The Astros Have Won 10 Straight And Can Pretty Much Put Their Feet Up And Wait For October
Over the weekend, the Astros became the first team in the majors to reach 40 wins on Saturday and then won their tenth straight game on Sunday. To put things in perspective, the first place Minnesota Twins don’t even have 30 wins yet. The first place Yankees have 32 wins. The first-place Brewers? 30 wins.
I’ve written this before, and it’s worth mentioning again here, but I fear that the Astros won’t get the appropriate credit for how good they actually are because of how awful their division is. Houston is the only team in the AL West with an above .500 record and a positive run differential. It’s an absolute garbage ass trash division, so it’s easy to point to that and say that the Astros just beat up on weak teams within their own division, which is true, but it doesn’t tell the whole story.
Houston has a winning record against every single team that they’ve played against this season except for the Cleveland Indians (1-5). They’re also 12-2 against the Orioles, Yankees, Tigers and Twins. All four of those teams are either at or above .500 (Tigers are 28-28) and play outside of the AL West, two of which are first place teams, so it’s not even like they’re just getting by against teams outside their division — they’re murdering them.
Over their 10-game winning streak, they have not one, not two, not three, but FOUR guys hitting over .400, and FIVE guys who have an OPS over a thousand. George Springer, Carlos Correa, Marwin Gonzalez, Carlos Beltran and Jose Altuve have COMBINED to hit .425 (82-for-193) with a 1.253 OPS, 12 doubles and 18 homers between them.
And it’s their offense that has essentially been the driving force behind this winning streak, because starting pitchers not named Dallas Keuchel — Mike Fiers, Lance McCullers, David Paulino, and Brad Peacock — have combined for a 4.54 ERA and 1.40 WHIP over the winning streak, while Keuchel has a 0.75 ERA in two starts with 15 strikeouts in 12 innings. Overall, Keuchel leads the MLB in ERA and is the only qualified pitcher in the majors with an ERA under two (1.67). He’s also 9-0 and on pace to win 26 games this year.
If you’re an Astros fan, perhaps that headline makes you panic a little bit and your jinx alarm might’ve gone off, but let’s be real here — the AL West doesn’t have a team that could even come close to challenging the Stros for the division crown. That, and the Astros could go .500 for the rest of the season and still win 93 games, assuming my math is correct there. Put those feet up, relax, and enjoy the rest of the regular season while you wait for October.