Astros Win 2019 ALCS On Dramatic Walk Off Homer

That breeze you felt close to midnight Central time was the entire city of Houston collectively exhaling after Jose Altuve's walk off two run homer that clinched the Astros second American League title in three years and punched their ticket to another trip to the World Series.

And it's always fun when you knock off the Evil Baseball Empire to do it.




After a tense Game 6 in which the Astros took an early 3-0 lead on Yuli Gurriel's 3 run homer in the bottom of the first, the Evil Baseball Empire kept chipping away. 

They got a second inning run after Didi Gregorius doubled and Gary Sanchez singled to cut the deficit to 3-1.   In the fourth a Gio Urshela solo shot into the bullpen trimmed the Astros lead to 3-2.

The Astros got one back after Alex Bregman hit into a fielder's choice to bump the lead to 4-2   

After the Yankees DJ LeMahieu hit the tying two run homer off Astros closer Roberto Osuna into the right field bleachers just inches past the glove of a leaping George Springer to tie the game at 4-4,  the Astros had the daunting task of facing Yankee closer Aroldis Chapman in the bottom of the ninth.

Chapman hadn't given up an earned run in 4 2/3 postseason innings, but gave up a two out walk to Springer to set up the dramatic showdown with Altuve.




After taking two Chapman fastballs for balls and a slider for a strike, Altuve blasted an up in the strike zone slider over the wall in left center field for a series clinching 6-4 win that gave the Astros their second American League title in three years and their third World Series appearance as a franchise.

Don't think we Astros fans didn't hear your foul ''Eff Altuve'  chant at Skankee Stadium aimed at him last night.   Altuve got the last laugh last night and the ALCS MVP trophy to go with it.

This just in.  The paternity test came back.  The Astros are the Yankees daddy. 

The Astros have faced the Yankees in the postseason three times (2015,2017, 2019) since joining the American League, and beaten them all three times.    Beating the Yankees tonight also meant that this is the first decade since the 1910's that the Yankees have failed to make it to the World Series.

Speaking of the World Series, that starts on Tuesday with the Astros facing the Washington nationals at Minute maid Park.

Astros Are The AL West Champs Again!

While I was sleeping last night, my hometown defending MLB world champion baseball team clinched the American League West Division title for the second straight season thanks to the Oakland A's losing to the Seattle Mariners in extra innings at Safeco Field.

The Astros had already handled their business by beating the Toronto Blue Jays (sorry not sorry Renee) 4-1 last night in Rogers Centre to not only win their 100th game of the season, but reduce their magic number to clinch the AL West Division title to one.

The A's were up on Seattle 8-5 in the eighth inning before the Mariners rallied to tie the game and force extra innings. 

Seattle scored two runs in the bottom of the eighth inning, then one more run in the ninth to tie the game.  The Mariners then won the game in the 11th inning thanks to a walk off home run by Chris Hermann that sends to A's to the AL Wild Card Game to face the New York Skankees Yankees.

It is the first time since 1997-1999 when they ruling the NL Central Division and playing games in the Astrodome that the Astros have claimed multiple division titles in a row.   It is also the first time in Astros history they have had back to back 100 win seasons and only the third time in team history the 'Stros have won 100 games

With the AL West title secured, the Astros now know who they will play in the postseason as they try to repeat as world series champions.   They start an ALDS best of five series on October 5 against the AL Central champion Cleveland Indians.

The winner of the AL Wild Card Game will move on to play the AL East Champion Boston Red Sox, who have the best record in baseball this year at 106-51 with 5 home games left. 

Home field for the AL Wild Card Game is more likely to be Yankee Stadium since they hold the tiebreaker over the A's after going 3-3 in their head to head matchups and having a better division record than the A's. 

However, the Yankees have a brutal finishing schedule in which they play six AL East division games.   Three road games against the Tampa Bay Rays and three versus their hated rivals the Boston Red Sox in Fenway Park.

But back to talking about my defending American League champion Astros.

Should they advance they would face in the ALCS the winner of the A's/Yankees-Boston Red Sox ALDS series in a best of seven for the American League title.   If the A's or Yankees prevail, they would have home field advantage.  If it's Boston, they would get it.

FYI to you Red Sox fans:  The Astros won the season series over you 4-3, and took 2 out of three games at Fenway Park.

Should the Astros make it to the World Series again, they would have home field advantage this time against whoever walks off with the 2018 National League crown between the NL East champion Atlanta Braves, the NL Central leaders the Chicago Cubs, the NL West leading Los Angeles Dodgers and top NL Wild card team the Milwaukee Brewers. 

The St. Louis Cardinals and Colorado Rockies still have an outside shot at playing October baseball at Miller Park as contenders for the other NL wild card slot.

The NL title contender with the best league record is the Chicago Cubs with 91 wins, and everyone else including the defending NL champion Los Angeles Dodgers is below that.

The quest for an Astros title repeat starts October 5.  Looking forward to it since I need a distraction from how badly the Texans are sucking right now.

Astros Earn History And Finally Win A World Series Championship!

