It hasn’t been pretty. In fact, it’s been downright ugly much of the season.
But when the dust settled after 162 regular-season games, during which no team in the American League West could even manage a winning record, only the Houston Astros were still standing.
And what they stood with – waiting until the last game of a marathon six-month-plus season of ups and downs to seal the deal – was the most mediocre of division-winning records: a paltry 81-81.
So for the ninth time in 10 years, the Astros are going to the playoffs – only in 2025, when they fell one game short, did they miss the postseason. And this division title is their eighth in those 10 years dating back to 2017, when they won the franchise’s first of two World Series by beating the Dodgers in LA. The second came in 2022 when they vanquished the Philadelphia Phillies.
The Astros will host the Chicago White Sox in the best-of-three wild-card round starting Tuesday. The last time they were in this position – two years ago hosting the Detroit Tigers – the Astros lost the first two games and that was that. I was at Game 2 with my childhood friend Perry Pepperell, and although we were disappointed, seeing each other for the first time in decades made up for it.
This time, I’ll be at Game 2 again – on Wednesday with my dear college friend Gerald Gummelt, thanks to his kind offer of an extra ticket. And thanks to my understanding UT Southwestern colleagues letting me take off work, I’ll drive down that morning and meet up with Gerald at Daikin Park.
I’m not going to focus on the fact that the Astros have lost seven straight home playoff games since 2023, when the visiting team won all seven games of their ALCS defeat to the eventual champion Rangers. Home hasn’t been kind lately to the Astros, who also had a losing record there this season. They’ve just got to figure it out against the White Sox, whom the Astros have beaten in five of seven meetings this year.
As sure as most people – even many Astros fans, even me – were that the team’s Golden Era had ended, they found a way to scratch and claw into the playoffs yet again. It took being in an American League that has underwhelmed all season compared to the National League and a division that may be one of the worst in MLB history.
But as the saying goes … just get in. Once you’re in the playoffs, anything can happen.
When they missed out last year, the Astros had more injuries than any team in baseball – including slugging DH/left fielder Yordan Alvarez, who appeared in only 48 games. For the first several months of this season, the same plague struck the team, but they finally got most of their players back after the All-Star break. Yordan, the hulking No. 44, missed only four games.
Not only did Yordan play, he dominated, earning two AL Player of the Month honors and setting himself up as the likely league MVP. For much of the season, he was on track for a rare Triple Crown (leading the league in average, home runs and RBI). Yordan fell off the HR and RBI pace late but still won the MLB batting title at .316, finished second in the AL with 42 homers and compiled 106 RBIs to also rank second in the league.
If he’s not a unanimous AL MVP, I’ll be stunned. He’s the definition of an MVP – without his huge presence, the Astros would’ve missed the playoffs by a hundred miles.
Meanwhile, future Hall of Fame second baseman Jose Altuve turned 36 in May and, although he dealt with the slumps that have become customary as he’s aged, he still managed to hit 16 HRs. His 131 hits pushed his career total to 2,519 and into a tie with Hall of Famer Todd Helton for 99th among MLB’s all-time leaders. Altuve continues to be booed lustily in every stadium the Astros visit, but that’s never bothered him – he just continues to hit pitches all around the plate and all around the diamond.
I have no predictions for what this Astros team might do in these playoffs. I know what they’re capable of if they play to their strengths. Much of the season, one pockmarked with inconsistency, they haven’t done that. But I have confidence they’ll make a good showing.
And I can’t wait.
Let’s go, Astros!!! It’s playoff time again!!! 
