The Houston Astros are going to the playoffs at 81-81. Not 81-81 as a wild card afterthought either. They won the American League West, and they did it on the last day of the season.
Houston handled the Athletics 9-0 in Game 162 and then watched the scoreboard. Texas lost to Minnesota 6-4, and that was the division. The Astros finished one game clear of the Rangers, who ended up 80-82, with Seattle a distant third at 76-86.
A Division Winner With Zero Games Over .500
This is new territory. Houston is the first team in a full MLB season to reach the postseason without a winning record, and 81 wins is the lowest total any playoff team has posted in a complete season. The AL West was bad enough that a .500 club walked off with the banner.
You can sneer at that, and plenty of people will. It still counts. Houston also earned the tiebreaker the hard way, taking nine of 13 head-to-head meetings from Texas, so the Rangers cannot claim they were robbed by a coin flip.
How They Got Here From 20-31
The Astros were 20-31 in the middle of May and looked finished. Injuries gutted the roster: Hunter Brown, Cristian Javier and Josh Hader all missed time on the pitching side, while Jeremy Pena and Carlos Correa lost stretches on the infield. By August they were in first place.
Yordan Alvarez is the reason. After being limited to 48 games a year ago, he hit 42 home runs and spent the final weeks chasing an AL batting title. A healthy Alvarez is still one of the five most frightening hitters alive, and he dragged a .500 roster into October essentially by himself.
The context makes it sweeter for Houston. The Astros missed the playoffs entirely last season, their first absence since 2016. This is now nine postseason trips in 10 years and an eighth AL West title, which is a run almost nobody in this sport sustains.
The Matchup: White Sox at Daikin Park
Houston drew the No. 3 seed and hosts the No. 6 seed Chicago White Sox in a best-of-three Wild Card Series starting Tuesday at 4 p.m. Central. The White Sox went 84-78, which means Chicago comes in with three more wins than the team hosting them. Seeding rules are seeding rules.
Houston did dominate the season series, and a short series at home with Alvarez in the middle of the lineup is a real chance. The winner moves on to face Cleveland, the No. 2 seed at 85-77, in the Division Series. Tampa Bay took the top AL seed at 98-64 and has a bye waiting.
The Verdict
Nobody should pick Houston to win the pennant. A rotation held together with tape all summer does not suddenly become October-proof because the calendar flipped. But three-game series are chaos, the Astros have been here more than any team in baseball, and they get the first two games at home.
A 20-31 start turned into a division title. Whatever happens Tuesday, that salvage job was the most impressive thing Houston has done in years.
A longtime sports reporter, Carlos Garcia has written about some of the biggest and most notable athletic events of the last 5 years. He has been credentialed to cover MLS, NBA and MLB games all over the United States. His work has been published on Fox Sports, Bleacher Report, AOL and the Washington Post.