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Astros 2024: This day in the Renaissance Era

As our friends with Monty Python might say, now for something completely different.

Just because I can, today we look back at what happened after the games of August 27 every season since 2015 and where the Astros ended up at the end of each season. 2015 was, of course, the turnaround playoff season for the Astros after wandering through the desert of last-place finishes, including three 100-loss seasons.

2015

After the August 27 games, the Astros were 71-57. Surprisingly, they were leading the AL West by 5 1/2 games over the Rangers and 6 games over the Angels.

At the end of the season, the Astros were 86-76 and had been overtaken by the hard-charging Rangers. Texas led the Astros by two games to take the AL West crown and the Astros were one game up on the Angels. That was important as the Astros were the last team into the playoffs, making and winning the single elimination wild card game against the Yankees (God bless you, Dallas Keuchel). They came oh so close to the ALCS, falling to the future world champion Royals after the Game 4 meltdown with a 4-run lead in the eighth.

2016

Having great expectations after the 2015 playoff run, the Astros went 7-17 in April and dug themselves a huge hole with poor early-season play. By the time August 27 was through, the Astros were 68-61, tied with Seattle but trailing the Rangers by 7-1/2 games in the West. They were also 2 games out of the second Wild Card spot.

After a so-so run down the stretch, they ended up 84-78, 11 games behind the Rangers and 2 games behind the Mariners in the division. They had also fallen 5 games out of the Wild Card race and headed home for the offseason. They would not miss the playoffs after this.

2017

The team was rocking and rolling through most of 2017 but struggled through a poor (11-17) August. Despite this, after the games of 2017, they were 79-51 and 13-1/2 games up on both the Angels and the M’s in the West. The malaise they suffered in August was snuffed out in the last few minutes of the month as the team went for it and traded for Justin Verlander from the Tigers.

The Astros finished the season at 101-61, leaving the Angels (21 games back) and the Mariners (23 games back) in their dust. After marching through the Red Sox in the ALDS and the Yankees in the ALCS, the team went where no Astro team had ever gone – a championship parade after a nailbiter of a World Series win against the Dodgers.

2018

They were even better in 2018 than 2019, but it was a bit more of a catfight. After games of August 27, they were 81-50 and finished the day 2-1/2 games up on the A’s and 7 up on the Mariners.

They continued cruising until the end of the season and ended up with a club record (at that time) finish of 103-59. The A’s were six games back and the M’s slid to 14 back of the Astros. The Astros quickly swept the Guardindians, but then ran into a cheating buzzsaw (hey, that’s what teams called us after 2017) in the Alex Cora-led Red Sox. The Sox went on to win the World Series after eliminating the Astros in the ALCS (thanks Joe West).

2019

This was a tremendous team that was on the way to the franchise’s best regular season ever. On August 27 they had an 86-47 record as they led the A’s by 8-1/2 games and the third place Rangers by 22.

They kept the pedal to the metal to the end of the season and ended up with the franchise record finish at 107-55. The A’s were a pretty good team that season but ended up 10 games back and the Rangers were 29 games back in the division. The Astros struggled with the Rays but won the ALDS 3-2, and then, of course, Jose Altuve walked off the ALCS with a homer against the beloved (where’s my sarcasm font) Yankees. But the Nationals came out of nowhere to win it all in a road team wins every time World Series.

2020

The strangest baseball season of our lifetimes was a 60-game affair, which meant that August 27 fell right after the mid-point of the COVID-delayed season. The Astros were 17-14, 4 games back of the A’s, but 5 games in front of the M’s in the AL West. This put them in the seventh spot in an eight-team expanded playoff race – 2 games ahead of the ninth-place Orioles.

Side Note – This year, the Astros did not play between games on August 25 and 29. They had a day off and then lost one game to Tropical Storm Laura (I’d forgotten) and one game to a racial justice boycott (I tried to forget).

The Astros, who had been pillaged with injuries in 2020, primarily to their pitching staff (sound familiar?) limped home and finished the season at 29-31, 7 games behind Oakland, 2 games ahead of the Mariners, who they nudged out for the last Wild Card spot. They helped the Twins continue their playoff winless streak in a two-game sweep, knocked off the superior A’s in the ALDS and after falling behind the Rays 3 games to 0, came roaring back and within a hit or two of a totally undeserved World Series Appearance. The Rays went on to lose to the Dodgers in the WS.

