[dropcap]M[/dropcap]aybe it’s the return of those lovably gaudy tequila sunrise jerseys. Perhaps Sports Illustrated was right when they proclaimed the Astros 2017 World Series champions on a 2014 front page story.

However you characterize it, few can look past the success of the Houston Astros in the first half of the baseball season.

A barometer of that success has been building over the last few months. Houston’s 60-29 first half record, highlighted by an uplifting 19-1 rout of the ...