Astros clinch playoff spot: Defending World Series champions return to postseason for seventh straight year

The protecting World Series champions are headed again to the postseason. The Houston Astros have clinched a postseason berth thank you to Saturday’s win over the Arizona Diamondbacks (HOU 1, ARI 0) and the Seattle Mariners’ loss to the Texas Rangers (TEX 6, SEA 1). The Astros are confident no less than a wild-card berth, despite the fact that the AL West name stays in play.

Here are the up to date of the AL West standings:

1. Texas Rangers: 90-71
2. Houston Astros: 89-72 (1 GB)
3. Seattle Mariners: 87-74 (3 GB)
4. Los Angeles Angels: 72-88 (17 GB)
5. Oakland Athletics: 49-111 (40 GB)

The Astros can nonetheless win the department. For that to occur, they should beat the D-backs on Sunday whilst the Mariners beat the Rangers. In that case Houston and Texas would end with equivalent 90-72 data, and the Astros could be topped department champs for the reason that Astros received season sequence 9-4 towards the Rangers. Keep in thoughts the Mariners not have anything else to play for whilst the Diamondbacks handiest have seeding (a 5 or 6) to concern about. 

Winning the department isn’t trivial. The AL West champion gets the No. 2 seed and thus safe a Wild Card Series bye. The department runner-up has to play an additional postseason spherical, and the extra postseason rounds you’ve got to play, the decrease your World Series odds. It’s some other probability to get eradicated. That bye is extremely precious.

This year’s Astros don’t seem to be as ambitious because the 2017-22 variations, despite the fact that they don’t seem to be to be taken frivolously. Framber Valdez and Justin Verlander are a powerful 1-2 punch atop the rotation, and any lineup that incorporates Jose Altuve, Yordan Alvarez, Alex Bregman, and Kyle Tucker is unhealthy. Closer Ryan Pressly has struggled of past due, despite the fact that setup guy Bryan Abreu is very good.

There is one thing ordinary with this year’s crew is the house/highway splits. The Astros completed simply 39-42 at house whilst being one of the crucial best possible highway groups within the majors. They hadn’t had a shedding house file since 2014. 

The Astros have now not handiest made the postseason each and every year since 2017, they have long past to the ALCS each and every year since 2017. They are the one crew within the wild-card technology (since 1995) to cross to six straight Championship Series. Houston will glance to prolong the streak to seven now that they have secured no less than a wild-card spot.