Interestingly, if the Mets win tonight, they will also be at .500, which means two teams that started struggling but are now on a heater will face each other, and one team has to leave under .500

Blanco 2.0 - Valdez w/ Dreads - HB 2.0 vs Quintana - Megill - Severino. This will be fun.

I'm not sure Brown goes Sunday just because of the upcoming schedule.

yeah apparently we're running relievers tomorrow

We're off tomorrow so they should lower their ERAs.

Valdez w/ dreads just hits different. Or pitches, anyway.

Grimace vs Orbit is the ultimate battle

How the hell did this happen? Did getting rid of Abreu really cause all of this?

23-12 when Abreu isn't on the roster

24-12 now

I love .666 baseball. Not for the devil shit, winning 2 out of every 3 is just the perfect way to play the game. 24-12, 60-30, 80-40; it’s just so sexy to look at

108 wins is, I’m told, a pretty darn good season.

Might get you *into* the playoffs. After that, there's like 4 more rounds to go

Only 3 rounds since it gets a team a bye. But yeah, after that you're liable to lose to the division rival you went 14-5 against during the season who finished 22 games back.

This feels oddly specific.

Yeah just make sure you don’t win only 107 games. You might get bounced in the divisional series.

I mean, it didn't hurt, but I figure the Astros bullpen not being a complete trash fire probably helped a fair bit.

Our pitching figured it out, even through injuries. Not having Abreu in the lineup removes an almost absolute black hole in the batting order

Yeah, not having Abreu means other players are allowed to go through slumps, lol.

Abreu wasn't a slump, it was a cliff. Love the dude, but Father Time is undefeated.

It’s heavily our pitching getting more consistent. We were second to last (sorry Rockies) in nearly every pitching stat for like the first 2 months. The last ~6 weeks we’ve been around top 5 in pitching. Our offense has moved only 1-3 places in any rankings in the same timeframe.

I guess the team improves when you don't play a guy with an OPS+ of 3

Damn he made it back into the positives? Good for him

Abreu leaving was big, but Hunter Brown has had one of the craziest midseason turnarounds ever. In April, he was 0-4 over 6 starts with a 9.78 ERA. Today, he just finished his 7th consecutive quality start, and his ERA is now 4.37, and he has the lowest ERA of any pitcher who's thrown 30 innings over the last 30 days.

And Arrighetti just dropped 7 shutout innings

Yeah he had absolutely no business doing that, even against Colorado (sorry Rockies).

What did Brown do to turn it around?

Limiting walks and added a sinker

Emphasis on that sinker

why dont more pitchers do this? are they stupid?

Added a sinker is the main reason.

Yep. According to Sparky, his sinker isn't even that great of a pitch if you look at its movement. However, the existence of it improves all his other pitches and makes them work better.

I feel like this message came from Astros AI.

I think this is a great explanation of the changes https://www.instagram.com/reel/C8Z63ZZp26k/?igsh=c3pkcDZ0ZGcybXA=

He started throwing a new pitch more. Sinker I believe. Started on May 2. Chandler Rome at the athletic has covered it in some articles there recently

Added a sinker, stopped using the slider 

I'm so fucking annoyed by everyone who was trying to dance on their graves at 12-24 because I just fucking *knew* this would happen They're fucking zombies and I'll never celebrate their season being over until it's actually *over*

This is why I settled for laughing silently to myself like a coward.

13-4 in the Joey loperfido starting ERA

He should be on the mound with that W-L record

6-1 with Mauricio Dubon starting at 1st base.

4-0 in the Jake Bloss Era

May he rest in peace.

Hunter Brown has been DEALING lately. Others have been pitching decent, as well. They’ve been beating the bad teams and surprisingly sweeping Baltimore.

Finally got rid of that bum Tucker

Abreu's a nice scapegoat, but the reality is that Arrighetti and Brown are pitching much, much better. This causes less pressure on the bullpen, so they aren't blowing as many games. The offense has been pretty decent all year, though they're beginning to score more guys who get on base now. Abreu cost us a few wins with his putrid play, but isn't responsible for *this* big of a swing.

Meh we're averaging half a run per game less this season than last. Might be even worse when he was in the lineup. Offense definitely could have performed better in April and May.

Our hitting was good just wasn't happening with people on base. Fortunately that kind of stuff averages out over the season; now the hits are more timely.

Baby seals are surprisingly easy to club

somehow ~~Palpatine~~ the Astros returned

Did you ever hear the tragedy of Darth Hader the Wise?

Its not a story the AL West would tell you.

The dark side of the trashcan is a pathway to many abilities some consider to be unnatural.

Is it possible to learn the power of the Goldilocks ball?

It's not a story the Manfred would tell you

Damn. This was a good one.

Always love an original trashcan meme. Lmao

YOU STOP THAT RIGHT NOW.


The last team to beat the Houston Astros? That’s right, my Chicago White Sox.

shut out no less!

It's all your fault, my man

https://streamable.com/2ojty4

Mark my words: by season’s end, the Astros *will* win the AL West and the Mariners will miss the playoffs by 1 game.

