November 10, 2026
November 10, 2026
The Astros’ 2026 season was a test of survival that Houston somehow passed. A club gutted by pitching injuries sat at 20-31 in late May and looked finished. It clawed back to win the American League West on the final day at 81-81. No division champion had ever finished with a worse record. Then October lasted exactly two games.
Houston arrived at spring training with something to prove. The 2025 club had won 87 games and still missed the postseason, ending a long run of October baseball. Joe Espada entered the final year of his contract, and general manager Dana Brown entered the last year of his own.
The winter moves were modest. Christian Vázquez arrived to share catching duties, and Cavan Biggio signed as a utility option. Mike Burrows came over from Pittsburgh in a three-team trade. Japanese right-hander Tatsuya Imai joined the rotation, and Peter Lambert signed a minor league deal after a stint in Japan. Luis García left for the Yankees. The coaching staff was overhauled, with new hitting and catching coaches brought in.
The pitching staff collapsed almost as soon as the season began. Hunter Brown made his first Opening Day start on March 26, a 3-0 loss to the Angels. Within weeks, he was sidelined with a Grade 2 shoulder strain. Cristian Javier soon followed with the same injury. Imai landed on the injured list with arm fatigue after walking 11 batters across his first three starts. Josh Hader was out with a biceps issue, while Ronel Blanco and Hayden Wesneski were still recovering from Tommy John surgery.
The lineup took hits too. Jeremy Peña strained a hamstring during a seven-game losing streak that left Houston 6-10 and last in the division. By April 29, the Astros stood at 11-19 with the worst team ERA in baseball at 5.96. The skid bottomed out at 20-31.
The rescue began with the most unlikely of arms. Spencer Arrighetti posted a 0.93 ERA in May and earned AL Pitcher of the Month honors. On May 15, he and Bryan King combined on a one-hitter to shut out Texas.
Ten days later in Arlington came the night that changed the mood. Imai, Steven Okert, and rookie Alimber Santa held the Rangers hitless in a 9-0 win. Santa was making his major league debut. It was the 18th no-hitter in franchise history. From May 22 onward, Houston went 61-50, one of the best marks in the American League.
Yordan Alvarez turned the Astros’ 2026 season into a showcase for his bat. He was named AL Player of the Month for March and April, then again in July. In a June game at Kansas City, he hit two home runs, including a grand slam, and drove in six runs in a single inning. By July 10, he had become the first American League hitter to reach 30 home runs.
He started at designated hitter in the All-Star Game and drove in a run in the AL’s 4-0 win. Alvarez finished at .316 with a .432 on-base percentage, 42 home runs, and 106 RBIs. That average led the majors and delivered a batting title. Every comeback the Astros mounted ran through the middle of their order.
The supporting cast hit with power. Houston led the majors with 226 home runs and posted the AL’s best OPS at .732. Christian Walker hit 29 homers, Isaac Paredes added 25, Peña had 22, and Cam Smith had 21. Paredes also led the majors with 46 two-out RBIs.
The front office reshaped the staff in midsummer. Lance McCullers Jr. and Colton Gordon went to Milwaukee on July 15. Hader returned on June 3 and was dominant, carrying a 0.87 ERA into mid-August. Blanco returned on July 20, 432 days after arm surgery, and Peña celebrated with an opposite-field grand slam that night.
On July 31, Houston routed Texas 11-2 to seize first place. Days later, Arrighetti was traded to Toronto for outfielder Daulton Varsho. The Astros then won 11 of 12 games. On August 14, Walker capped a five-run tenth inning with a three-run walk-off homer against Seattle.
The momentum did not last. After back-to-back losses to the Athletics, the club parted ways with Brown on August 24. Houston was 65-66 and tied with Texas for the division lead. Owner Jim Crane took over baseball operations, with duties split among three assistant GMs and senior advisor Jeff Bagwell. Former pitching coach Brent Strom rejoined the club as a consultant three days later.
The season came down to the final series, and an undrafted rookie saved it. Lucas Spence had been recalled only a day earlier after Varsho injured his wrist. On September 24 at Sutter Health Park, he hit his first three career home runs in a 7-5 win. He went 3-for-3 with five RBIs, and his final blast led off the ninth.
MLB.com’s account of Spence’s breakout noted that he became only the third player in history to hit his first three homers in one game. Rookie Miguel Ullola added three scoreless innings in relief. The win left Houston at 79-80, tied with Texas with three games to play.
Houston dropped a 6-5 decision the next night, then answered with five homers in a 13-2 rout. On September 27, the Astros needed one more win. Spence’s two-run triple sparked a four-run third inning, and Walker homered later. Ethan Pecko allowed one hit across three innings in a 9-0 victory.
The clinch became official in the eighth when Texas lost at Minnesota. Fox 26 Houston’s report on the clincher captured a fifth AL West title in six years. Houston finished one game ahead of Texas. The Astros also won the season series against the Rangers 9-4, keeping the Silver Boot for a 10th straight year.
The postseason exposed every crack that the regular season had hidden. Houston hosted the White Sox in a best-of-three Wild Card Series at Daikin Park. The bullpen had been stretched thin over the final weekend. In Game 1, AJ Blubaugh started a bullpen game that required eight pitchers, and Chicago won 6-3.
Game 2 unraveled early. Brown exited after only 36 pitches with the bases loaded and Houston trailing 4-0. Two errors behind him made the hole deeper. Then the Astros fought back. Peña led off the first with a homer, Smith went deep in the second, and Altuve homered in the fourth to cut the lead to 4-3. Lambert followed with three scoreless innings.
Could the comeback hold? It could not. Chase Meidroth hit a three-run homer off Bryan Abreu in the sixth, and Houston never recorded another hit in a 7-3 loss. The Astros went 0-for-9 with runners in scoring position in the series. MLB.com’s recap of the Wild Card Series noted it was their ninth straight home postseason loss. Altuve’s homer was his 28th in the postseason, one behind Manny Ramirez’s all-time record.
The Astros’ 2026 season delivered a banner and a reckoning at the same time. Houston became the first team without a winning record to reach the postseason in a full-length season. The club used a franchise-record 19 starting pitchers and 59 players overall. Lambert, who opened the year in Triple-A, made 29 starts with a 3.82 ERA and 154 strikeouts. He was named the club’s Pitcher of the Year.
The overhaul that began in August finished in October. On October 14, the Astros declined to renew Espada’s contract, and Click2Houston reported the departure along with several coaching changes. Espada left with a 256-229 record and two division titles in three seasons. The full numbers on Baseball Reference show a .500 team. The resilience behind them showed a franchise that refused to let its October standard slip quietly away.
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November 10th, 2026 2
November 10th, 2026 2
