Path to the 2017 World Series - Houston Astros

The Astros got the season underway with Dallas Keuchel on the bump vs. Felix Hernandez and the Seattle Mariners. In the first of what would become a regular occurrence in the young year, "Kid Keuchy" was good, tossing seven shutout innings and setting up what would ultimately be a three-hit shared shutout to get the year off on the right foot. George Springer got into the act early as well, becoming the first Astro since 1980 to lead off the season with a home run. Also in 1980: a League Championship Series appearance for Houston, but more to come on that later.

With a 7-2 victory over the Oakland A’s on April 14, the Astros rose to first place in the AL West. With another five months remaining in the season, they never relinquished pole position in the division again. It was a lead that would reach as many as 21 games by the end of the season.

Keuchel’s strong debut was just a harbinger of things to come, as the 2015 AL Cy Young Award winner brushed off a bad 2015 campaign by recapturing his dominant form to kick off 2017. Keuchel took home AL Pitcher of the Month honors in April by going 5-0 with a 1.21 ERA and 36 strikeouts.

Early in the year, the Houston offense had already asserted itself as a force to be reckoned with. By Memorial Day, any lingering doubts regarding its collective ability to pile on the runs was put to bed via an astonishing comeback against the Twins. Down six runs as they came to bat in the eighth inning, the Astros unleashed a ferocious 11-run outbreak to pull ahead for a 16-8 victory. Before the comeback, the franchise was 0-921 all-time when trailing by six runs in the eighth inning or later.

May was a month to remember for the Astros, as they truly put their flag down as the dominant team of the time in all of baseball. In addition to the miraculous comeback that capped the month, they opened it on a winning run that reached a season-high 11 games by June 5. Meanwhile, Marwin Gonzalez became the first player ever to start at four different positions on four consecutive days and homer at each stop. To cap it all off, Carlos Correa took home AL Player of the Month honors after hitting .386 while driving in 26, and Lance McCullers became the second Houston hurler in as many months to win AL Pitcher of the Month, going 4-0 with a 0.99 ERA.

Hitting a home run in your MLB debut is an impressive enough feat, but that would have been settling for one Astros outfielder. On June 14, when top prospect Derek Fisher made his MLB debut, he not only homered in the sixth inning against Rangers pitcher Jeremy Jeffress — he connected for another hit later in the same inning. It was the first time since 2004 that a player got his first two MLB hits in the same inning.

The hot start in Houston saw the club set the pace across the American League with regularity. On June 22, a 12-9 win over the Oakland A’s was the team's 50^th of the year, making Houston the first team to reach the half-century mark in wins on the year. It also came on the heels of becoming the first club to reach 30 and 40 victories as well.

After taking home AL Player of the Month honors in May, Carlos Correa put on quite an encore over the next two months. Starting on June 20, he began a hitting spree that would carry over into July before ultimately reaching a career-best 15 games. In the process, Correa posted five multi-RBI games and raised his average to .320 by the end of the run on July 7.

Houston headed into the All-Star break on a high note, closing out the first half making a statement in the form of a 19-1 win over Blue Jays. It was the 60^th win on the season and concluded the most successful half in franchise history. In life before the All-Star Break, the Astros had a lead in 87 percent of their games at one point.

Entering the All-Star break at 31 games above .500 and with a 10-game lead over the rest of the American League field, it was fitting for a pack of Astros to inhabit the AL roster. A franchise-record six Astros made their way to Miami for the Midsummer Classic, with Jose Altuve, George Springer and Carlos Correa voted in as starters. With Lance McCullers Jr., Dallas Keuchel and Chris Devenski joining the pack from the pitcher’s mound, the Astros were well-represented all over the diamond.

While the first half of the year went off without a hitch for the Astros, the second half was a different story. After the All-Star break, the Astros managed consecutive victories only twice over the next month and seemingly could not get into gear. Getting back on task became even more complicated when they lost their All-Star shortstop in Correa to a torn ligament in his left thumb on July 18. It was second major setback of the time, as Dallas Keuchel’s absence from the rotation (only two starts over June and July combined) continued to water down the pitching as well.

While the loss of Correa was a rough spot to get past, his mighty mite of a middle infield mate did all he could to pad the blow. Jose Altuve put up the best month of his career in July, hitting .485 with 48 hits and a .523 on-base percentage en route to winning AL Player of the Month honors. Over the course of the month, Altuve compiled a 19-game hitting streak and became one of six players since 1901 to have 43 hits over an 18-game stretch.