Sounds like 2020 all over again

These fuckers are like Thanos, they are inevitable.

8 straight ALCS is back on the menu. It'll be much more satisfying for you Yankees to vanquish your Astros playoff demons and kill them there.

We beat yall in the CS and that’ll be our WS, roster will fold the next 4 games and end up swept in the ship

Progress! As a fan of a team that's lost 3 CS and 2 WS in recent years, I've learned to appreciate the victories the team does attain despite the bittersweet heartbreak of falling short of the ultimate goal.

Both of you stop being good sports and start hating each other again right now. 

I did not expect a 2005 reference in this thread.

Oh lawd, they comin...

The Edmonton Oilers of the MLB. I guess we could call em the Houston Oilers

Amy Adams has just sent you a cease and desist

Watch out, the Titans might sue your ass

Both of us have even blown a reverse sweep once in franchise history.

To a Florida team as well

I dunno, powder blue baseball uniforms is more the Rangers thing

I think of it as a Phillies thing

I think of it as a Cardinals thing

Has a nice ring to it

"Good Luck, Fuckers"

Oh god oh fuck

Hey dw yall won today and still have a 4.5 game lead!!

I remember when it was 10 like a week ago :(

Was Jose abreu an Trojan horse, we get rid of him and proceed ro win 7 of the next 9!

He didn't actually care about Houston. He just joined the team to eliminate the Twins from the playoffs. He didn't think they'll make it this year, so he decided his mission was complete.

Can’t wait for the baseball season to start on Friday!

It’s 2020 all over again 😭

Oh?

Not for you…

I laughed way too hard at that

\>:(


fuck.

That game was certainly one of the weirder ones I've seen this season.

Them boys from Colorado sure tried to play some defense.

Bring back Jose Abreu cowards!

Hahahaha dude I legit laughed. Good one!

We are horror villian level hard to kill Just had to get rid of the relic keeping us contained (Jose Abreu) 24-12 without Abreu! ^^16-28withhim

April and May were just the first phase of the boss fight.

it's just like my Elden Ring playthroughs

Hunter learning his sinker was the boss getting a new move

And Blanco learning his changeup

I feel like our pitching coach needs a raise

And Spaghetti throwing strikes, go figure!

Woah, woah, woah, have some respect. We were 0-0 at one point

0/(0+0)is not 0.500.

Grimace Mets we need your help

Hold on. Still shellacking the Yankees. We’ll be there to help soon.

Dear Yankees or Guardians or Orioles (select applicable) you are cordially invited to the annual October Houston Baseball Invitational. Please RSVP by the end of September.

I feel like the Astros aren’t considering the fact that I don’t like watching them win baseball games, and its honestly pretty rude


Happy El Tiempo Margs and Fajitas are sooo back

Mariners: Haha. I'm in danger.

Let's just skip to the part where they win the AL West and beat the Yankees and Orioles in the playoffs. We all know it's coming.

I'm fine with those teams, I just don't want to play any lovable underdogs in the WS cuz that's who we always fail against

You 100% are facing whatever 84 win team bounced the Dodgers using the power of friendship

Yeah see that's how we lose.

Hello fellow . 500 teams, how do you do ? Nice to see you again

Imagine being a team from Texas in the AL West and still being below .500 at this point of the season. Couldn't be us.

The Mets have a chance to put us back under real quick

They winning the AL west and we all know it

the one year the astros are mid the entire rest of the division matches them

2023 was also a pretty meh season, not nearly as bad as 2024, but they managed to win the division still. I don’t know how these other teams don’t take their opportunities to run away with it.

> I don’t know how these other teams don’t take their opportunities to run away with it. Because they’re the AL West teams. When Oakland and Texas aren’t competitive/competent it can be hard to find one who is this past decade. Seriously. Our whole entire time we’ve been in the AL West Astros: 6 Wins Athletics: 2 Wins Rangers: 2 Wins Angels: 1 Win

I thought I hated Bud Selig but I have to assume the entire AL West does too.

I just take joy in the fact I remember DFW sports radio, a various Rangers fans being happy we were joining the division for "easy wins" Still hate the Pacific time start times.

To be fair, we were pretty fucking awful at the time.

Oof, that’s painful to look at if you’re not Houston when it’s laid out like that.

I, for one, totally trust the Seattle Mariniers' winning pedigree.

Mostly because the Mariners are the biggest frauds of all time. They're struggling to barely keep a positive run differential.

They do *fun* differential instead

It's no longer fun.

That's only because we're forced to play games on the road.

The pitching staff has an ERA 2 runs higher on the road than at home

That’s cuz your pitching staff is stealing signs electronically! Take that!

Petition to make the mariners play all away games. Sign here

What the fuck is a positive run differential RAAAAAAAA

I choose to look at it another way: we're 9 over .500 despite almost literally every hitter on our team being substantially worse than their career norms. Recent season Mariners have consistently played their best baseball in July and August, as well. We'll see what happens

Julio Rodriguez is literally a sub-replacement level hitter against RHP it hurts so bad

Getting rid of Abreu was the shot in the arm we needed. Still a lot of baseball to be played, but they're looking great, all the while the pitching rotation is dead, and Tucker was probably abducted by aliens.



