BALTIMORE — Friday afternoon in the visiting clubhouse at Camden Yards, the same old Houston Astros were doing the same old Houston Astros things. Alex Bregman popped in quickly, bat in hand, batting gloves on, ready to hurry back to the cage to take swings and avoid questions about a balky elbow. Jose Altuve walked in and out quietly and quickly. As usual, he has too much baseball business before games to waste time lingering.
Framber Valdez marched around, chest puffed, singing to music he chose for the speakers, the most gregarious presence in the Astros’ clubhouse for years, still keeping up the bit. And Justin Verlander walked in and out with purpose, stoic and serious, his graying beard the clearest sign of an aging dynasty that is, much to the chagrin of those who watched Houston’s slow start and allowed themselves to hope it might finally yield the floor, not dead yet.
A pulse of any kind is an achievement for the Astros, who began this year so badly, it seemed they might finally unravel. An emphatic early May loss to their longtime American League foils, the New York Yankees, pushed the Astros 12 games under .500. It had been 10 years since the Astros fell to such depths, eight years since they fell more than three games under in the regular season. Staples of their long-sturdy rotation had fallen. Lance McCullers Jr. was out. Luis Garcia was still rehabbing from Tommy John surgery. Within a month, Cristian Javier and José Urquidy would have that procedure, too.
A week earlier, they reluctantly sent struggling first baseman José Abreu to the minors, an admission that one of the largest contracts owner Jim Crane ever doled out was a debacle. That, along with a six-plus ERA from expensive closer Josh Hader, felt like a stain on the brief tenure of General Manager Dana Brown. His willingness to spend big to bolster an aging roster seemed to be a sign that Houston, which built nearly a decade of success by trading from a strong farm system and not overspending on major free agent acquisitions, was getting desperate.
Still, by the first week of June, the Astros seemed to have plugged some leaks. They had climbed to just six games under .500 and were within six of the first-place Seattle Mariners in the American League West. Then outfielder Kyle Tucker fouled a ball off his shin so hard that it imprinted the slugger with a deep bone bruise that has kept him out since. Later that week, Verlander hit the injured list with neck stiffness. The footholds were disappearing.
One of the teams that might have buried them, the defending World Series champion Texas Rangers, was similarly wracked by injuries and, as it turned out, less able to overcome them. The Mariners, meanwhile, climbed to 13 games over .500 on June 18, enough for a 10-game lead on the Astros. Even if Houston could resurrect its season with a patched-up roster, the Mariners’ dominant rotation seemed more than capable of keeping it at arms’ length.
But year after year, the Astros’ clubhouse functions as one of the most businesslike places in the sport, quiet and steady, so emotionless at times it seems almost boring. For a team that generates so much emotion in every opponent and every road city, the Astros never seem to allow much of that themselves.
“These guys know how to run the race. And it’s a long, long, long race,” said Astros Manager Joe Espada, in his first year at the helm after succeeding Dusty Baker. “ … Our guys, they just know how to stay calm. And as the leader of this group, I must stay calm. Because I see how they fight, that they’re never going to quit.”
Espada and Brown inherited one of the most prolific winners of the century but also an aging core, some of which soon will be hitting free agency, and a minor league system depleted by the cost of years of deadline deals. They could not, therefore, exceed expectations. They could only meet them, and by mid-June, injuries made that feel impossible.
So naturally, by June 26, they had climbed back to .500. By July 1, they were two games over, just three games back of the division lead. The day after the all-star break, they beat the Mariners to tie them atop the division. And a day later, they beat them to take the lead.
“We had adversity with starters out, trying to find that true rotation. Once we found that rotation of five guys, that’s what led to the confidence coming back, the consistency,” reliever Seth Martinez said. “I think that was the main thing at the beginning of the year: With injuries, the starting rotation was a little up in the air. People were trying to force things a little bit to get us back on track.”
Valdez settled. Ronel Blanco, who emerged from obscurity to throw a no-hitter this season, continued to pitch well. Younger arms Hunter Brown and Spencer Arrighetti started to establish themselves. Even without McCullers, Javier, Garcia and Urquidy, the Astros were starting to reassemble the kind of potent rotation that always seemed to lift them. Houston starters had a 5.10 ERA in April, better only than the Marlins, White Sox and Rockies. In June, that mark was 3.12, the best in baseball.
The turnaround was enough to turn the Astros into aggressive buyers at the trade deadline, and they swung a deal for veteran starter Yusei Kikuchi, who has been strong since. Their 2.48 ERA in August is by far the lowest in baseball, and because Verlander has returned from injury, they can almost afford to plan for the long haul again: Espada explained Friday that his team will use a six-man rotation for the foreseeable future to keep veteran arms fresh.
But the story of the Astros’ rise to first place in what once looked to be a hotly contested division cannot be told without a chapter on the Mariners’ collapse. Seattle, buoyed annually by as dominant a rotation as any, spent another summer struggling to hit.
As the Astros found their rhythm, the Mariners went 13-20, including a 1-8 trip that concluded last week with what seemed the scapegoating of manager Scott Servais. General Manager Jerry Dipoto fired Servais on Thursday along with hitting coach Jarret DeHart, Seattle’s second hitting coach to be fired this season for not being able to turn an offense built on a budget into something greater than the sum of its parts.
The Astros are not in perfect shape, either. Tucker remains out, though Brown said Friday that the slugger should be ready by early September.
Bregman’s elbow is so troublesome that Espada is writing out multiple lineups daily, one with Bregman at third base if he can tolerate it, one with Bregman at designated hitter if he can’t. Soon, he might even write out a lineup with Bregman at first base, a position he has yet to play in the big leagues, because putting him at designated hitter pushes Yordan Alvarez and his balky knees into left field. Houston’s lineup is fragile, and it is not as deep as it usually is. But with youngsters such as Shay Whitcomb and Zach Dezenzo in the majors trying to help piece things together, that lineup somehow is still doing enough.
Bregman is a free agent after this season. Verlander is 41 and under contract only through this season. At 34, Altuve has his lowest OPS in a non-covid season in a decade. The dynasty is in decline; there is no doubt about it. But reports of its imminent demise, it seems, were exaggerated.
