Astros’ 2026: What does anything mean?

The Astros eked out a win against the Red Sox on Sunday to give them their fourth series win of the season. On the negative side, they almost allowed a bases loaded / no out situation in the top of the tenth inning to get away from them (again) with the very unusual shortstop to catcher to third base double play from Jose Altuve. They also had Bryan Abreu, after looking good in the ninth inning, do all he could to erp up a two-run lead in the bottom of the tenth.

On the positive side, after Altuve’s DP at the top of the tenth, Brice Matthews had a great at-bat, wrangling a bases-loaded walk, and Cam Smith whacked his third hit of the day off the Green Monster to give the Astros a 3-1 lead. And Abreu did force a game-ending double play to provide the good guys with a pleasant flight home.

Nice win and nice series win….but what does it mean?

• Yes, the Astros played well and strung together their best pitching effort for a series this season. But the Red Sox are not a good team, and after Sunday, they are ranking below the Astros in the AL.
• And….the Red Sox are duking it out with the Rangers for the title of worst AL offense. The Red Sox have the worst OPS, the Rangers have the least runs scored – but it is a tight contest for who stinketh the most. That is a bit of a 1776 movie reference.
• And….after their second series with the Red Sox, the Astros are 5-1 against the Boston beans. But they are 9-20 against the rest of the MLB. Yuck.

The Astros have looked a bit better lately. They are 4-3 in their last seven games and were really competitive in all of them – even the 10-3 losing margin to Baltimore came about due to five late inning runs off of Jason Alexander. They have started to accumulate a few more quality starts in a season when that has been as rare as a Rockets playoff series win.

Spencer Arrighetti has been solid to very good. Mike Burrows has been improving. Lance McCullers has wobbled between meh and good. Peter Lambert has been surprisingly good, and Cody Bolton has not caused us to scratch our eyes out – yet.

But what does it mean?

Well, it will mean a lot more if, after the next three games against the first-place Los Angeles Dodgers, they have not been embarrassed and beaten to a pulp.

That could point to better times ahead.