ALWAYS BE CLOSING

Houston Astros within striking distance of clinching top seed in AL

Alex Bregman and Jose Altuve of the Astros
Astros magic number down to two. Photo by Christian Petersen/Getty Images.
Bielak with an impressive start, Astros rally late but come up short as Diamondbacks take series

With no game on Monday, the Astros are rested and back in action Tuesday night at Minute Maid against the Arizona Diamondbacks. Luis Garcia (13-8, 3.90 ERA) will make the start for Houston, with Zach Davies (2-4, 4.03 ERA) pitching for the D-Backs. Lance McCullers was originally scheduled to pitch, but was scratched due to an "illness."


Magic number: 2

The Astros currently sit atop the AL sporting a 101-53 record, 6.5 games ahead of the 94-59 New York Yankees. So the Astros could clinch the AL on Tuesday with a win over the Diamondbacks, and a Yankees loss. The Yankees face the Toronto Blue Jays on Tuesday night. The Yankees are 1.5 run underdogs according to online betting sites.

The Astros can also clinch by winning their next two games, regardless of what happens with the Yankees. Both the Yankees and the Astros are playing well currently, as both clubs have won 7 of their last 10 games.

With the Yankees game starting about an hour before the Astros take on the Diamondbacks, the Astros may know the results of Yankees-Blue Jays while they're trying to finish off the D-Backs. So be sure to watch tonight's Astros game because we could see some fun celebrations if the Astros manage to win and the Yankees fall to Toronto.

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The Astros regular season is officially in the books. Photo by Jamie Squire/Getty Images.

The regular season finale between the Guardians and Houston Astros was canceled Sunday after a lengthy delay, preventing Cleveland third baseman José Ramírez from a shot at hitting his 40th home run and joining the exclusive 40-40 club.

With Houston set to open its AL wild-card series at home on Tuesday, and with a forecast of steady rain expected for several more hours, the game never started and was called following a 3-hour, 5-minute delay.

The Guardians finish at 92-69 and the AL Central champions will host an ALDS game on Oct. 5. They'll play either the AL West champion Astros (88-73) or Detroit Tigers, who clinched a wild-card berth.

Cleveland manager Stephen Vogt and Houston manager Joe Espada met on the tarped field with the umpiring crew, head groundskeeper and Guardians' front office members for 15 minutes at about 2:20 — 55 minutes before the scheduled first pitch.

The hearty fans who stayed inside Progressive Field during the long delay watched the Browns-Las Vegas Raiders game on Progressive Field's giant scoreboard.

Ramírez finished with 39 homers, leaving him short of becoming the seventh player in MLB history to hit 40 homers and steal 40 bases in the same season. The six-time All-Star also ended with 39 doubles, one shy of a rare 40-40-40 season, which has only been accomplished by Alfonso Soriano in 2006.

Cleveland's jump in the standings after winning 76 games in 2023 also led to a bump in attendance as the Guardians drew more than 2 million fans at home for the first time since 2017.

TRAINER'S ROOM

Astros: LF Yordan Alvarez (knee sprain) was scheduled to do more baseball activities in Houston, and as long as he continues to make progress, it's likely he'll be on the wild card roster. The swelling in Alvarez's knee has gone down and Espada was cautiously optimistic about the slugger's availability this week.

Guardians: RHP Alex Cobb (middle finger blister) had his usual velocity during a 35-pitch simulated game. He'll throw another on Thursday and Vogt said the team is moving forward with plans to have him pitch in the postseason. Cobb has been sidelined since Sept. 1, and made just three starts since being acquired in a trade on July 30.

UP NEXT

Astros: Host the No. 5 seed Detroit Tigers in the wild card on Tuesday.

Tigers ace Tarik Skubal with square off with Framber Valdez in Game 1.

Guardians: Will rest and await wild-card winner in ALDS, starting Oct. 5.

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