Astros vs. Mariners: What to know about crucial series with AL West lead, tiebreaker on the line

Friday evening, the Mariners and Houston Astros are starting a series of three pivotal games which could very well determine who wins the American West League in 2025. The clubs will meet in Daikin Park, in Houston, knotted more in a way. Not only do they have identical 84-69 records, but they also divided their 10 previous face-to-head clashes. The winner of this series will be in first place and will have the equality break on Sunday evening.

The series do not become much bigger than that, and CBS Sports therefore takes the opportunity to provide you with everything you need to find out before the first Friday match. Let’s start with some vital information:

Now, towards a few scenarios of interest.

1. Link to play breaker

As mentioned in the introduction, the Mariners and Astros have each won five of their first 10 face-to-head clashes this year. You do not need a calculator or a spreadsheet to realize that with three games, a team will leave with the season series.

In turn, this team will gain an advantage: the break in equality. MLB removed the scenarios of the 163 match when he widened the playoffs. The links are now determined, above all, by the head-to-face game. Indeed, whatever the team that prevails this weekend – whether by a 2-1 victory or a scan – will actually add a game in advance, because the other team will have to win the division or not at all.

2. Mariners enter hot

The navies will come into play after winning 11 of their last 12 games, which eliminates what was an advantage of the 3 ½ games in the West. This tear occurs after the navy began in September with a 0-4 section. Even at the time, we, at CBS Sports, noted that they continued to have a real chance of exceeding astros thanks to a hidden advantage: their schedule.

Here are some of what we wrote:

The botter in all of this is that sailors still have a clear path to the crown of the division. They have one of the lowest times in baseball, according to Tankathon’s mathematics, their opponents, winning only 47.3% of their matches. Astros have closer to an average calendar to play, their own opponents winning exactly 50% of their games to date.

Indeed, since the publication of this paragraph, the navies have won or swept a series against the Braves of Atlanta, the cardinals of St. Louis, the Los Angeles Angels and Kansas City Royals – none of which will play in October. The astros, on the other hand, had to compete with the Blue Jays de Toronto, the Texas Rangers (twice) and a shared enemy, in the Braves, and have a file of 7-4 to show for their efforts.

3. Astros in several key players, but recover Paredes

No matter how the next 10 days take place, the story of the astros season will remain focused on the absurd quantity of injuries they have undergone. According to the Prospectus baseball figures, the Astros are one of the two teams to lose more than 2,000 players in the IL this season – the other club being the Los Angeles Dodgers.

On Friday, the Astros fell a whole starting rotation (including Luis Garcia, Ronel Blanco and Hayden Wesneski), their closest (Josh Hader), and starting position players (Brendan Rodgers). There is also the question of Slugger Yordan Alvarez, who was forced to leave a match earlier this week after having injured the ankle while crossing the plate. (It should be noted that Alvarez is not on the IL, although his status remains in doubt.) The good news for Houston, however, is that the interior field player Isaac Paredes should come back This weekend, after missing the last two months with tension with the hamstrings.

The fact that the astros are even in this position – entering the last nine games of their calendar with a real chance of winning the division – testifies to the resilience and ingenuity of this club.