Astros Magic Number: Houston has a long way to go after series loss to Yankees

Magic Number season is upon us.

Eric Cole

New York Yankees v Houston Astros / Alex Slitz/GettyImages

The Houston Astros had a real chance to both ruin the Yankees' lives as well as solidify their own playoff position this week. Unfortunately, after losing the series decider on Thursday, the Astros find themselves still in a tricky position when it comes to getting to the postseason while New York got bailed out in their own quest to lower their own magic number for 2025.

Before getting into the specifics of the Astros' magic number, it is important to remember that every team technically has two magic numbers: one to win the division and one to make the playoffs at all. Usually the playoff magic number (the combined number of team wins and nearest competitor losses to clinch any given playoff spot) is lower unless the three Wild Card spots are being taken up by teams with crazy strong records, but both numbers should matter to Houston fans wanting to know how the rest of the 2025 season needs to go for things to break the Astros way.

Astros Magic Number: Houston's playoff hopes could come down to the wire

As of the morning of September 9, the Astros' magic number to win the AL West currently sits at 17, while their magic number to make the playoffs at all is 15. Thankfully, the math is made easier by the fact that, for the moment, the team closest to them in the division, as well as the team whose Wild Card spot Houston could occupy, is the same as the Seattle Mariners, who have lost three straight to help the cause.

The good news is that the Astros remain two games up in the AL West thanks to the Mariners forgetting how to play baseball. The bad news is that not only do the Astros have little margin to work with, given that two current AL Wild Card teams (Yankees and Red Sox) have better records than them, but the Astros have arguably the hardest schedule of any AL playoff contender the rest of the way.

Of the Astros' remaining games, they only have seven home games with notable road series against the Blue Jays, Braves, Rangers, and Athletics. A three-game home series against the Mariners could be helpful, but Seattle winning that series would also mean that the Mariners would own the season series tiebreaker over Houston, which is less than ideal. It is also worth mentioning that the Rangers are currently surging, and they could factor into the picture, especially with two series against Houston this month.

In short, it is looking more and more like the Astros' playoff hopes are going to come down to the wire. They are starting to get healthy, but Houston is going to have to start playing better if they are going to hold on and get into the postseason.

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Eric Cole

I started my career writing about baseball covering the Atlanta Braves for SB Nation's Talking Chop back in 2015 which has since been renamed Battery Power. After years of writing for those fine folks, I made the decision to take over as Site Expert at House That Hank Built before becoming a full-time MLB Staff Writer for FanSided in 2023. Along the way, I have been a guest on multiple ESPN radio affiliates as well as 680 The Fan and 92.9 The Game to discuss Braves baseball and especially Braves prospects and was a long-time host on the Battery Power podcast. These days, I continue to write about the Braves as well as covering the Astros, Padres, and Angels with particular expertise with minor league coverage, the MLB Draft, and bashing Anthony Rendon when possible. When I am not writing about or talking about baseball (which is seldom), I am an avid baseball card collector (Maddux and Soroka being my primary personal collections) and I also collect shark teeth. All other sports are mostly dead to me as my Bills have broken my heart too many times.