Despite taking a tumble throughout July, the club was surprisingly quiet at the trade deadline. It was a decision that prompted some public comments and concern from the Houston clubhouse, which was dealing with an especially injury-plagued pitching staff.

"I mean, I'm not going to lie, disappointment is a little bit of an understatement," Keuchel said after the deadline passed. "I feel like a bunch of teams really bolstered their rosters for the long haul and for a huge playoff push, and us just kind of staying pat was really disappointing to myself."

As the season turned to August, the Astros were still looking to get fully back into gear. But for a day, the Houston faithful could detour attention away from the day-to-day dealings of the struggling ball club and pay homage to arguably the greatest player to ever wear the Astros logo. The 1994 National League MVP and the franchise’s all-time leader in home runs and RBI was officially enshrined into the National Baseball Hall of Fame on July 30.

The recent struggles on the baseball field were put to the side on Aug. 28, when the Astros were forced to relocate to Tampa Bay for a series against the Texas Rangers due to the onset of Hurricane Harvey in the Houston area. The Astros would return to Minute Maid Park on Sept. 2 for a doubleheader against the New York Mets with patches on their jerseys reading "Houston Strong" in support of the area they called home. In addition to the millions of dollars in hurricane relief funding that the #HoustonStrong initiative raised, their return also brought a spark back to the field as well, as the team won six straight games after returning home to Houston.

As August wore on, the Astros continued to realize that more firepower would be required to survive the increasingly intensifying AL landscape. In the waning seconds of the August trade deadline, Houston swung the most pivotal deal of the year by convincing longtime Tigers ace Justin Verlander to accept a deal to come join the team and supply a stabilizing presence to a pitching staff in peril. Over the next month, Verlander would win all five of his starts as an Astro, posting 1.06 ERA over 34 innings.

With Verlander on board, Dallas Keuchel back healthy and Jose Altuve continuing to roll, along with the surging Marwin Gonzalez and Josh Reddick providing some pop, the Astros rounded back into their earlier form. September turned into the second winningest month of the year for the club, running up 20 wins in a month for the second time on the year.

Although it was an inevitable outcome for months on end, the midseason perils brought on an added sense of accomplishment for the club whe it wrapped up an invite to the postseason on Sept 17. Amid the rise of the Los Angeles Dodgers and the record-breaking streak of the Cleveland Indians to the top of the AL, the Astros had become somewhat lost in the shuffle. However, they wrapped up the franchise’s first AL West title with a 15-game lead in the division.

When the Astros beat the Red Sox 12-2 on Sept. 28, they became the first team since the Detroit Tigers in 1987 to win four consecutive games by nine runs or more. They had previously swept the Rangers by scores of 11-2, 14-3 and 12-2 entering the game. Needless to say, the bats looked ready for October.

While they fell short of 10 runs for the first time in five days, a 3-2 victory over the Red Sox on Sept. 29 gave the Astros their 100^th victory of the season. It marked only the second time in club history reaching the century mark in wins, with the 1998 team notching 102 victories. Perhaps making this one that much more special is that it came just four years after losing 111 games over their first American League campaign.

When thinking about the traditional mold of a leadoff hitter, the powerful stroke of George Springer is anything but what comes to mind. As a point of comparison, while he hits leadoff for his everyday team, Springer hit cleanup for the AL All-Star team. Regardless, the athletic center fielder spent the year making an early impact, including nine leadoff home runs and 18 to start an inning overall. 

It was an incredible year for the second baseman, who continued to climb among the greats in the game today. Altuve won his third AL batting title in the last four years, hitting a career-best .346. His 204 hits also led the AL, making him the first player in history to lead the league in hits for four straight years. Toss in a sixth straight 30-steal season and career highs in on-base, slugging and (of course) OPS, and another stellar MVP push is in the books.

The Houston offense got the ALDS underway in a rousing fashion, with Alex Bregman and Jose Altuve supplying a pair of home runs in the first inning against the Red Sox and Chris Sale. Ultimately, Altuve would post three home runs in Game 1, while Bregman would take Sale deep in the bookend games of the series. Houston would conquer the Red Sox three games to one, advancing to its first League Championship Series appearance since 2005.

In their first American League Championship Series appearance, the Astros would face the franchise that is most well-acquainted with it in the New York Yankees. After jumping out to a 2-0 lead, they dropped all three games at Yankee Stadium. With their backs against the wall, they pulled out a home-field comeback, led by a dominant Game 6 outing from eventual ALCS MVP Justin Verlander and five shutout innings from Charlie Morton in Game 7, with a Jose Altuve home run capping a comeback to extend the Astros' undefeated postseason run at Minute Maid Park and capture the first AL pennant in team history.