Royals Sweep of Astros Drastically Weakens Houston's Postseason Chances

The Houston Astros suffered an embarrassing sweep at home to the Kansas City Royals. They have now lost four straight series, as their playoff hopes are hanging by a thread.

Jack Vita | Sep 24, 2023

Royals Sweep of Astros Drastically Weakens Houston's Postseason Chances /

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Houston Astros

The Houston Astros' hopes to return to the postseason for the seventh straight year may be quickly evaporating before their eyes.

The Astros dropped the finale of a three-game home series 6-5 Sunday, suffering an embarrassing sweep to the Kansas City Royals, who improved their record to 54-102 on the season.

The Astros have now lost their last four series, three of which have come against the lowly Royals and Oakland Athletics (48-108). The Royals and A's are each on the cusp of posting their lowest respective win totals in a 162-game season in franchise history.

Houston has now lost nine of its last 12 games. The club currently holds the third and final American League Wild Card spot, with the Seattle Mariners trailing them by only a half-game. The Mariners and Astros will open a critical three-game series Monday, with major playoff implications. Seattle has bullied Houston this season, taking eight of ten games between the two teams. With the Mariners leading the season series 8-2, it will be impossible for the Astros to own a tiebreaker over the Mariners.

Given MLB's new rules and the elimination of playoff tiebreaker games — formerly known as "Game 163" — if two teams are tied for a playoff spot, the tie will go to the team with the greater head-to-head record. Seattle owns the head-to-head tiebreaker over Houston, meaning that a tie won't suffice for the Astros. The Astros need to finish at least one game better than the Mariners, in order to return to the playoffs.

The Astros have six games remaining; the Mariners have seven. After the two teams meet for the final time — in the regular season at least — the Mariners will play four games at home against the AL-West leading Texas Rangers. The Astros will have Thursday off, before finishing their regular season over the weekend in Phoenix, as they play a three-game series against the Arizona Diamondbacks.

The Rangers have won five straight games and now lead the Astros by three games in the AL West race. Seattle is three games back of Texas.

Published Sep 24, 2023

JACK VITA

Jack Vita is a writer and contributor to Sports Illustrated's Inside the Astros, and host of the Jack Vita Show, a popular sports podcast available on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube and wherever podcasts are found. Jack is a 2017 graduate of Valparaiso University, in northwest Indiana. Since completing his degree, Jack has created his own independent sports media outlet (JackVita.com) and podcast (the Jack Vita Show). He has featured prominent guests from the worlds of sports and entertainment including Brian Urlacher, Scot Pollard, Bob Nightengale, Dan O'Dowd, and Survivor icons Stephenie LaGrossa Kendrick, Cirie Fields, Danni Boatwright and "the Dragon Slayer", Coach Benjamin Wade. While studying at Valparaiso, Jack was the school newspaper's beat writer for the Valpo Crusaders men's basketball team, which won three straight Horizon League championships from 2015-2017. Traveling to cover the team, Jack had a front row seat to one of the nation's best mid-major teams, headlined by future NBA Draft pick Alec Peters and coached by NCAA Tournament hero Bryce Drew. Jack hosted a weekly sports radio show and provided play-by-play and color commentary services for ESPN 3 and the university's student radio station, WVUR-FM, 95.1 The Source, covering Valparaiso men's soccer, women's basketball, softball and volleyball. Jack also covered these sports, in addition to men's and women's tennis, baseball and women's soccer for the school newspaper, The Torch. While he was in college, Jack interned for and co-hosted Jewell On Sports, a sports radio program on AM 1050 WLIP in Kenosha, Wisconsin. There, he interviewed various pro athletes such as Ahman Green, Javon Walker and Javier Arenas, in addition to talking sports with the late, great Brad Jewell. Jack also interned for 22nd Century Media, a now defunct newspaper corporation that provided news to the North Shore of Chicago. With 22nd Century Media, Jack wrote post-game recaps, feature stories about local athletes, reviews of local restaurants and compiled the newspaper's "Pet of the Week" and "Athlete of the Week" sections, while providing copy-editing services. Before attending Valparaiso, Jack enrolled at Carthage College in Kenosha, Wisconsin, where he studied for two years before transferring. He is a high school graduate of New Trier Township High School in Winnetka, Illinois. You can follow Jack on Twitter @JackVitaShow, subscribe to his podcast, the Jack Vita Show, wherever podcasts are found, and reach him via email at jack@jackvita.com.