The Astros entered play last night with a magic number of one to secure their spot in the postseason. Unfortunately the club would lose a tough one to the Rangers in 10 innings, needing some help from the Dodgers to secure their place in the postseason.
With that tough loss in the books, the club had to sit back and see if the Dodgers would provide their needed help to secure their spot, and that is exactly what they would do, beating the Angels last night 9-5. That Dodgers win securing the Astros spot as the second place winner in the AL West, which gets them in the postseason in this years expanded postseason field in Major League Baseball. The club is locked in as the sixth seed in the American League and depending on how the next two days go for the Oakland A's, Minnesota Twins and Chicago White Sox, the Astros will face one of those three teams in their ballpark starting on Tuesday for the first round, in a best of three game series.
For the fourth straight year, Houston will play postseason baseball, the fifth time in the last six seasons. Their run of AL West crowns comes to an end this year with Oakland winning their first division title since 2013. This marks the fourteenth time in Astros history that the club has made the postseason and their seventh time since the 2000 season when they moved from the Astrodome, to Minute Maid Park. Their run of four straight seasons of making the postseason is the longest streak in franchise history, breaking the previous mark of three straight years, that they tied a year ago and originally set when they won the National League Central division three straight years, between 1997 and 1999.
For Dusty Baker, he makes the postseason for the tenth time in his twenty three years as a big league manager, now making it to October with every club he has managed in his career. Baker made the postseason three times in his ten seasons with San Francisco, including a World Series appearance in his final season with the Giants in 2002, falling to the Angels that year in seven games. His next stop would come with the Chicago Cubs, making the postseason just once in his four years with Chicago, falling to the Florida Marlins in the NLCS in 2003. Following his stint with Chicago, Baker would manage the Cincinnati Reds for six seasons between 2008 and 2013, leading the Reds to three postseason appearances, all three coming in his last four years with the club. Dusty took over the Nationals managerial job in 2016 and would lead that club to October in each of his two seasons in DC, falling the NLDS both years, despite winning 95 or more games in the regular season each year. Overall, Baker is now 1892-1665 in his managerial career, ranking 15th in all-time managerial wins. Lifetime in the postseason, his record sits at 23-32.
The Astros have two games remaining in this shortened sixty game season for Major League Baseball. If they can win each of the last two games, they will extend their streak of seasons with a winning record to six straight years. If they were to drop the final two, they will finish with a losing record for the first time since 2014.