Keep your eyes on the Mariners the rest of this month. 17 of their remaining 22 games are against the Angels, A's, and Rockies. That wouldn't mean anything if it was the Astros schedule, of course (lol).

They have the schedule, but the pressure is on. They have to take advantage of it.

The three against the Rangers next week are also key, that's three guaranteed losses to teams behind you.

I'm counting 9 green squares for ol' Teddy - not 8.

• Rangers suck
• COL >52W
• Diaz<80 RBI
• Yordan>25HR
• Yordan>80RBi
• Jake<.280
• Hader<30SV
• Hader<90K
• Judge<50HR

Edit: I think I see what's going on - I think Hader<30SV is incorrectly marked green.

Ag_07 said:

---

Ford just said on the radio broadcast that Urquidy's 3 WS wins is most ever for a foreign-born player.

---

that's a wild stat

Mariano Rivera (Panama) was only the winning pitcher of record twice in his 24 world series appearances

Framber has 2 WS wins. Luis Tiant had 2

also nice that the Rangers-Mariners play the same week the Astros play the Phillies

(in case things go rough at Citizens Bank)

Made a trip to HOU earlier this season with a bunch of family and bought some group tickets. Astros group sales forwarded me two tickets to Saturday night's game v DBacks. Not good seats, but free seats.

Sec 414
Row 15
Seats 21-22

Happy to give them to someone on this thread as a small thank you for all my lurking this season. Can forward via text. First to ask gets them.

Cody

W said:

---

also nice that the Rangers-Mariners play the same week the Astros play the Phillies

(in case things go rough at Citizens Bank)

---

Should be good matchups at CBP, Wesneski would be on five day's rest to start the first game, same with HB on Wednesday, or we could start Blanco on Tues and push both back to an extra rest day. I would think they might be more aggressive already having the rest day banked on Monday.

We will likely face Luzardo and Cristopher Sanchez, both pitching like all-stars, with prospect Andrew Painter probably in the middle game. We should miss Aaron Nola and Zach Wheeler.

CharleyKerfeld said:

---

Blue Jays up 5-3 on the Indians. Toronto is one of 3 teams along with the Rangers and Baltimore chasing Cleveland for the final playoff spot. Blue Jays would be up to 70-71 and 1/2 game out if they won.

Blue Jays went 17-11 in August.

---

The Blue Jays close it out 6-3.

It's a fun fact (for us, not so much Blue Jays fans) that in the final year of Springer's contract he has a .743 OPS while in the first year of Vlad Jr.'s (14 year/$500 million) deal he's sporting a .689 OPS after today's game.

Blue Jays 6-3 Guardians (Sep 3, 2026) Box Score - ESPN

2026 Toronto Blue Jays Statistics | Baseball-Reference.com

Baseball reference WAR for the season:
Springer .8 bWAR
Guerrero Jr. .9 bWAR
Myles Straw .7 bWAR

I fixed it.

Rays not doing us a solid, down 4-0 to Arlington

Rays havent won in South Okie in like 3 years.

https://t.co/idNaYCiVCv pic.twitter.com/NMcHxRDNdF

— HTXGOLFGUY (@GoatRanchHTX) September 3, 2026

I guess the only solution is to keep winning

linkdude said:

---

I guess the only solution is to keep winning

---

Astros against other AL playoff teams

Rays: 2-1
Yankees: 3-3
Red Sox: 5-1
White Sox: 5-2
Guardians: 4-2

Combined: 19-9 pic.twitter.com/VLCWrk378d

— Houston Rob (@The_Dr_Evil) September 3, 2026

All I do is Nguyen said:

---

Astros against other AL playoff teams

Rays: 2-1
Yankees: 3-3
Red Sox: 5-1
White Sox: 5-2
Guardians: 4-2

Combined: 19-9 pic.twitter.com/VLCWrk378d

— Houston Rob (@The_Dr_Evil) September 3, 2026

---

If they pull that off with this team, it will be the tastiest plate of crow I will ever eat.

CharleyKerfeld said:

---

Rays not doing us a solid, down 4-0 to Arlington

---

A's, on the other hand, have scored again on the top of the 9th, and are on the verge of pushing Seattle behind Houston by 6 games.

Waited to post until the final out. 18 strikeouts for Seattle and they lose 7-4 to Sacramento to fall 6 back with 21 games to go.

the Mariners are all but done

have to go 16-5 in their final 21 games to reach 82 wins

(I think the Astros will reach 82 wins)

Pena needs to get back on track down the stretch. 2 for 15 this series, 2 walks in the last 22 games. Not the prototypical leadoff hitter.

