Houston Style Magazine Sports would like to send congratulations to our hometown Houston Astros. The 2017 American League West Champions wrapped up the division by defeating the Seattle Mariners 7-1 on this past Sunday. The Astros won the division for the first time since moving into the American League West in 2013. They had previously been in the National League since 1962. It was also the first division title for Houston since 2001.

The Astros now have two weeks left to prepare for the post-season. Hopefully, wrapping up the title so quickly will allow the All-Star players to get some much-needed rest for a few days. They have certainly earned it. After breezing through the first half of the season (42-16), the Astros struggled just a tad in the second half (20-22). And at one point the attention shifted from them to American League Central Cleveland Indians who went on a 22-game winning streak, 25 -1 in the last 26 games.

This made some of the baseball experts change their season long prediction of the Astros representing the American League in the World Series to the Indians. Forgetting that the Astros suffered a major setback when 2017 All-Star shortstop Carlos Correa went down with a thumb injury. But in true Houston fashion, the team is on a current five game winning streak; an indication to the rest of the baseball world to don’t give up on them just yet.

One of the major concerns going into the post-season for the Astros will be if they can get enough help from the pitching staff to compliment the potent scoring machine that they have. Newly acquired and potential Hall of Famer, Justin Verlander brings a strong arm and a winning attitude to Houston to go along with Lance McCullers and Dallas Keuchel. After suffering some shoulder and neck injuries during the season, Keuchel has returned to his 2015 Cy Young winning form. “Dallas has been solid,” said manager A.J. Hinch.

The Houston bullpen will be what most fans will be paying close attention to due to some late inning collapses that lost the Astros games during the second half of the season. Hinch will look to a platoon of bullpen pitchers led by setup guy, Chris Devanski, and, closer, Ken Giles.

Please stop me if you have heard this before. Astros second baseman Jose Altuve is great. I have repeatedly written how the 2017 Lou Gehrig award winner is the backbone of this Houston Astros franchise. For fear of being redundant, I will not list all of his accolades. I will just repeat that he is great and leads a group of very young and talented players into the postseason ready to show the rest of the baseball world that they are here to stay.

The Houston Astros have put together a winning formula that will potentially compete in the “Fall Classic” (World Series). Now it’s time for the rest of the sports world to become witnesses that the Astros are ready to “blast off.”