WEST SACRAMENTO -- They were 20-31 in mid-May and struggling to put a competitive roster on the field, with as many as 16 players on the injured list at one time. Slowly but surely, the Astros got healthy and got better, working their way up the standings to take over first place in the American League West heading into August.
If you’ve paid attention to the Astros over the last decade, you know never to count them out, especially in a division where no team finished with a winning record. Like it or not, the Astros are back in the postseason.
The Astros punched their ticket to the playoffs when the Rangers fell to the Twins, 6-4, on Sunday, handing Houston the AL West title on the final day of the regular season.
The Astros’ regular-season finale against the A’s in West Sacramento had not gone final when Texas lost, but Houston holds the tiebreaker over the Rangers this season after winning nine of 13 head-to-head matchups. The next time the Astros take the field, they’ll be up against the White Sox -- a team they dominated in the regular season -- in Game 1 of the best-of-three AL Wild Card Series on Tuesday at Daikin Park (5 p.m. ET/4 p.m. CT on Peacock and NBCSN).
This is the ninth time in the past 10 seasons that Houston has been in the postseason, which has included eight AL West titles (2017-19, ’21-24 and ‘26), four AL pennants (2017, ’19, ’21-22) and two World Series championships (’17 and ’22). The Astros haven’t won a playoff game since Game 5 of the ’23 AL Championship Series against the Rangers.
Behind a Most Valuable Player-caliber season from slugger Yordan Alvarez, who slammed 42 home runs and appeared poised to win the AL batting title, a breakout campaign from right-hander Peter Lambert, the return of starter Hunter Brown and shortstop Jeremy Peña from injuries and a dominating year from closer Josh Hader, the Astros overcame their early struggles.
The Astros went 1-9 on their first road trip of the season, placing three starting pitchers -- Brown and Cristian Javier to shoulder strains and Tatsuya Imai to arm fatigue – on the injured list during the trip while losing Peña to a hamstring strain. Houston’s depth and resolve were tested barely three weeks into the season.
Other players who were on the injured list by May were starting third baseman Carlos Correa, starting left fielder Joey Loperfido, starting center fielder Jake Meyers, starting catcher Yainer Diaz, in addition to Brown, Imai, Javier, Peña and Hader, who missed the first two months recovering from a biceps injury.
The returns of Brown, Peña and Hader in the middle of the summer spelled relief and were keys to the Astros turning things around.
The one constant was Alvarez, the slugger who was limited to 48 games last season because of a hand injury and a sprained ankle. He got off to a torrid start this year and was named the AL Player of the Month for March/April and again in July.
After falling 6 1/2 games out of first place when they were 20-31 on May 21, the Astros began August in the same place they had been in seven of the previous eight seasons (not counting the shortened 2020 season) -- leading or tied for the lead in the division after crushing the Rangers, 11-2, on July 31.
The club parted ways with general manager Dana Brown on Aug. 24 and responded by going 8-5 during a stretch of 13 consecutive games with a day off to bolster its playoff chances. That included a series win at Yankee Stadium and winning three of four games from the AL Central division-leading White Sox in Houston.
And now the Astros get the White Sox at home in the Wild Card Series, with the winner heading to Cleveland for the AL Division Series.