6 Astros players whose struggles in September have hurt the team's playoff chances

Having gone 9-13 so far in the month of September, it is safe to say that the final month of the season has been very disappointing for the Houston Astros. After they finally wrestled the division lead away from the Rangers and Mariners, they allowed the Rangers to play their way back into the race and Houston now finds themselves 2.5 games back in the AL West going into the final week of the season.

So who is to blame for the Astros' struggles in September? Well, that isn't as easy a question to answer as one might think. The pitching staff has born the brunt of the blame and Dusty Baker hasn't exactly pushed the right buttons with his game management, but it isn't like there haven't been some hitters that have stunk things up as well. So, we must dig deeper to find the biggest offenders.

Here are 6 Astros players whose struggles in September have hurt the team's playoff chances

The focus here is mostly going to be on players that had actual expectations of playing well. At this point, no one should be surprised that Martin Maldonado can't hit, so he doesn't make the list even though he clearly hasn't been pulling his weight. Some of these players haven't been terrible, but generally have been expected to do more and have come up short over the 2023 season's final month. It will make sense as this goes along.

Let's take a look at some of the Astros players that have come up short in September when the team really needed them.