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David sconfield
Ragtag, scrap Houston Astros Big, bad hosting Seattle mariners At the end of this week, in a series, including the closing of the series on the “Sunday Night Baseball” at ET at 7 pm on ESPN, in a series that can decide the American League West – as the pair is tied over the partition.
Whose waiting for?
This is correct. Astro, who has won seven consecutive full-time al-West Division title, is correctly described as an underdog. How are they even in this situation? They did business Kyle tuckerLost Alex Bramanman In free agency, most played without season Yordon alveragLost Jeremy Pena For more than a month, there are only two pitches with at least 15 start and are without it. Josh Hader From the beginning of August. In ESPN’s Presiden predictionsOnly three of the 28 voters chose him to win the division.
Meanwhile, Meriners are fighting to win their first division title since 2001. Only Miami marlins And Colorado RockiesWhich have never ended in the first place, and Pittsburg piratesThose who won in 1992, have gone for a long time without a division title. Nevertheless, when merriners acquired Eugenio Suarez And Josh Nyler On the time of trade, many pundits believed that they are now a defeating team in AL.
What will the Al West title decide in these last 10 days of the season?
The Astros and Meriners are tied at 5–5 in the season series, so who wins the weekend series will be the owner of all important tiebrekers. Texas RangersThe bus was swept away after Astro, but all have ended with the division of divisions, so it is just between Seattle and Houston.
Here are the five major questions of the division:
1. What will happen Cal rale Do you do for a final enclosure?
After killing under .200 in both July and August (still maintaining 17 domestic runs), Rale has been mixing some more solo with his domestic runs in September and is more than 1.000 OPS for the month at the beginning of the series. He has still missed only three games throughout the season and, Meriners are fighting for stretch for their playoff life, not missing a game since 23 July. Even with DH Games, it is an unprecedented charge (only) Jetty realmuto And William contrarus This season has caught more innings). It seemed as if Rale hit the wall a bit in August, but the playoff fever all eradicates fatigue.
In fact, rale Home runs runs And they have a large number of runners with runners-more than 1.000 with runners in scoring conditions and more than 1.100 in high-foot conditions, both have more than their overall season opes. However, Astros is a team consisting of Rale in 2025. To enter the series against Houston in 10 games, Rale has hit a domestic run and three RBI only .190/.244/.286.
2. Does Astro score go on without alverages?
Alwarz recalled 100 games with a broken bone in his hand before returning to the end on 26 August. He hit .369/.462/.569 in 19 sports. Astro ralled to win that game without him and the next two, but even after acquiring business deadlines Carlos Korea And Jesus SanchezThey are struggling to score runs several times. This is the worst crime for Astro since the reconstruction year of 2014 – in full sessions from 2017 to 2023, he scored 231 domestic runs per season before falling by 190 last year and just 169 in 2025.
Astros has not tasted on the return of Alvarez, but the manager who said on Wednesday that the third basman was injured Isaac paradesWhich is out with Hamstring Strain from July 19, “Later as soon as possible” may come back. But Korea was closed in the third base, where will the parades play? He could first play the base, though Christian walker The second half has been better. He can do DH, although it means playing Jose Altuve Every day in the field. If the alverages returns it, it seems that it will only be in the form of DH and not in the left area, where he started nine times since he came out of the injured list. Parades may play on some other basis, where he played 57 games in 2022-23. Finally, if Houston can somehow find both Alverages and Parade back, a lot of players will have a good problem.
3. Which bullpen will finish?
In late July, Astro finished fifth among big companies with 3.39 Bulpen Age, not only with Hader but also with less Herald names. Benet soa (At that time 2.66 ERA), Brian king (2.78 ERA) and Steven okart (2.98 ERA) – Like the header, all leftist. He left Brian Abrau Loan in the pen in the form of high-levels rights, so it was a clear concern whether the Lefty-Heavy Pen can catch.
