HOUSTON — The Astros’ path to the American League West championship in 2024 is unlike any of their previous division titles in the past decade. They were 10 games behind the first-place Mariners on June 18, and many forgot about them. The golden age of Astros baseball was slipping away.
We should all have known better.
Somehow, the Astros managed to rise from the ashes and take the division lead in late July before slipping away from it by the end of the summer. They clinched their seventh division title in the last eight seasons by getting home runs from Alex Bregman, Kyle Tucker and Jason Heyward to beat the Mariners, 4-3, at Minute Maid Park on Tuesday night.
“All of these games are special, but this one is even more special for me as a rookie manager,” Joe Espada said. “This team, what we’ve been through, the fact that we’re popping the champagne, it’s unbelievable. I never gave up hope. I knew we were going to be in a position to compete and win the Western Conference Cup.”
The Astros are in the playoffs for the eighth straight season – only the Dodgers can claim to have done so – and will host the best-of-three AL Wild Card Series in Houston next week against the AL’s No. 6 seed, which will be one of the Royals, Tigers, Twins and Mariners.
“I think we’ve gotten better as the year has gone on, every month,” Bregman said. “As a ballclub, sometimes we have our best month early on and I think ours is still ahead of us.”
Heyward, who signed a contract last month after the Dodgers let him go, hit a two-run home run off Logan Gilbert in the fifth inning to give the Astros the lead for good. Bregman homered in the first and Tucker in the fourth, giving Houston the only runners on base off Gilbert in four innings.
“Being one of the new players on this team at the end of the year is a cool experience and I’ll never forget it,” he said.
Astros starting pitcher Framber Valdez wasn’t at his best, allowing three runs and eight hits in 5 2/3 innings, but Houston’s trio of relievers Bryan Abreu, Ryan Pressly and Josh Hader slammed the door on Houston’s 13th division title. Hader struck out Julio Rodriguez for the final out, sparking an on-field celebration.
“I had tears in my eyes,” Espada said. “I’m emotional because I care about this team, I love this team and the fact that we’re in a position to compete for another World Series is something special.”
Astros slugger Yordan Alvarez, who suffered a sprained knee Sunday and missed the last two games, sat next to Espada on the bench in the final inning because he could sense the tension coming off his manager.
“They know how much I care about them and I really want this,” Espada said. “The fact that he sat down next to me and said, ‘Breathe, we’re getting there,’ I’ll never, ever forget what Yordan said.”
A champagne celebration seemed unlikely at one point when Cristian Javier, Luis Garcia, Lance McCullers Jr. and JP France — all expected to be key starters — suffered injuries or season-ending setbacks, throwing the bullpen into disarray early. Justin Verlander missed 2 1/2 months with a neck injury and returned too soon, he admits. All-star outfielder Kyle Tucker was out for three months this summer with a fractured tibia.
Espada never let his team forget the talent it possessed. He challenged his players to keep fighting despite the setbacks that piled up, including a 12-24 start to the season.
“I never gave up hope,” Espada said. “These guys stayed calm, and as their leader, I said, ‘I have to stay calm.’”
Things started to fall into place as the summer progressed.
Bregman overcame another slow start at the plate, young starting pitchers Ronel Blanco, Hunter Brown and Spencer Arrighetti stepped up to the plate, and finally, the addition of veteran left-hander Yusei Kikuchi via a July trade solidified the rotation. Houston’s division lead never dipped below three games after Aug. 14.
“I think a lot of it is the culture, and a lot of it is the guys in the locker room keeping the morale up,” Verlander said. “The players were a big part of it. Joe not panicking was a big part of it. There were a lot of team meetings early on. And I don’t think there was ever a panic like, ‘We suck, what’s going on?’ We were always like, ‘We’re better than this.’”
And now the Astros, whose 97 postseason games since 2017 are 24 more than any other team, will try to prove in October that they are better than everyone else.
“You just have to get your foot in the door,” Brown said. “That’s what we did. We have as good a chance as anybody.”
