The Wild Walkoff Weekend!

The Houston Astros took 3 out of 4 from the Tampa Bay Rays this weekend, and are still sitting pretty to take one of the two wild card spots. The division is still very much a long shot, with the Texas Rangers out in front by almost 9 games, and not looking to falter anytime soon, barring some catastrophic collapse. In any case, this past series was one that the team really needed a win for in order to stay in the hunt for October baseball.

And hunt, they surely did!

The won both the games on Friday and Saturday evening. Ironically enough, your people's champion and mine, Evan Gattis started as catcher in both of those games. The Friday one, specifically, was met with theatrical fashion. It didn't start out too well for the spacemen. After going ahead 3-0, Mike Fiers threw two wild pitches for scored runs. Of course, everyone was so quick to blame Evan for it across the internet:

"Bet anyone that wouldn't happen with Castro behind the plate."

"I'm tired of people thinking Gattis is a good catcher. He's not. I'm going to point out his flaws."

Believe it or not, these two particular comments were from the same person who spewed nothing but hate across the Astros Reddit page and message board. Unfortunately, there were too many other comments like this all over social media and elsewhere. This mystery message board guy would not stop going on about the trouble that Mike Fiers had in spotting those 3 wild pitches that were charged to him. Instead, he scapegoated Gattis, saying that all of them should have been passed balls, and that they were all "clearly in front of the catcher."

So of course, I had to call him out!:

Dude, you are being abundantly ridiculous with your wild accusations of Evan Gattis. ENOUGH! Both of those pitches are on Fiers, AND YOU KNOW IT! I saw the same exact plays you did, and those pitches were up way over Gattis' head. I'm so sick of this going after him because you obviously hate him and favor Castro. Why you are even allowed to be a moderator of this group is beyond me, but absolutely NONE of your criticisms have been in anyway constructive. Just the opposite, they have been nothing but destructive.

Take you hate somewhere else! It doesn't belong here!

Things were looking bleak in the top of the 9th inning, when Ken Giles gave up a go ahead home run to make it 4-3 Tampa Bay. My guts started to do some cartwheels. In a game that is a must win, like all of the rest from here on out are going to be, it seemed like another heartbreaking loss was on the horizon.

And then it happened:

Carlos Correa slaps an "oppo taco" to right field to tie the game up in the 9th inning. It provided to be a nice table setter for what would come next:

THAT'S RIGHT, LADIES AND GENTLEMEN!!!! Your people's champion and mine, Evan Gattis belts one over the train tracks at Minute Maid Park to give the Astros the walk off 5-4 victory over the Tampa Bay Rays. That walk off was his first as an Astro and the second of his career, dating back to April 21st, 2014 for the Braves at home against the Marlins. Not only that, but he ripped his jersey off in Superman fashion! What a way for the bear to party, huh? That's a guy I definitely wanna hang out with! Evan certainly had the last laugh over the internet trolling haters.

And the fun didn't stop there this weekend. In fact, Gattis got the scoring started the very next game!:

To add to that, he also aided in a strike em out, throw em out double play in that same game to boost his caught stealing ratio up to 52% on the season!:

It goes without saying, but I will say it anyway. Nay, scream it from the mountain top:

MY BEAR BUDDY IS ON A HUGE ROLL!!!!

Okay, now that I got THAT out of my system, time to get back on track. The Astros now open up a 3 game home stand with the division rival, Oakland Athletics. With Josh Reddick traded to the Dodgers at the deadline, that should hopefully let out some of the air out of their offensive tires. The spacemen should be able to make a nice run before heading up to Arlington this weekend to face the Rangers (already have my ticket and parking pass ready for Saturday!) and then to Cleveland to face the Indians. This will not be an easy upcoming road trip by any means, and in fact, will probably be their most difficult so far this season. But the Stros are certainly up to the task.

In the meantime, let's end this post with some more highlights from the walk off win!:

  

When he stripped off his jersey after the walk off. Again, it was very much done in the style of Superman or The Incredible Hulk! I don't know about you readers, but I can instantly see him on the cover or as a featured athlete in a future body issue! (Wink, wink, ESPN!) I mean, if Prince Fielder with the sloppier physique can be featured, so can jacked bear Evan Gattis!

Shoot, he could even audition for the next Magic Mike movie, if he really wanted to! His teammates would agree with me there....

                                                  I also had another post game tweet appear on the Root Sports coverage. 5th time this season already, folks!!!!

It's bizarre how Evan said in the post game interview that he felt embarrassed by his bat flip and jersey strip. It may have been out of character, which I agree with him on that, but I personally feel that Evan has not a single thing to be ashamed of....

 
Photo Credit: Bob Levey of Getty Images North America

Because he has definitely EARNED IT!!!!