The Houston Astros Clinched The American League West On The Final Day Of The Season, But Did Texas Fumble The Bag?

Yep, they are still the bogeyman. I’ll be honest: I wrote a blog last night about the Texas Rangers because I thought they clinched the American League West on Saturday (thank god we have editors). Given how they celebrated, it seemed they had nothing else to play for. 

Credit to Houston. They played some pretty iffy baseball down the stretch, but they came to play on the road when it mattered in the last two series. That’s kind of the story of their season. They have not been good at Minute Maid Park. But they’ve been great away from home. At the same time, I think this is a bag fumble by the Texas Rangers. They celebrated last night's playoff berth when they still had a division title to play for.

Making the playoffs is hard. I'm not going to knock any team for celebrating it, but it's well-known that these guys get drunk and fucked up after a champagne celebration and don't always have their wits about them the next day. They got shut out today by the Seattle Mariners, allowing Houston to win the American League West. 

As late as a week ago, I was on the verge of declaring Houston a pretender. I understand the pedigree, but something about this team just wasn't right. Minute Maid Park has weirdly been a house of horrors for them this year. But maybe there's something of a Golden State Warriors vibe, where the regular season is almost irrelevant to them. They're in the postseason now. They'll have a bye in the first round, and they will have Justin Verlander and Framber Valdez going in games one and two. This team is as dangerous as any in baseball.