Two Days: The Day the Baseball Bears Have Their Picnic!

Even though I usually reference pop culture in my blog post titles, I felt compelled to reference and paraphrase a fabled nursery song by Anne Murray for today's writing. An annual event for the Houston Astros, known to all as Picnic in the Park, will take place this Sunday afternoon. It follows the series finale against divisional rivals, the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim. A nice buffet style spread, commemorative T-Shirts, door prizes, games, photo booths, and most importantly, player autograph sessions will highlight the beginning of summer in a big way.

And yes, ladies and gentlemen, yours truly will be their for all of the festivites!

Oh, the excitement that awaits me in yet another drive down 45. Not only will it be great to see other Astros fans, but also gearing up for the anticipation as to which players will be apart of the autograph sessions. For me, I take those as more of selfie/networking opportunities. Signed swag is a nice keepsake, but making those personal connections are the things that really last with me. No surprise, the two players I'm most excited to see are the #BearSquared duo of the BMac, Brian McCann, as well as your people's champion and mine, Evan Gattis!

Both of these fellas have been contributing greatly towards the recent win streak that the team was on. At the same time, however, they've also both had to endure the brunt of the recent struggles of the bullpen. It doesn't help matters that now Dallas Keuchel is back on the 10-day DL, along with no timetable for the return of Charlie Morton. Joe Musgrove should be back for this Angels series, but nothing has been confirmed yet. At this point, Lance McCullers and Mike Fiers are the only original rotation starters that are healthy.

It's no secret that the Astros have a dire pitching need. But does Jeff Luhnow wait until the trade deadline, or does he make a push now? My money is on make the push now, so long as you don't deplete anyone from the 25-man roster, including El Oso Blanco. Somehow, the organization has to be willing to part ways with some of it's farm system to get a top tier starter now to keep themselves in the competitive forefront that they are currently charging through right now.

With a majority of the rotation down with injury, the spacemen are gonna need some help. Even when Musgrove comes back, you will essentially have to rely on him, McCullers, Fiers and Brad Peacock. Martes just got a call up from AAA, and depending on how he does, it could be either a glimpse of the future of this ball club, or a trade posturing. Either way, this team needs some serious arms right now! Those still left and healthy in the rotation have GOT to step it up.

The bats are still doing what they need to do, however, as the spacemen salvaged a 4 game split with the Kansas City Royals last night. Jose Altuve got things started in the 9th inning rally with a 2 run bomb to center field, followed by a triple from Carlos Correa. A sac fly from BMac got Correa in, and Gatty Daddy then followed up with a single. Yuli Gurriel doubled, Alex Bregman walked, and Jake Marisnick added a 2 run RBI single. 10 batters and 5 runs later, the Astros worked their late inning magic again to get the victory!

It still remains to be seen what will happen as far as getting more pitching is concerned. Frankly, a bit of the future should be dealt to compete in the present. In the meantime, I'm going to stay positive and gear up for Sunday's game and picnic afterwards. I'll also leave you readers with my reworked version of the first verse to the popular children's song:

If you go out to the park Sunday,

You're in for a big surprise,

If you go out to the park Sunday,

No need to wear a disguise!

For every player that's on that club

Will gather there for certain, because....

Original Photo Credit: Houston Astros on Instagram

....Sunday's the day the baseball bears have their pic-nic!!!!