2021

The Astros had a solid season in 2021, and by August 27, they were 76-52, 6 1/2 games ahead of the A’s, and 7 1/2 ahead of the Mariners.

Moving on to the end of the year, they ended up 95-67, 5 games up on Seattle and 9 games up on Oakland. The Astros rolled through the White Sox in the ALDS and the Red Sox in the ALCS, but they were tripped up by a hot Atlanta club with their timely home runs and shut-down bullpen.

2022

By August 27, the Astros were coasting. They led the Mariners by 11 1/2 games and the Rangers by 22, with an 81-47 record.

They ended the season with the second-best regular season record of all time at 106-56. The Mariners (16 games back) and the Angels (33 games back) were specks in the rear-view mirror. With a lot of help from first Yordan Alvarez and then rookie Jeremy Pena the Astros rolled past the Mariners and the Yankess (who else) into a matchup with the Phillies. The series turned on the combination no-hitter led by Cristian Javier and rode Pena’s hot bat and one of the biggest home runs in Astros history from Yordan Alvarez to their second parade (and first one not spat upon) in a six-year period.

2023

The Astros struggled with injuries again between Altuve, Alvarez and a good chunk of their rotation. On August 27 they were 74-58 and tied with the Rangers one game back of the Mariners. Some late good play and good fortune led them to a 90-72 record, which tied them with the Rangers (who they held a tiebreaker over) and two games up on the M’s.

The Astros knocked out the Twins again in the ALDS but lost a bitter ALCS to the Rangers. The Astros fell four times at home in the seven-game series, including the last two. They watched the Rangers roll to an easy 4-1 WS win over a D’Backs team ripe for the taking.

2024

So here we are in 2024. The Astros came away from the August 27 games with a 70-62 record and a 3 1/2 game lead over the Mariners, with the World Champion Rangers 9-1/2 back. Will they hold this lead and give us another playoff run this season? We sure hope so.

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65 responses to “Astros 2024: This day in the Renaissance Era”

  2. Is there a moral to this story? All I know is that we do take a lot for granted. Our expectations are beyond lofty. It’s amazing what Astro clubs have been doing since 2015, which was one of my favorite seasons until late in game 4 of the ALDS.

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  5. Good morning. I feel bad for Chas today. He has been a solid major leaguer for three years, and without his breakout season in 2023, we likely don’t get to the post season last year. I do wish Chas had been sent off to Sugar Land a month ago. But there is still a month of regular season baseball to be played. Maybe Chas will find what’s been lost. I still think he has more upside in the outfield than all but Alvarez and Tucker. Maybe Heyward will provide a spark like Gamel already has.

    We sure need Yordan to start hitting in his home park. That would be a big help. I’d like to see Jose DH a bit more. Maybe that gives Whitcomb a few more starts at second base. And Bregman has to hit in September as he has in August.

    A win a tonight would be a good start. There’s no need to be looking over our shoulder. We still control our own destiny.

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  7. Thoughts

    • Kind of a crummy way to lose the no-hitter yesterday – I was not sure if Joe took out Bregman because he got conked in the helmet after Yordan’s 2nd homer. Whitcomb made a pitiful play on the first “hit” – I wish he had done a better job grabbing at it – if he had missed it with a full glove on it – it could easily have been an error.
    • I’m not sure anyone thought we would be where we are right now with Hunter Brown and Spencer Arrighetti based on where we were about 2-1/2 to 3 months ago.
    • Arrighetti is just nasty – good velocity – great location – lots of late break on his breaking pitches.
    • Chas hits a homer much like the ones he launched so often last season – to right / right center – in his swan song. Can’t blame the team – he has been awful at the plate so often this season – especially this last month or two.
    • I think they said that Yordan has hit 22 of 28 home runs on the road and the last one he hit at home was 2 months ago. That seems insane – you would have thought he would have run into a few in that time period – baseball is a very weird game.
    • It is amazing to see Yordan in the groove – you can’t get a pitch past him it seems and he effortlessly launches them.
    • The umps made the right reversal on Gamel’s bid for a home run – Meyers did a great job picking up the team after that – driving the two guys in any way.
    • The Phillies must be really short on pitchers to leave Tajuan Walker out that long. I think it was 13 hits in 6 innings. Yikes
    • The team needs to come home and grind some out against the Royals. The M’s have an apparently easier foe in the Angels, so the Astros need to get rolling and winning tonight with the Mariners off would be a great start.

