The Astros’ sweep of the Orioles just changed everything for Houston’s chances in 2024

The Houston Astros began their series against one of the best teams in the American League with their 2024 season hanging by a thread. Even after stringing together a few wins against the White Sox, Houston was still five games below .500 and it increasingly felt like the hole they had dug themselves to start the season was going to be too deep to come out this year. .

More than just the win column, the Astros had to declare that they were still among the best teams in the league. Houston has looked very vulnerable and lacked real energy for stretches this season as losses and injuries have piled up. In some ways, the whole team seemed lost and defeated during the first two months of the season and they needed to find their composure.

Well, three games later, Houston got exactly what they needed by sweeping the Baltimore Orioles in convincing fashion. Although it’s still only three games into June, this series may have been just what the Astros needed to reignite their playoff aspirations.

The Orioles’ dominance last weekend was vintage Astros baseball. Houston got two great starts with Ronel Blanco and Framber Valdez, and even when Jake Bloss was forced out early in his big league debut with a shoulder injury, the Astros’ offense exploded for 14 runs to save the situation. Overall, Houston dominated the vaunted Orioles offense 27-13 with 11 of Baltimore’s points in Friday’s slugfest.

Just like that, the Astros are just two games below .500 and just four games into the AL wild card race. While it’s still not a great position in a vacuum, Houston is trending upward and is currently playing its best baseball despite losing much of its rotation to injuries and Jose Abreu being so bad that the Astros willingly ate tens of millions just to remove him from the roster.

With the schedule loosening up over the next two weeks with series against the Rockies, Mets and Blue Jays coming up, Houston finds itself with a 43.5% chance of making the playoffs right now. Considering where the Astros were just a month ago, that’s progress worth celebrating.

More Astros news since Tal’s Hill climbed