It's about two hours before the Houston Astros' last game of their series against the team with the best record in all of baseball, the Los Angeles Dodgers.
Astros manager Brad Mills sits back in his chair in the manager's office in the visitors' clubhouse and there's a sense of calmness and relaxation on his face.
Though, finding any emotion on Mills' face is akin to finding a Yeti in the lost city of Atlantis, he seems more at peace now than at this point in previous seasons during his first stint as a big league manager.
His Astros are still playing sub-.500 ball â€" something the team has become all too familiar with â€" but they are doing so while only 6 1/2 games out of first place in the National League Central â€" a position that hasn't been as familiar to the team. (Strangely enough, including that 5-1 loss at Dodger Stadium on May 27, the team lost six straight going into Friday's game against division leader Cincinnati, but only lost 2 1/2 games in the NL Central standings.)
Despite his team sitting at 22-29, there's gradual buzz surrounding Mills and the job he's done this season.
In his first year with the Astros in 2010, his team finished 76-86. That earned Mills a handful of Manager of the Year votes.
Though the 2012 season is only a little more than a quarter old, it's not too early to start throwing Mills' name out there again as a Manager of the Year candidate.
But, we have until October to let that one play itself out.
For now, one has to be impressed by the job Mills has done with the roster he has in front of him.
Quick, name the number of all-stars the Astros had on their team in 2011. The answer is one. That was Hunter Pence, who has since been traded. Michael Bourn, the team's lone all-star in Mills' first year in 2010, has also been traded away. Both Bourn and Pence were selected as reserves for each of the last two all-star games.
It's hard to find an all-star on this current roster. It's even harder to name more than one player from this 25-man squad.
But, somehow, Mills has been able to get this group to gel and play better than it has in the two-plus seasons he's been around them.
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Since taking over as Astros' manager in 2010 Mills has seen the team trade away face-of-the-franchise players Lance Berkman and Roy Oswalt. That preceded the trades of the two aforementioned all-stars last year.
Still, the Astros have had more success than most may have predicted before the season.
In fact, many tabbed Houston to finish dead last in the Central and some had the team last in all of baseball.
But here the team is as the calendar turns to June, the season not already lost, as it was last year.
By this point last year, the Astros were 13 games under .500 after the first two months of the season, sitting at 21-35 on their way to a 106-loss season. The team finished with the worst record in baseball at 56-106. In Mills' first year, the team was 17-34 after April and May, but still finished 2010 with a respectable 76-86 record.
Through the first two months of his third season, Mills' team has won more games (22) and has lost fewer games (29) than in the previous two years. In fact, before this last road trip at Los Angeles and at Colorado, Houston had won six of eight games. The team was 13-9 in May before that six-game skid put the team at 13-15.
You talk to Mills and he'll point to time on the job for himself and his players as the reason for the team's "turnaround."
"It took us awhile to find out about each other," Mills said. "You go through spring training and you hope you know something. You do know something. But, when the season starts, it's like a different animal.
"And, I think the experience of growing up," he said. "We've got a lot of guys who have been through those first couple of years and so they've grown up a little bit because of that. And I think that's huge."
And that sentiment is echoed within the clubhouse.
"We've got nine innings to go out there and play. And I really think the group we have here, with the young talent and the guys and how they're coming together, really have made that step," said Astros starting pitcher Bud Norris. "We gotta keep making more steps and keep going.
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"[The younger players] have to learn with their feet on the ground, hit the ground running and I think they're taking it in stride," Norris said. "The learning process and the learning curve has been a big one. It's a 25-man roster and we have to pull together and we have to do the little things and basically do our jobs to help this team win. Everyone picked up their slack from last year and it's clearly paid off."
Mills' first two seasons with the Astros were filled with turnover. If you were to compare the Astros' opening day lineup this year to last year, you might think you were eyeballing two completely different organizations.
Only two players from last year's opening day lineup â€" Carlos Lee and Chris Johnson â€" were back in the lineup for 2012. And Lee was at a different position, playing first base this year after playing left field in 2011.
But, despite the struggles last year and the roster turnover over the last few seasons, don't dare ask Mills if his first two years with the team could be considered a wash. In fact, use another word when asking about Years 1 and 2 for Mills.
"You learn. You don't want anything to be a wash. When you wash you think it's wasted. You never want to waste any time, no matter what you're doing," Mills said. "There's absolutely no way I feel it's even close to being a wash here because we learned a lot about the players, they learned a lot about me, you learn a lot about yourself when you go through what you went through.
"You always want to use those experiences to get better and that's kind of what we've done."
For Mills, he understands that where he's at is part of the proverbial process. He's no better a manager today than he was two-plus seasons ago when he managed his first big league game.
And, to some, his demeanor and personality have been the same since Day 1.
"He's no different now than he's been the last two seasons," one Astros beat writer said. "He's always positive when talking about guys. He just is the same person."
Mills isn't the great sound bite and isn't one to provide bulletin board material. In fact, he can be somewhat vanilla during interviews.
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But, that persona comes from being involved in professional baseball for more than 30 years. He's a pro and he handles himself in such a manor.
But he, too, has been able to learn from this process.
"You learn how to handle situations, how to handle game situations," he said. "On a daily basis things you come across that are new and so forth. It's all a growing experience. You never want to feel like you've arrived and I, and this ball club, never feel that way."
Said Norris of Mills: "He's done a pretty good job. He's definitely learning on the spot. It's his first opportunity as a big league manager. He's still learning the game â€" it's not easy to do be a big league manager â€" and he really uses the guys around him, the support he has around him to truly help make decisions and keep the game in tact for us.
"He really kind of sees the bigger picture, which is clearly important to be a big league manager."
With new ownership and a new general manager, there are no guarantees for Mills to keep his job past this season. Really, there are no guarantees through the course of the season.
But, as he sits in his chair in the visitor's club house, sitting back slightly, he keeps that bigger picture perspective Norris eluded to, with a bit of simplicity, ready in hand.
"You just want to play good solid baseball. When we sit here and we look forward, we don't want to get too far ahead of ourselves, we can't afford to do that because we are so young. We start looking at everything," he said. "I know one day at a time is a cliché, but we have to go play as hard as we can, for as long as we can every day and take what happens. I'd be happy with that."
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