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    • Does it though? I don’t like whatifisms, but if there is no runner he isn’t in the stretch and throws different pitches in different spots. Terrible way to see a chance at a no-no, but it was the 8th not the 9th. Happens in the 9th it’s soul crushing.

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      • But Steven, we specialize in whatifism’s here at Dans place!

        To be honest though, I was thinking no hitter when I noticed he had gotten through 5 innings with 53 or 54 pitches. But then he threw about 25 in the sixth. And I did not want Arrighetti out there throwing more pitches than he should be right now.

        Based on the way he’s pitching today, I’m more and more inclined to think he’s got a pretty good career ahead of him. Hopefully he’ll have other no hit opportunities.

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  9. I’m gonna go with Hummel as the candidate to make room for Heyward. Just a guess. He’s thirty and I’m thinking there is an logjam with Chas being added to Sugarland OF.

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  10. Told my brother yesterday Chas would get sent to Sugar Land with Heyward on board. He needs a chance to improve. Hope when Carantini and Gamel are in the same game Espada moves Pena out of the 4-hole with one of those guys. Pena consistently hits FC and or ground outs to the IF during his AB’s with the bases juiced

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  11. I’m a little surprised.

    I’ll say this first – Chas has been a substandard hitter for all of the season. Not some of it, not a bad stretch, all of it. 2024 is just not a Chas year.

    That said player evaluation isn’t just what a guy HAS done, past tense. It’s an amalgamation of what you see in at bats, how patient is he, does he or the pitcher control the zone in most at bats, how hitters pitches is he missing, how many pitchers pitches is he putting in play, etc.

    When I look at Chas, he is a guy with an increased K rate, lower EV, 8% less solid contact %, everything about him says he is struggling. But when I watch him bat, yes, I am seeing no result, but I’m seeing what looks like, in terms of selection and swing path and swing speed, the same guy. Sometimes when confidence is wrecked, it just wrecks the rest of it. The doubt takes the instinct out of it and makes you start pressing to be decisive. I’ve been in both places as a hitter, where I was seeing beach balls and not even thinking about my swing, and times where I couldn’t get out of my own way and was thinking about every small movement. The speed of the game is already amazingly fast, it has no room for doubt. He just got in a funk mechanically and confidence wise, and stayed there.

    I still think of the available options out there, Meyers, Dubon, Heyward, Gamel, etc., he has the most upside. I’m just looking at the guy and his at bats. But he has to get out of his own way. It’s tougher than it sounds. Sporadically playing and seeing your name at the 9 spot day in and day out when you do play, they can play on you too.

    2024 is a season he needs behind him. We might see him at roster expansion unless they go with Cesar so Yainer can play more 1B, but I really expect an OFer, and it might be Chas until Tuck is ready. If not, go get 3 weeks of putting this year behind you, because he could still be this teams opening day LFer next year. Not saying he will be, or should be, but that he can be.

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    • Steven, I made the shorter version of the same point early this morning. I’m sure not ready to give up on Chas. Whether it be in September of 2024 or March of 2025, he’s our best option out there based on his 21-23 seasons. And this is another whatifism, but what if Gamel and Hayward do nothing going forward?

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  13. Pressley is back. Janson Junk was DFA’d to make room for Heyward on the 40-man. Bryan King was optioned to SL to make room for Pressly on the 26-man roster.

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  14. I hope Chas can get his mojo back in SL. But we can’t use a pennant race as a rehab assignment for whatever is wrong with him.

    I hope Heyward is better than his numbers show. Can’t be worse than Chas, though.

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  15. Nice to see a lineup with every player having a BA over .200. Now let’s see what they can do at home. KC has a pretty good team this year.

