The Houston Astros‘ reign atop the American League West is officially over.
Despite the fact they led the West by seven games on July 6 — and were four games up on the Seattle Mariners just three weeks ago — Houston’s streak of four straight consecutive division championships ended Wednesday night with Seattle’s 9-2 win over the Colorado Rockies.
The Astros had won eight of the past nine division titles — though fans and players could cite the COVID-shortened, 2020 asterisk season, where they finished seven games behind Oakland Athletics as an outlier when referencing their lengthy AL West title streak.
But the Astros, who have been a fixture in October for the past decade, playing in the World Series four times and winning it twice, must now try to focus simply on getting into the tournament.
Astros Season Ending Soon ‘Really Hard To Think About’
As the Mariners celebrated roughly 750 miles north of where the Astros played at a Triple-A park in West Sacramento, California, their ongoing late-season swoon was further jeopardizing their playoffs hopes.
The Astros have not missed the postseason since 2016 yet trails the also-struggling Detroit Tigers by one game for the final AL wild card spot.
In a week, Houston’s ill-timed five-game losing streak both doomed its hopes of winning the division and gave them just a 27.5 percent chance of reaching the postseason with four games left, per Baseball Reference.
âIt is what it is,â Astros pitcher Hunter Brown said, according to The Athletic. âWe havenât won games for five games in a row here. I donât think mathematically weâre out of it yet. Got to win some games here in the last four games, thatâs what it is.â
Brown has quietly been the Astros ace all season, proven by his 12-9 record and sparkling 2.43 ERA. He ranks tied for fourth in the majors — alongside Boston Red Sox ace Garrett Crochet — in bWAR among pitchers (6.2) and has 206 strikeouts in 185 1/3 innings.
Yet, all that seems poised to go to waste after he allowed four earned runs and six hits in five innings in Houston’s 6-0 loss.
âItâs hard to really think about that,â Brown said of his season resulting in a missed playoff spot. âWe still have a chance, so Iâm not ready to close the book on that yet. Wouldâve been nice to come through tonight for the guys. I just put us in a tough spot.â
Houston’s Offense Falls Flat In Late-Season Swoon
Yordan Alvarez’s collection of injuries sure didn’t help, but the Astros’ un-Astros-like offensive slump over the second half of the season has been stunning.
The Astros have scored just 242 runs in 62 second-half games (3.9 per game), posted a .675 OPS and were shut out for the eighth time in the second half Wednesday night.
Their pitching has tried to keep them in the hunt, but that has not been able to stem the 29-39 stretch through their past 68 games.
Yet, with four games left — one more in Sacramento, plus three to close the year in Anaheim against the LA Angels — the Astros are still trying.
âFour games left, we have to go all-out,â said third baseman Carlos Correa, who was acquired from the Minnesota Twins at the trade deadline. âItâs not been our best baseball, thatâs for sure. Iâm sure our fans are frustrated. Weâre very frustrated with the way that weâve been playing. Itâs not over yet, so we have to keep fighting. We have to keep fighting all the way to the end and weâre going to do just that.â
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