In the opportunities to save his own with the header, Astro still rank in Major in the possibility of Bulpen winning, but he lasts on August 8 – and from the beginning of August, Houston’s Bulpen has a 4.53 ERA. The opportunities to save the filling opportunities for Abru Hader are 7 -for -8, but have allowed eight runs in their last seven innings entering the Seattle series. The king remains effective, Sosa and Okrt, so IL and GM Dana may return to some point during Postsen in the “Best-Case landscape” on Dana Brown. Astro also signed Craig Kimelle In mid-August, the scrap away from the pile and gave it some high-foot innings.
Mariners are ranked fourth in Bulpen WPA, so it has been a strength throughout the season, but both closer Andres monose And top setup man Matte brush Late has become slightly unstable. The Meriners saw the line winning 10-game winning on Wednesday, when Brash took a 4-3 lead in the eighth innings, which was given a two-run domestic run for light-hitting. Adam faragierThis was the second straight game of Brash, allowing the house to run and has 5.19 ERA in his last 19 demonstrations. Munose has a 1.54 ERA, but still seven udls have been managed (two of them were ghosts in the additional innings). He has been harassed very late. There will be no margin for error in these final games.
4. Which team will clean in the last week?
As long as there is a sweep at the end of this week, which makes some space between the two teams, the last week of the Games will decide the race. Meriners ended at home with six matches against Rockies and Los angeles doorsWhile Astro goes on the road to play Exercise And Los angels angelsKeep in mind with Detroit tigers Slipping late, number 2 seeds in Al Toronto Blue Jais Also lives in playing. Detroit is the owner of the tiebreaker over Houston, but the Seattle holds the tiebreaker on the date.
There is an increase in that factor Cleaveland guardian The team still has a shot in that third wild card (whether it is on Boston or Seattle-Houston Losser), and can end anywhere from other seeds in Meriners or Astros Postsen.
Seattle has played much better at home-48-27-so you like to sweep low Rockies, although the three best starts of meriners (Brian Wu, George Kirby, Logan Gilbert) Will begin against Houston. Dozers are far behind Milwauki Bruers And Philadelphia philis For one of the top two seeds, so they are already closed in a wild-card chain. Although the doors will still be struggling San diego padress For the title NL West that the last weekend, they will be worried about line -starting the first round series, so they can remember meriners Yoshinobbu yamamoto, Blake Snell And Shohi OhtaniBenefit Seattle?
On the other hand, Astro gets two teams that play out of the string. The angels, in particular, look like a possible sweep, even if the series is in Anahem. Benefits Houston? Well, the all-star break has exceeded the A.500 since the break, so it will not be an easy series.
Lower Line: Both teams can go 5–1 in that last week. Whoever enters the week with the lead will have an edge.
5. Can meriners remove their own history?
On paper, meriners appear as a better team, with more frontline talent and better run difference. Although they have gone through all the seasons fluctuations-usually depends on whether they are at home or on the road-a recent 10-game winning streak shows that they can be warm at the right time. Friday’s game seems like one of the most important of the entire season, a battle of ACES must be: Brian Wu vs Houston of Seattle Hunter Brown,
Even though these are not the same Astro we are used to see from 2017, it is a franchise that knows how to win, and this team has proved to be flexible beyond expectations, all injuries and patch-one walking together beyond the brown and beyond the rotation Frame WaldezSweep over Rangers showed how it is still a team that can step into big games.
Meanwhile, merriners come down with a playoff spot in the air in the last week, and their history is not good in this regard:
2024: A win by tigers and royals for wild cards decreased.
2023: Blue Jais wins for a wild card (and two wins from the Al West title).
2022: Made the playoffs for the first time since 2001.
2021: The last day of the regular season ended.
2016: Left two to play a game out of a wild card.
2014: A wild card reduced one win.
Baseball … It can be painful. However, when Meriners made the playoffs in 2022, Clining came from a young catcher called Blow Cal Rale, who picked up the ninth innings of the tie game and hit a walk-off home run, which sent merriners for Postsen for the first time since 2001.
It has been the season of Cal, one after the other. It is asking a lot, but he may need another week heroes.