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  16. Having internet problems (again) tonight. New provider installation scheduled for Saturday afternoon. F___ Spectrum!

    Looks like the new guy is doing pretty well while I wasn’t looking. Good on ya!

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  17. stupid! Stupid! Stupid! Hunter pitching a good game. Let’s bring in Abreu who proceeds to give up 2 hits and 3 runs later we’re down 1. And let’s not forget the error by Pena which started it all.

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    • Said something to the ump about a third strike that was clearly not a strike. He didn’t really get animated, but who knows what he said. Whatever he said, triggered Karen the umpire. So thousands of people wearing Bregman jerseys that came to see him got to watch the umpire instead. There are plenty of times players or coaches give the umpire no choice, this was not one of them, unless he had made fun of his cat. Maybe then.

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  19. Zanuda, not sure if you were watching the game, but Pena started the problem by blowing an easy grounder. Then Whitcomb started a very slow DP that only gave us one out. And with two outs and two on, Abreu was out of the inning if Whitcomb makes an easy play on a weak chopper. He’s played enough baseball to ignore the baserunner going by. Three bad defensive plays in the inning. And if you were to look closely, that low velocity ball down the line that cost us 3 runs and the lead was given up on by Gamel. I know a couple of guys that would have laid out for that ball.

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    • Pretty lame after seeing Doobie go into the wall like that the other day. Not good news.

      Thanks for the update, Dave.

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    • I was in an out of watching the game so I missed the plays you mentioned. My bad! Thanks for the clarification. Also, Heyward came through with a key hit. So kudos to him. I’ll re-watch that inning and try to keep up with the game.

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  21. Oh well, the baseball gods must have felt sorry for us as the Royals give us a win with their bad defense. Key at bats by Dezenzo and Dubon help get the win. I’m pleasantly surprised to say the least. OK, I ecstatic!

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    • “Key at bats by Dezenzo and Dubon help get the win.”

      Two other key at bats by Doobie and Meyers with RISP were awfully pathetic, too. So that’s the other side of the coin.

      IMO, whether it should have been McCormick or Meyers to go to SL is a tossup. Advantage Jake because of the speed in center field.

      Ugly win. Still better than a pretty loss. I just hope my internet works better tomorrow. Since my new ISP won’t be installed until Saturday. Spectrum goes down every time it rains within 75 miles of my house…..

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  23. Good morning!

    The Astros lead their division by 4.0 games.

    Hunter Brown looks more and more like a an upper end of the rotation starter.

    Yordan hit the ball hard all night in his home park.

    Seth Lugo pitches tonight. He’s thrown 172 innings already, easily the most of his career. His ERA is 5.20 since the All Star break. Hopefully this trend continues tonight.

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    • According to CBS Sports, he came in for treatment today and his elbow is sore.

      I see a position change sometime next year for whomever he plays for.

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      • Well, it’s CBS. So I don’t believe a word of it.

        I’m not going to concern myself with Alex Bregman’s career, either. Except as a curiousity in passing. Whatever happens to him doesn’t concern me in the least.

        Bigger fish to fry, brother.

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  25. Yeah, I just am not seeing Yainer running through Salvy Perez at 1b the way he did last night.

    Likewise, I don’t see him driving his car into a bridge abutment, either.

    That dude is YUGE!

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    • Do not speak ill of cast iron. It’s far more valuable than gold in my opinion. I don’t think we have anyone on the roster worthy of such a designation.

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  28. So a win is a win and we’ll take as many as we can get however we can get them. And speaking strictly as a fan, I was entertained.

    But what really sucks is that Hader will get a W and Framber won’t because Abreu sucked. Again. He did the same damn thing to Hunter Brown last night.

    And oh yeah. Espada is still an idiot.

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  31. Framber gave an incredible 7 innings of no hit ball.

    Abreu gave us a zero in the 8th while allowing a grounder through the hole for a single.

    Hader gave up a painful two run shot while trying to preserve the win and his 30th consecutive save.

    These guys don’t give a crap about a no hitter. They just want to win together and keep playing.

    Baseball players fail too. And sometimes they pick each other up. It’s a great concept. It lifts most fans.