I was 24 days from arriving on Planet Earth when the Astros, then known as the Houston Colt .45's, played their first game at their temporary Colt Stadium home as the Astrodome was being built.
On that April 10 day they beat down the Chicago Cubs 11-2 and swept that series

As my hometown baseball team, I've seen a lot of games.  I even worked at the Astrodome from 1981-1986.   I witnessed my share of heartbreaking Astros playoff losses. I have the bad memories of the 1980 NLCS, 1981 NLDS, the 1986 NLCS, the 1997, 1998 and 1999 NLDS, the 2004 NLCS, the 2005 World Series and the 2015 ALDS 

So when the Astros won 101 games in capturing their first AL West title I was hopeful that this would finally be the year.   Then it was on to the ALDS where they dispatched the Boston Red Sox in 4 games to face the Evil Baseball Empire.

Home field advantage was crucial in that ALCS with the Yankees, with the Astros taking the first two games at Minute Maid to grab a 2-0 lead.  But once the scene shifted to New York the Astros bats went quiet and the Yankees won all three games in the Big Apple to head back to Texas with a 3-2 lead.   

The Astros came back home to take the ALCS Game 6 to tie the series and take down the Evil Baseball Empire in Game 7 to capture their first American League championship

They also became not only the first team in the modern era to win titles in the National and American League, they became the first AL team ever to beat the Red Sox and Yankees in the same postseason.

They would then face the National League champion Dodgers, who won a major league best 104 games to get home field advantage. 
The Astros got the split in LA, and took two out of three at Minute Maid to finish with a 8-1) to got back to LA with a 3-2 lead.

After getting beat in Game 6, they jumped on Yu Darvish again to build a 5-0 lead they never relinquished for their first World Series title in franchise history.

Wipes away a lot of frustration as an Astros fan. They also #EarnedHistory by beating baseball royalty on the way to their first title.    The Red Sox, Yankees and Dodgers have a combined 41 titles to our now one. 

But it's a so sweet one to cap an epic World Series for H-town.   And even better, we beat the Rangers to the accomplishment of bringing a World Series title to the Lone Star State.

And I couldn't be happier.   See y'all at the parade on Friday!

Astros One Win Away From Earning World Series History

I was up late along with much of Houston watching that World Series record five hour extra inning game that put my fave baseball team one win away from capturing our first World Series title,

And it wouldn't be true to the nature of a Houston sports team if it didn't come with a heaping helping of nerve wracking tension.

The Astros fell behind 4-0 in the first inning to the LA Dodgers and their ace Clayton Kershaw who shut them out for three innings until their bats woke up in the bottom of the fourth inning. 

And then it got crazy.   Yuli Gurriel smacked a three run homer that tied the game in the bottom of the fourth at 4-4, only to have  the Dodgers go back in front in the top of the fifth after Bellinger hit a three run homer to put the Dodgers back up 7-4.

The Astros, as has been their pattern all season came back and tied it on he'd better be AL MVP Jose Altuve's three run shot in the boom of the fifth to knot the game at 7-7 and knock Kershaw out of the game.

The Dodger went back up 8-7 in the top of the seventh after George Springer's diving attempt at a sinking line drive by Bellinger got past him for a triple that scored Kiki Hernandez from first base.

Springer atoned for his fielding error by smashing a massive homer that tied the game at 8-8, which was followed up by a Bregman single, a double by Altuve that scored Bregman, and a two run homer from Carlos Correa to push the Astros to a 11-8 lead.

The craziest game in World Series history finally ended when Alex Bregman got the walk off hit that allowed pinch runner Derek Fisher to score from second base for the 13-12 Astros win that gave them a 3-2 series lead, closed out their home playoff run with a stellar 8-1 record and put them one win away from earning the franchise's first ever World Series title.

Can't wait to see if Game 6 in Los Angeles will be a trick or a treat Astros fans have been waiting for since 1962.  I like our chances with Justin Verlander pitching for us and the best offense in baseball now awake at the right time.

It's Major League Baseball Playoff Time!

It's October, and my hometown major league baseball squad is coming off a franchise second best 101-61 win season, their first ever AL West title and first division crown for the team since 2001 thanks to the ginormous 38-16 start out of the gate in April and May.

They clinched the 2017 AL West on September 17 with a 7-1 beatdown of the Seattle Mariners at Minute Maid and won the division by 22 games over the Los Angeles Angels.

Even more satisfying to Astros fans, in addition to our first AL West division title, and the first 100 win season since the 1998 team won 102 games. we won the season series with the Texas Rangers 12-7/

Now that they're playing baseball in October for the first time since 2015, the number two seeded Astros await the start of the Division Series round of the playoffs on Thursday. 

They'll kick things off in the ALDS at Minute Maid Park against the AL East champion Boston Red Sox determined to make it to the ALCS and hopefully the team's second ever World Series berth.

