HOUSTON — Sluggers strike out. In baseball, it is all but fact. The 1927 Yankees led the majors in slugging percentage and strikeouts. The five players with the most career strikeouts averaged nearly 600 home runs. This season, major league hitters are on a record pace for home runs and strikeouts.
Slugging and strikeouts — like love and marriage, as the song goes, you can’t have one without the other. Unless you are the Houston Astros.
When the Yankees visit Minute Maid Park this weekend, they will meet an Astros team coming in with a 54-26 record — the best in the majors through 80 games in more than a decade.