Houston Astros Clinch Their Seventh Divisional Title in Eight Years
The Houston Astros are heading to the playoffs for an 8th straight season.
The Houston Astros clinched the American League West for the seventh time in the past eight years after defeating the Seattle Mariners 4-3 on Tuesday night. The Astros have now won four straight Division Titles.
The Astros had an abysmal start to the season, and some may have thought that their dynasty was over. That could not have been further from reality as Jose Altuve and the Astros had other plans, they just seem to never go away.
On June 18th the Houston Astros sat 10 games back of first place in the AL West and everything for the ball club seemed to have been trending down. An injury to arguably the Astros’ best player on June 3rd, Kyle Tucker, when he fouled a ball off his right shin which ultimately led to him missing 3 months due to a shin fracture, and the release of the struggling Jose Abreu on June 14th, signaled that the Astros may be in for their worst season in a long time.
However, the Astros proved everyone wrong and are headed to the post season for an 8th straight season and will do so as Division winners for the 7th time in the past 8 years. (The one time they didn’t win the division during that stretch was in the short COVID season.)
Are the Astros still good enough to win it all? The Astros lineup is as good as any in baseball, but this Astros team is still lacking in both starting and relief pitching, which separates them from the great Astros teams of years past. With an aging Justin Verlander and a struggling rotation, it’s hard to consider the Astros favorites, but it’s certainly impossible to count them out.