The AL Central champion Cleveland Indians, thanks to a monster 22 game win streak from August 24-September 14  edged the Astros out for the AL's best record by one game.  They will be trying to forget their heartbreaking loss in last year's World Series Game 7 to the Cubs as they chill out at Progressive Field and await the winner of today's AL Wild Card Game at Yankee Stadium between the Minnesota Twins and the New York Yankees. 

Winners of their respective five game ALDS series move on to the seven game AL Championship series scheduled to start on October 13 in the home ballpark of the team with the best record.

In the National League the Los Angeles Dodgers are the top seed with a MLB league best 103 wins, but are not a consensus pick in some pundits minds to make it to the World Series. 

The Dodgers were playing at a torrid 56-11 pace from June 7 to August 25, but then dropped off the cliff and went 1-16 the rest of the season.

Even with that late season swoon, they still won the NL West  by 11 games over the Diamondbacks and will host at Dodger Stadium on Friday the winner of the National League Wild Card Game at Chase Field between their NL West Division rivals the Colorado Rockies and the Arizona Diamondbacks,

The second seeded NL East champion Washington Nationals rolled to an 97-65 record, but were the only team that posted a winning record in the NL East.  The second place team in their division, the Miami Marlins, finished 77-86, 20 games behind the Nats. 

The folks in DC don't care, because they will be at Nationals Park watching their local baseballers battle the defending NL champion Chicago Cubs in their NLDS series that kicks off on October 6 at

It's a miracle the Cubs are even playing in October since they were 43-45 at the All Star break.  After some major roster changes, they rebounded to a 49-25 record in the second half of the season to capture the NL Central Division

But then again, it's not how you start, it about getting hot at the right time, and now is the time.

Winners of their respective NLDS series will battle each other starting on October 14 in the National League Championship Series at the ball park of the remaining teams with the best record.

The World Series is scheduled to start on October 24 at the home of the AL or NL team with the best record.

And yes, I'm hoping at the end of the month that's the Astros.   

How You Like The 2015 Houston Astros Now?

How you like the Astros now, Yankee fans?

Been taking crap from a certain Mr. Watts for his Rangers (ugh) winning the AL West over my fave baseball team after they led for most of the 2015 season and into the AL Wild Card Playoff Game last night against the New York Skankees  Yankees.

There was much trash talking over the last few days on my FB page by certain Yankee fans (Mia Macy) about how my boys were going down, et cetera. 

This was the first Astros playoff game not only since they were forced to move by Bud Selig to the American League, but since they won the National League championship in 2005

Guess Mia and those loud and wrong Yankee fans forgot that the Astros won the season series against their club, their offense has gone south since late September, and they were facing our 20 game winning Cy Young Award candidate ace pitcher n Dallas Keuchel. 

And oh yeah,  the Astros hit 230 home runs, second in the majors this season.

I gleefully watched along with much of Houston Keuchel shut out the Yankees again for six innings as Colby Rasmus and Carlos Gomez slugged solo shots off MasahiroTanaka that propelled the precocious Astros to a 3-0 shutout win over the vaunted Yankees and into the ALDS against the defending AL champion Kansas City Royals

Beware KC fans thinking this will be an easy series.  We won the regular season series against the Royals too

Houston Astros Inaugural Game Anniversary

This is a bittersweet season for Houston Astros fans since this is the last one in the National League no thanks to Bud Selig before we get forcibly moved to the American League, but fifty years ago today the Houston Colt 45's played their inaugural National League game in town at Colt Stadium against the Chicago Cubs.  

It was a successful debut as the Colt 45's routed the Cubs 11-2.

The Colt 45's eventually finished that maiden season 64-98 and in eighth place in the National League ahead of the Cubs and the New York Mets, but it would be three more years before the Astrodome would open, the nickname of the team changed to the Astros and 1972 before the team would experience its first pennant race.   

But it was the first season of 50 years of major league baseball in H-town, and it started on a winning note today.

2011 Major League Baseball Season Opens

In a few hours major league baseball will begin to be played in stadiums  all across the nation.  The 162 game marathon to determine who will end up in the World Series representing their respective leagues begins.

As always, I'm rooting for my home team, the Houston Astros.   They will start the season being the guests of the defending NL East Division champs the Philadelphia Phillies and the experts not expecting them to be competitive in the NL Central Division..

But change is in the humid air here.  It will not only be a season in which we'll no longer have Roy Oswalt or Lance Berkman in Astro uniforms, the transition to a new core group of Astros players such as Hunter Pence and All Star center fielder Michael Bourn has begun.    The Astros Triple A franchise is now in Oklahoma City and Drayton McLane, the current Astros owner may be in the process of selling the team to a (thank God) Houston businessman..

We won't get our major league season opener here in Houston until April 8 and the Florida Marlins come to take on my fave baseball team at Minute Maid Park.  

But as it does every Opening Day, hope springs eternal in all baseball fans.   Everyone starts 0-0, and with a few breaks, some consistent play and a few long winning streaks interspersed throughout the season who knows?    The Astros have a history of being a second half team and if they can stay close to the division leaders or even get off to a better start than the 0-8 one they did in 2010, they could contend.

Like I said, hope springs eternal in a baseball fan.   Go Astros!