Astros clearly learned their lesson one year after wilting in playoff chase

Last season, the Houston Astros were hanging by a thread down the stretch.

Injuries plagued the team all season long. Former GM Dana Brown didn't/couldn't/wouldn't get pitching help for the team at the deadline. The bullpen suffered critical injuries after the deadline

All oif these things conspired to the Astros going 3-6 in their final nine games, all against division opponents. They lost 5 games in a row to Seattle and the Athletics. the two teams they will finish the season's last 6 games with this year. They missed the postseason on a tiebreaker. It was their first time out of the postseason since 2016.

This season, the Astros again are faltering down the stretch. They entered last night's game in Seattle having lost 10 of 14, turning a 3 game divsion lead into a 1 game deficit. Were the Astros about to have a repeat of 2025 and blow their postseason opportunity down the stretch?

The Astros put a stop to the bleeding last night in Seattle, at a park that has been a recent House of Horrors (2-8 last 10 games at T-Mobile Park entering last night). The catalyst being none other than the MVP frontrunner, Yordan Alvarez.

A team meeting in late September is never a good sign, but it paid immediate dividends for the Houston Astros.

Alvarez, already having a monster season, opened the scoring with an RBI single and closed it with a 2-run homer. Jeremy Pena, mired in a 7-week slump, led of fthe game with an infield single, stole second, and scored on Yordan's single. He was also hit by a pitch and scored on on Alvarez' 2-run shot in the 8th.

Isaac Paredes continued his hot hitting in September (.950 OPS entering play Tuesday in Sept) going 2x4 with a solo HR. His 23rd HR of the season has him 3rd on the team in HR and his 91 RBI rank second on the Astros.

Jose Altuve (.257 AVG, .284 OBP in Sept entering Tuesday) went 2x5 and scored. Christian Walker (.155 AVG, .210 OBP, .417 OPS is Sept entering Tuesday) launched a 3-run bomb for his 26th HR of the season.

Despite Cristian Javier's groin injury that took him out of the game after just two innings, the beleaguered Astros bullpen got seven shutout innings of three hit ball from Miguel Ullola, Bennett Sousa, AJ Blubaugh and Logan VanWey. You did not have them on your bingo card for shutout innings in a game Houston had to win in the month of September.

The team heard Yordan speak, and they responded. They showed they learned their lesson from last year, needing to come together as a team, demand better of each other and themselves, and fight for their division crown.

Tonight we will see how well they retained the lesson, but so far, they're on the right track.

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