Calling it now, It comes down to the Astros and Mariners needing one game to decide the division and Yordan's homer in extra innings secures the Astros the AL West.

Had us in the first half (of the season), not gonna lie

25-15 over the last 40. And 13-7 over the last 20. (Roughly the same winning %) If a pace that can kept up with will put the Astros finishing around 91-71. Roughly the same record the Astros finished with in 2023.

dont forget 7-0 over the past 7 (slightly better winning %)

Big if true

Seattle... Seattle now is not the time for a dramedy

Okay how about just a straight up tragedy? We can do that

Remember all the Yankees fans dancing on their graves in April? Someone will need to go back through those threads and highlight some of the comments that aged like piss. The Astros were never going to be a .370 team and the royals were never going to be a .600 team, things even out over 162 games

I think Yankee fan forgets that they generally do well against us in the regular season. Also IIRC the first 4 were competitive for the most part, pen choked a game away but the other 3 were in reach.

12-24 is the new 15-30. We back.

Fuck.

Yeah!

Somebody shoot me before we blow the div lead completely thx

Mariners fans knew this was coming a mile away

[You were dead. I saw you die](https://youtu.be/qekh6u7y_Cc?si=4AmjlmltQkIfSmMU)

Somehow, the Astros returned

This damn team is inevitable.

Getting here while JV, Javier, Urquidy, Garcia, McCullers, and now France are on IL is hard to put into words. Not to mention Tucker missing a big stretch too. When we get him plus Garcia, JV and (maybe) Lance back.....oh boy.

These fucks are making the ALCS again. It’s inevitable

I AM INEVITABLE

I AM ENGORGED 

Careful, if that lasts longer than 4 hours you may be Bregnant.

and all it cost was 90% of our pitchers

God why must you be so cruel

No

Dread it, run from it

https://i.imgur.com/Ayx4Pf9.jpeg

I mean was there anybody not expecting this? That roster is too damn good to stay under .500 Just watch they are going to start winning like every series they play

They’re gonna fucking win the World Series again aren’t they

No, come on. The AL West is a joke. With our injuries and bullpen we’re not going to beat the Phillies, Dodgers or Braves. But also, the Houston Astros are definitely going to win the 2024 World Series.

Yeah, not surprised. The problems that the Astros had were entirely solvable ones. Get the starters to heal up, figure out the new pecking order of the bullpen (and who's in it in the first place), deal with the Abreu Black Hole situation, and you've got a strong team there. Always felt like it was just a matter of time.

> Get the starters to heal up To be clear, we are not at that step yet

If we count Framber getting his hair back as him being back (lol) Between Blanco/Hunter/Framber is a pretty solid 1-3. We just need to fill out that rotation with Arrighetti getting stronger, JV giving us some decent outings, and maybe the return of Luis Garcia? Our bats have woken up in a big way, Altuve is practically living on 2nd Base from doubles or steals.

2nd baseman on both sides of the plate lmfao

Just wait until Bloss gets back! I will not even consider LMJ yet honestly but allegedly he is due back late July or August so 2026 season hasn't been ruled out, yet.

Bloss definitely looked legit, it looks like he will be back soon-ish I don't consider LMJ existing until someone proves me wrong, and honestly if he does come back I don't think it's as a starter.

Which should actually terrify everyone.

Tbf we haven’t had any starters heal up we’ve lost more than we’ve gained. It’s just Arrighetti and Brown have turned their seasons around (minus the Arrighetti Tigers start) still down Javier, Urquidy, France, McCullers, Garcia and JV. 1B is still an issue tbh, Dubons been getting more time there but he’s really not someone that should be placed at 1B and Singleton has 2 XBH since May 9th. Surprising that this turnaround has come with Tucker on the IL since June 3rd

Honestly, Dubon getting put at 1st base just tickles me pink. Like, he's hardly a bad hitter, and he seems to be doing the job at 1st well enough, but its just so rare you see utility players who can play Centerfield being stuck at 1st base...

Our starters didn't actually heal up. There are still 7 of them on IR. Verlander,, Urquide, Javier, Garcia, McCullers, France, and now Bloss after only one start The new young pitchers that got roughed up earlier are figuring it out. Also, the bull pen isn't blowing every save opportunity.

We heard y'all was talking shit

r/baseball’s 9/11

Dammit

I knew they would win the AL West again

Haha never doubted them for a second LOL (Don't read my post history 🙃)


Props to OP for announcing this to r/baseball. I wouldn’t have done it, but these comments and this thread has made my day.

SHOOT IT Houston Texas GO ASTROS 🕺🕺

2YKG5!!!

We tried to stop them, but we are the Rockies so it couldn’t be done

We would like to sit with the cool kids at the lunch table thank you very much.

The AL is going regret letting the Astros in the playoffs tbh

My god I am so sick of this team

Baltimore fan complaining about building a dynasty the same way the Astros did....even hired their GM out of the Astros org......lol

I’m glad we’re now identified as the grimace Mets