Now the real race is on
With division title clinched, top goal becomes to post best record in AL
Order had been restored in the Astros’ clubhouse by the time the players arrived at Minute Maid Park on Tuesday afternoon. The furniture cleared out for Sunday’s division titleclinching celebration was back in place. The plastic sheeting covering locker stalls had been thrown away.
With one goal accomplished, the Astros have turned their attention to their next: finishing with the best record in the American League. Not only would such a feat guarantee them home-field advantage for the first two rounds of the postseason, it would ensure a firstround matchup against a wild-card game participant that already has used its top arm.
But to finish with the best record, the Astros must overtake the still-surging Cleveland Indians, who came into their series opener Tuesday having won 24 of their previous
25 games. The Indians also own the tiebreaker against the Astros by virtue of winning the season series between the teams.
“We have a lot of things to play for,” Astros manager A.J. Hinch said before Tuesday night’s 3-1 victory over the Chicago White Sox. “The number one record would be nice. The number one seed would be nice. It’s very important that we stay sharp mentally and physically going into the next couple of weeks.”
Hinch’s lineup for Tuesday’s series opener against the worst team in the American League embodied that mindset. The nine players he wrote on his card could well make up his batting order for a postseason game against a righthanded starter. Carlos Beltran, Yuli Gurriel and Brian McCann made up the bottom third.
“We want to have the best record in the AL and have home-field advantage,” All-Star shortstop Carlos Correa said. “That would be great for us, for our fans, for everybody here, and we’re striving toward that.”
As of the end of their game Tuesday night, the Astros (92-58) were a game back of the Indians, who were still early in their game on the West Coast against the Los Angeles Angels.
The Astros took the first game of their series against the White Sox behind their pitching, including four scoreless innings from their bullpen. Their bats were held mostly in check by Lucas Giolito, who pitched 62⁄3 innings. Jose Altuve evened the score at 1 in the fourth with an opposite-field shot, his career-high tying 24th of the season. A two-out RBI double by Alex Bregman that same inning gave the Astros the lead.
Collin McHugh, who’s vying for a spot in the Astros’ four-man postseason rotation, pitched five innings of one-run ball before he was pulled in favor of the bullpen. McHugh allowed five hits, three singles to Yoan Moncada, and issued only one walk. Jose Abreu roped a two-out double to left field in the third inning to account for McHugh’s only blemish.
“Overall, I think we did some good things,” McHugh said. “Made some pitches when we needed to. I had a better curveball today than I have in a while. Made a handful of mistakes, but for the most part, I thought we executed pitches really well.”
Will Harris and Luke Gregerson followed McHugh with perfect innings of relief to bridge the gap to Chris Devenski in the eighth. Devenski worked around an error by Correa with three strikeouts.
With an eighth-inning insurance run thanks to George Springer’s hustle in his back pocket, Ken Giles converted the save in the ninth. He allowed a leadoff single to Tim Anderson before striking out the final three batters. Astros pitchers combined for 14 strikeouts in the game.
“I have a lot of faith and trust in these guys,” Hinch said of his bullpen. “They’re going to be important down the stretch because we want to win as many games as we can in the regular season. They’re going to be very, very important in October. And we have a lot of options.”