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Carlos Correa Jose Altuve

Matt Marton-USA TODAY Sports

It has been a wonderful 2015 season for the Houston Astros up until this point, or perhaps up until about seven games ago. The current seven-game losing streak has served to show that being the most explosive home run offense is not always a good thing. For now the Astros are still in the lead in the AL West, but that could change very quickly if their competitors continue to inch closer by the day.

All you have to do is watch highlights of their wins to know that home runs are the recipe for victory for this team. They have hit 79 blasts so far this season which ties them with the Los Angeles Dodgers for the MLB lead in that category. Unfortunately, strikeouts sometimes accompany the big swing of so many power hitters, so the Astros also lead the majors in strikeouts with 561 and are ranked 29th with a team batting average of .233 to make things that much harder.

No one who has watched the Astros over the last couple of years could be surprised that they are striking out a lot. The main factor here probably just comes down to experience. There are other teams with slightly fewer home runs that strike out a lot less, and that will be the next step for the young stars of this team. There really is no bad news in the current losing streak, other than the fact that the division lead is slipping away.

Astros fans and players need to accept that the lead is going to slip away at some point and they will fall at least to second place. They might even fall to third place before they right the ship, but again, that shouldn’t be considered a terrible thing. What it could do for a team that is managed the right way is force them to refocus their abilities towards winning games and maybe having better at-bats instead of aiming for the train tracks with every swing.

That is the only way they will survive against the more experienced teams and ace pitchers going down the stretch run. Sure, the Astros are sliding because they have overachieved a bit. Sure, they are learning the problems with living and dying by the home run. All in all, though, they are in a much better position than anyone thought they’d be in at this point. I would bet that most fans are happy with what their young stud of a team has achieved thus far as well they should be.

David Miller is an MLB Featured Writer for www.RantSports.com. Follow him on Twitter @davidmillerrant, “Like” him on Facebook or add him to your network on Google

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Carlos Gomez Flips His Bat, Dabs After Clobbering Home Run

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