by Amaury Pi Gonzalez

ANAHEIM–The Houston Astros managed by Bo Porter will not finish last their going to finish next to last, their not going to lose 100 games. Porter is doing a great job and Chris Carter hit a home run on Tuesday night against the Oakland A’s a three run shot that helped beat the A’s 4-2 at Minute Maid Field.

Carter a Redwood City native and designated hitter for Houston has 32 homers and 77 RBIs and is one of the best sluggers in baseball. The A’s are having problems, they lost pitcher Sean Doolittle and he’s out for two weeks. Now their going to have to find someone solid like Doolittle closing games.

On Tuesday it was Gregorson who gave up the three run homer, the A’s also have catcher John Jaso whose out with a concussion indefinitely and the club has some injury problems. This is like I said before a race for the finish line. The L.A. Angels keep winning and they hold first place over the A’s and the Angels host the A’s starting this Thursday that will be a test for the A’s.

The Angels have the Miami Marlins on Wednesday night at the Big A and this will be the last time the Halos play a National League team and the then the A’s are in Anaheim for a four game series which is crucial for both teams here in August.

The A’s and Angels are both grasping for the brass ring as the pennant race is razor thin right now. One of these teams are vying for the division and if they make it fine but everybody is trying to get into the division. Because you win the division you win the best of five and if you win the wild card you play one elimination game that’s a big difference.

I subscribe to the theory of former A’s manager Tony LaRussa the most difficult thing to do is to win your division. You play 162 games and you try and win your division. Once you win your division then your in decent shape but we’ll have to see what happens. Both of these teams are probably going to make it to the playoffs.

However aside for the Oakland A’s and the Los Angeles Angels let us not forget about the Seattle Mariners their six games out and in first place in the wild card and they still have a bunch of games left with the A’s and Angels and if the M’s can keep winning they’ll keep rising to the top.

So this very well could be a three team race for the division with a few days left, most teams have to win between 28-38 games after tonight. Now is when the rubber hits the road and were going to see what teams are contenders and what teams are pretenders.

Amaruy Pi Gonzalez is the Spanish TV voice for Angels baseball and does News and Commentary for http://www.sportsradioservice.com each week