28 August, 2017
With tropical storm Harvey continuing to pummel flood-ravaged Southeast Texas with rain, the Houston Astros were stuck in Dallas as of Monday morning, awaiting word from Major League Baseball about the status of this week's scheduled home series against the rival Texas Rangers. While that seems relatively far off, everything depends on how effectively Houston drains and how quickly the city is able to bring itself to the point of hosting baseball there once more. The Astros were set to return home this week for three-game series with Texas and the New York Mets, but they instead flew to Dallas to wait and see what will come of their week. While there is no official announcement yet, Ken Rosenthal and Jon Morosi are both reporting that, because of Harvey and the fallout from the storm, the Astros-Rangers series could shift to neutral Tropicana Field, home of the Rays. Then, this weekend's series against the Mets, also scheduled for Houston, could be moved to Citi Field in NY.
Those moves would make for a rough travel stretch for the AL West leaders, who are coming off three games in Anaheim this past weekend and are scheduled to play 10 games in 11 days at Seattle, Oakland and Anaheim beginning on Labor Day.
That's obviously not ideal, as it would keep the Astros on the road for what would, in effect, be a 19-game road trip, as their next regularly-scheduled homestand after this week and this weekend is not scheduled to begin until Friday, September 15.
Regardless, it's tough sledding ahead for an Astros team that now is trying to fend off the Boston Red Sox and Cleveland Indians for the top seed in the American League.