Jeff Bagwell has been the hitting coach for 17 games now, and you might have noticed that the Astros are winning more often. They’re also scoring more, including 18 runs last night in St. Louis.
More important to winning is that they’re punching up some runs every night. Scoring 18 in a game is great, but the best record you can get in one game is 1-0. I look at how often a team scores 5 runs or more, which is usually enough to win.
Pre-Bagwell, the Astros scored 5 runs in 30 games out of 89, or 34 percent. Since Bagwell, they’ve managed to do that 11 times in 17 tries, or 65 percent. And they have won 11 times in 17 tries.
It’s too easy to say Bagwell’s the cause. For one thing, the Astros have made some other changes. But it’s a good development no matter who’s responsible.