    And our manager won another game without a real line up. But he’s not feeling sorry for himself either.

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  32. The QO is said to be $21.2 million. If Bregman’s elbow is bad and he needs surgery, then I don’t even see him getting a QO. How could you afford to pay him that kind of money if he won’t be playing? The Astros could have a tough decision to make on Bregman. MLBTR has him listed as the #3 free agent during this offseason. A bad elbow could be a disaster for him.

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  33. SCHN stream quality today is horrible. Likely because they’re sitting in the Crawford boxes.

    Rather than being cute, it gives thinking people the distinct impression that the quality of anything associated with SCHN is mediocre on their best day and usually very poor.

    Figures. They’re owned by Jim Crane…..

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  35. While watching a movie tonight, I went to my phone and checked the Astros. It was 0-0. But a minute later it was 2-0 . Then 4-0. Then 5-0 and finally 5-2. We won another Kikuchi start, he struck out 12 Royals and Pressly got a save. Astros win!

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  36. OMG! The Angels trailed Seattle 4-1 and fought back and walked it off on a HR in the 9th. The Astros lead over the Mariners is 5 games.

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    • I was watching that game and you missed the most incredible part. An Angel doubled to lead off the bottom of the eighth in a tie game. The next batter squared to bunt and the Mariners threw it at his head, but he ducked and the ball went to the backstop advancing the runner to third. Ron Washington then called for a suicide squeeze with no outs. The batter made the most incredible bunt I’ve ever seen which went about 8 inches past the plate and then rolled back towards it due to backspin. The Mariners catcher grabbed it and tagged out the runner sliding home before throwing to first to complete the double play. The next batter lined out to right. So, they tried to give it away. Also, their reliever put runners on 2nd and 3rd in the ninth before getting a K to end the top half of the inning. It made me wonder if Moniak got punished in the locker room for hitting the walkoff.

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  37. Good late Sunday morning. Three wins against very tough pitching. We’re not hitting much, but we continue to out pitch their guys. We are getting some incredible starting pitching.

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  38. Thoughts

    • This string of starting pitching is taking me back to the end of 1986 season and the two hitter, one hitter and no hitter thrown in a row. Of course those were back in the days of complete games still, pretty heady stuff.
    • Gamel makes the great diving catch and then leads off the rally with a single. Who would have thought he would do this much?
    • Tucker talking like he might be back in a week? I will certainly take that at this point.
    • I was wrong. I was wrong. I was wrong about Kikuchi. Interesting on the radio they said two things about him since he got here. He is throwing his slider twice as often – from about 17% to about 35%, but more importantly they changed his grip and his slider has 2-1/2 inches more drop.
    • Pena put a charge in that triple – thought it was gone.
    • Nice to get through a game with a 0 in the error column
    • Somehow, scotch taping these lineups is getting enough offense to keep the team going
    • I was tracking that Mariners game off and on with Gameday. Gives us that 5 game lead with 26 games to go. Has to deflate the M’s who had been playing pretty well but not gaining ground. And blowing a 3-run lead late is often good for a hangover.
    • Astros need to take care of business behind Blanco, because the Mariners have Bryce Miller, who has been very good this year against an Angel Caden Dana who is making his major league debut. He has been pitching very well this season but is being jumped up from AAA.

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  41. If the Astros can go 15-10 the rest of the way, the M’s will need to go 21-5 to tie them. And since the M’s lead the season series 6-4, it would be great for the Astros to clinch prior to the three game series starting on September 23.

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    • Sarge, I don’t have any idea what to expect from the Astros, except that things seem to be coming together for them. By my rough count, we’ve got 14 guys on the 28 man expanded roster that were not playing on the Astros last September. That’s pretty amazing for a team that has had no intention of “rebuilding”. So I’m not going to rule out a number one seed at this point, however unlikely it might seem.

      My own thought is that regardless of how the Astros might enter the post season, no team will look forward to playing them. It does not really matter if we play at home or on the road. So for me, I’m looking at trying to clinch the West before the M’s series and getting some guys some rest before the end of the regular season. But if we happen to keep winning and a higher seed is within reach, maybe that series to end the season against Cleveland will have real meaning.

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