Houston Astros, Major League Baseball

Astros the team to beat in MLB

By JOE SOUTHERN, Sealy News
Posted 10/1/19

The 2019 season is a numbers game for the Houston Astros.

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Houston Astros, Major League Baseball

Astros the team to beat in MLB

Posted

The 2019 season is a numbers game for the Houston Astros.

The 107 wins are a franchise record.

Their three-consecutive 100-plus win seasons are the sixth in Major League Baseball history.

Four players (Jose Altuve, Yuli Gurriel, George Springer, Alex Bregman) have more than 30 home runs.

Justin Verlander threw his 3,000th strikeout and pitched his third no-hitter. A group of Astros pitchers also combined for a no-hitter.

Gerrit Cole became the first player in MLB history to have nine consecutive double-digit strikeout games and is the fourth with 21 or more double-digit strikeout games in a single season. He tossed 326 strikeouts this year.

The Astros set a single-game scoring record with 23 against the Orioles.

These, and many more records, add up to make the Astros the No. 1 seed throughout the playoffs.

Houston’s bid to “Take it Back” gets on track Friday with Game 1 of the divisional series at 1:05 p.m. when the Astros host the winner of the wild card game between the Oakland A’s and Tampa Bay Rays, which was played late after press time on Wednesday. Game 2 of the best of five series is at 8:07 p.m. Saturday at Minute Maid Park. Both games will be televised on FS1.

Games 3 and 4 are away next Monday and Tuesday, and Game 5, if necessary, will be home on Thursday, Oct. 10.

The winner of the divisional series will face the winner of the series between the Minnesota Twins and New York Yankees for the American League Championship Series and the right to go on to the World Series.

On the National League side, the top-seeded Los Angeles Dodgers will face the wild card winner Washington Nationals. The winner of that series will meet the winner between the Atlanta Braves and St. Louis Cardinals.

Houston Astros, Major League Baseball