How, in the chaotic world of the MLB postseason, do the Houston Astros keep doing this?
Six straight trips to the American League Championship Series. Four pennants. Even during an October when 100-win teams were dropping like flies, here Houston is again, having punched its ticket for the Fall Classic.
What's amazing about Houston's consistency over the past six years is that it's not the same group of players who began that run. From the infamous 2017 champion Astros, Jose Altuve, Alex Bregman, Yuli Gurriel, Justin Verlander and Lance McCullers Jr. are the only holdovers. That's a really good core, but still, the entire cast around them has turned over.
In this postseason format, randomness happens. Yes, we understand why teams win in the playoffs while they are doing it, usually because of some combination of a hot hitter or two and an airtight bullpen. It's predicting which team will get hot in advance that is so hard to do.
A month ago, who would have thought that the Philadelphia Phillies' bullpen would emerge as a dominant unit? Who had Harrison Bader and Rhys Hoskins among those leading the playoffs in homers?
However, not everything in this postseason has been surprising or flukey. For all those who want to defend the 100-win Los Angeles Dodgers, Atlanta Braves and New York Mets for their early dismissals, or decry the unfairness of the format, the one-word retort to all of this is simply: Astros.