Toronto at Houston, Apr. 22-24

The Astros are five years removed from their championship* season. They've made it to the post-season in each of the four seasons since. They've made it to the World Series itself two more times, including last season when they went 95-67. Even so, doesn't it begin to feel as if their run is beginning to peter out? Shouldn't the same fate eventually overtake them as generally happens to all champions in the modern era - some key players simply get too old, other players get too expensive to keep and leave in free agency.

Something a little like that has been going on in Houston, certainly. This past off-season, shortstop Carlos Correa became the most recent star to move on. He's merely following in the footsteps of Gerrit Cole and George Springer, Charlie Morton and Dallas Keuchel. Just how much more of this sort of thing can a team endure? There won't be much of the 2017 champs* on display this weekend - corner infielders Yuli Gurriel and Alex Bregman are all we're going to see, since Jose Altuve will miss the games with Toronto with a strained hammy.

On the other hand, Justin Verlander looks to be back. And I mean back. I trust you remember Justin Verlander's last start against the Blue Jays. It was way back in September 2019. Verlander issued a one-out walk to Cavan Biggio in the first inning. He retired each of the other 27 Jays hitters who came up to the plate, striking out 14 of them. He was a pup of 36 back then. Now, of course, he's 39 years old and trying to come back from a year lost to Tommy John surgery. How's that going, anyway? Not bad. In his two starts he's allowed just 6 hits and 1 run in 13 innings, striking out 15 and walking 3.

I suppose Verlander and his old teammate Max Scherzer (they were teammates? And they didn't win a championship?) are still trying to settle the pressing question of Greatest RH pitcher of their generation (That's with all due respect to Zaxk Greinke and Adam Wainwright, who are probably bound for Cooperstown as well, and recognizing that that Kershaw fella is pretty clearly the greatest pitcher, period, bar none, argument over.) Scherzer is about 16 months younger than Verlander, whom he trails by 34 wins and about 450 IP - Scherzer's ahead in Ks (barely) and career ERA, although spending the majority of his career in the NL has helped him there. I just don't know. (But if we use the World Series record as a tie-breaker, Verlander is doomed.)

Sun 24 Apr - Kikuchi (0-1, 3.24) vs Garcia (1-0, 2.79)

* Should their championship season get an asterisk? It just did.