Astros Continued Struggles are Ominous Sign Before Postseason

Friday night was a little Deja vu for the Houston Astros.

They fell to the MLB's worst team Kansas City Royals 4-2 exactly three days after dropping the first two games of their home series against the Oakland Athletics.

Those losses prompted a team meeting where Justin Verlander said they needed to "show up."

The Astros won the day after that meeting 6-2, so everything was all good, right?

Wrong.

Issues that have plagued Houston during their surprising losses were present once again on Friday.

They only put up two runs and seven hits against a team with the third-worst ERA in the MLB.

Starter Christian Javier was tagged for three runs, two of them earned, after a sacrifice fly in the second inning and home runs in the fourth and fifth innings put them in a 3-0 hole.

Jose Altuve, Yordan Alvarez, Alex Bregman and Kyle Tucker combined to go 1-14, with Alvarez's lone hit bringing in a run.

Everyone knows how good of a team the Astros are, there's no questioning that. They're one of the best teams in the MLB and are defending their World Series crown.

But there continues to be some warning signals surrounding this team as they get ready for postseason play.

With their starting rotation looking shaky in the back half of the year, what happens if they get into an early hole in the playoffs?

In the past, their bats have been able to bail them out of a spot like that, however, if the lineup is cold like it's been at times this season, they won't be able to dig themselves out of a deficit.

By no means is it panic time in Houston. They've had too much success to hit the panic button now.

But over the last 14 games of the year, the Astros will need to start rounding into form.