Cup of Coffee: November 4, 2022

The Astros are in the driver's seat. Just like in 2019!

Good morning!

Thanks to Justin Verlander, Jeremy Peña, and Chas McCormick — and the Phillies inability to capitalize with runners in scoring position — the Astros are a win away from a championship. And hey, with two home games, only one of which they need to win for the title, it’s in the bag, right?

*The 2019 Washington Nationals have entered the chat*

OK, so it’s not quite over, but Houston certainly is in the driver’s seat. We’ll know no later than Sunday if they can pull this baby into the garage.

Elsewhere, a couple of new managers were announced, a front office rumor is floating around, and an outfielder had surgery. Not a lot of non-World Series baseball news on World Series days, of course.

In Other Stuff, Kyrie Irving continues to show us who and what he is, sometimes a worm is just a worm, we talk about the World Cup and human rights, and I wax positively about something for once. Sure, it’s just the weather, but you gotta take what you can get from a negative Nancy like me.