The Seattle Mariners and Houston Astros are deadlocked in the most competitive division race in baseball, with only nine games remaining. Both teams sit at 84-69 on the season.
The most intriguing part of this division race is the fact that the Mariners travel to Houston to clash with the Astros this weekend in a three-game set. The winner of this series will have a leg up in the American League West. If somebody can pull off a sweep, they will have a three-game lead with six games to play.
Ahead of this series, the Astros received an unexpected boost, as slugger Isaac Paredes was activated from the injured list. Paredes has been injured for over two months, and many didn’t expect him to play again this season, but he’s back in action just in time for the biggest series of the year.
But the good news stops there.
To make room for Paredes, the Astros placed slugger Yordan Alvarez on the injured list with a leg injury. Alvarez will miss the entire series against the Mariners as well as the next week, at the very least.
This loss is crushing for the Astros. While the slugger hasn’t been his usual self this year, he’s always a threat to leave the yard. He had also been heating up at the perfect time for Houston.
With the season on the line, Alvarez was slashing .392/.446/.588 with an OPS over 1.000 in September at the time of his injury. The loss of Alvarez could crush the Astros with the fate of the AL West hanging in the balance.
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