Cam could do us a solid as well and wake up. 6 for his last 54.

Wabs said:

---

Pena needs to get back on track down the stretch. 2 for 15 this series, 2 walks in the last 22 games. Not the prototypical leadoff hitter.

Cam could do us a solid as well and wake up. 6 for his last 54.

---

Peña has the same disease that Yainer and Altuve has…zero plate discipline. When he's in the funk he is now, the slider in the opposite batters box looks like a strike to him. It's why I wish we traded him when his value was at its peak earlier this summer. Come playoffs, he'll never see a fastball down the middle again.

Very true. We could have sold very high with Pena. I look at what Boston gave up to get Adley. Could we have gotten that kind of return for Pena? Me thinks so.

Again with trading Pena in the middle of a pennant race?

It was never gonna happen with the team being competitive.

Farmer1906 said:

---

Farmer1906 said:

---

Fangraphs Playoff Projections

Team - Make Playoffs - Win Div - Clinch Bye
Astros - 67.9% - 64.4% - 20.2%
Rangers - 25.4% - 18.8% - 2.6%
Mariners - 18.8% - 16.8% - 1.4%

AL Clinch Bye Odds
Rays - 81.0%
White Sox - 57.3%
Astros - 20.6%
Yankees - 18.2%
Guardians - 17.0%
Rangers - 2.4%
Mariners - 1.4%
Red Sox - 0.8%
Tigers - 0.3%

---

Team - Make Playoffs - Win Div - Clinch Bye
Astros - 73.0% - 70.0% - 26.6%
Rangers - 27.9% - 19.6% - 3.5%
Mariners - 12.0% - 10.3% - 1.0%

AL Clinch Bye Odds
Rays - 82.6%
White Sox - 49.5%
Astros - 26.6%
Guardians - 17.7%
Yankees - 16.1%
Rangers - 3.5%
Twins- 1.6%
Red Sox - 1.3%
Mariners - 1.0%
Tigers - 0.1%

---

Team - Make Playoffs - Win Div - Clinch Bye
Astros - 78.3% - 73.3% - 34.8%
Rangers - 32.4% - 18.0% - 4.9%
Mariners - 11.5% - 8.73% - 1.2%

AL Clinch Bye Odds
Rays - 74.4%
White Sox - 43.8%
Astros - 34.8%
Yankees - 25.0%
Guardians - 13.7%
Rangers - 4.9%
Twins- 1.5%
Mariners - 1.2%
Red Sox - 0.6%
Tigers - 0.1%

W said:

---

the Mariners are all but done

have to go 16-5 in their final 21 games to reach 82 wins

(I think the Astros will reach 82 wins)

---

Yup, they just need to go on a mini-run when they play Arlington but otherwise keep sucking. I look at all the talent on their roster and I just can't process how they're this bad...AND I LOVE IT!!!!

Amazing what winning can do. Our playoff chances got down to what 40% last week before the New York trip?

It's been a fun 1.5 weeks and hopefully we catch fire in October. This is definitely a team with peaks and valleys… just need to hit the peak at the right time.

I'd still favor us in a wild card against any team that gets the 6 seed, and then an ALDS against Chicago really could go either way. But a 5-2 season series win gives me a lot of confidence that we could make an ALCS run

tjack16 said:

---

Amazing what winning can do. Our playoff chances got down to what 40% last week before the New York trip?

It's been a fun 1.5 weeks and hopefully we catch fire in October. This is definitely a team with peaks and valleys… just need to hit the peak at the right time.

I'd still favor us in a wild card against any team that gets the 6 seed, and then an ALDS against Chicago really could go either way. But a 5-2 season series win gives me a lot of confidence that we could make an ALCS run

---

We should be favored against Cleveland and Chicago. That is one of the reasons why it was so important for me to make big moves at the deadline. We should be able to pass Chicago. That would mean beating the winner of the Chicago/Cleveland series for a trip to the ALCS, somewhere we haven't been since 2023. Then it's not like the Rays, Yanks, or Sox are some world beaters. The stars aligned for us in the AL this year, yet we refused to put ourselves in a strong position because Dana/Jim were incompetent.

W said:

---

the Mariners are all but done

have to go 16-5 in their final 21 games to reach 82 wins

(I think the Astros will reach 82 wins)

---

82 wins mean we finish 10-11. If we can't do that, then we don't deserve the postseason.

We sit at 72-69, 21 left to play. Texas is at 70-71 and Semen are 66-75. They also have 21 left.

If we go 11-10 and get to 83 wins, Seattle has to go 17-4 just to tie and they have to hope Texas is worse than 13-8 because of tie breakers. Texas needs to go 14-7 because of tie breakers.

Us playing .500 ball is believable. But I don't see Texas playing .666 and Seattle playing .810 ball.

Sneak in an extra win and get to 84 and it's really hard. That puts Seattle at 18-3 (.857) to tie and Texas 15-6 (.714). That's not happening.

Short version is we are now at the point where Texas or Seattle getting hot for a run won't be enough. They have to hope we cool off just a hair at the same time. If we just keep playing .500 ball they have to get crazy hot. And Seattle has to get stupid crazy hot and hope Texas doesn't.

For the mythical 3 way tie, basically between them they can't afford 12 total losses. And they have 3 guaranteed when they play each other. I can't see a 3 way happening. In fact, if either one of them wants a realistic shot, they need to sweep the other when they play. Those 3 guaranteed losses in that series are massive for both of them. I think we want them to split, and it's mostly doesn't matter who takes the 2 wins. It's the losses that matter.

Astros Bingo Update: 9-4-26
Spreadsheet Link

Today's Mood in GIF Form


GOAT REPORT
Hit #2,495 was also home run #270 for Jose Altuve yesterday afternoon. The hit tied him with Mickey Vernon for 103rd all time. Vernon is a fascinating anomaly, a first baseman who played largely in the 1940s and 1950s who had virtually no home-run power in the era where that was the thing to be at first base. Vernon only hit 172 home runs in a 20-year career, and 64 of those came in his mid-30s.

Not sure if they had steroids in the 1950s, but something definitely switched as his career-best season came at age 35 when he won the batting title with a .337 average while playing for the Senators, and racked up 101 runs scored, 205 hits, 43 doubles, 11 triples, 15 HR, and a whopping 115 RBI. While the phrase "thank you for your service" has gotten pretty clich over the years, there is an interesting footnote for Vernon. He served in the Navy in 1944 and 1945 in Hawaii and in the South Pacific as the US took it from the Japanese.
While he didn't see any combat time, he did make friends with a 20-year-old sailor who had unheard of aspirations of making it to the big leagues himself some day.

The sailor's name was Larry Doby, and two years after the war ended, he was the second Black player to make the big leagues. When baseball returned to full-time play in 1946, Vernon sent Doby a supply of bats to use in the Negro Leagues and Vernon wrote a letter to Senators' owner Clark Griffith to scout and sign Doby if the leagues integrated. Griffith did not, but when Doby debuted with the Indians in 1947, Vernon was one of his few vocal supporters. In one of the most unlikely circumstances ever, Vernon was traded to the Cleveland Indians in 1949. They remained friends for the rest of their lives.

Astros Flashback: September 4, 2023: The unlikely pairing of Jose Altuve and Mauricio Dubon become the first Astros' teammates to have back-to-back home runs twice in the same game. It's against the Rangers as Houston wins 13-6. The dingers are Dubon's 8th and 9th and Altuve's 11th and 12th. The Astros get a bomb from Yanier Diaz as well. Diaz is hitting .283 with a .538 slugging percentage and an .843 OPS and is quoted as saying, "I'll be this good forever!" The back-to-back jobs take place in the 6th and 9th innings. Fast forward to 7:25 of this video to see a fantastic error by Corey Seager.



HOFA is off for the weekend, someone must take up my heavy burden for the next 3 days.

Let's go on an 18-3 run and get 90 wins just to make Jankee fans angry.

Ag_07 said:

---

Again with trading Pena in the middle of a pennant race?

It was never gonna happen with the team being competitive.

---

Define "competitive".

BTKAG97 said:

---

Ag_07 said:

---

Again with trading Pena in the middle of a pennant race?

It was never gonna happen with the team being competitive.

---

Define "competitive".

---

Being the biggest dwarf and being good enough to win this disaster of a Division.

Taking the family to the game tonight in the diamond club … my son asked if we'll be on TV and "are you going to do a beer dong?"

I was talking to a buddy of mine about magical sports runs and memories that you don't fully appreciate until after.

For me that 2017 season will never be replicated until a&m wins a national title. Just the fun nature of how that season progressed, how fun the postseason was because we really had zero expectations besides don't lose in the first round.

I'd equate it to if that 2012 Aggie football team made a playoff run (if the 12 team playoff was a thing that year).

I'm hoping this postseason provides something similar. Zero expectations, just play with house money and make a run like the 2006 cardinals/2019 nationals/2023 Rangers and DBacks