Houston Astros Yordan Alvarez (44) hits a single during the seventh inning of an MLB baseball game in Houston, Sunday, Sept. 20 2026.
Jason Fochtman/Houston Chronicle
Calm imbues Yordan Alvarez’s movements, on a baseball field or about the clubhouse. Contact off his bat trends much louder than typical words from the Houston Astros’ stoic slugger, though the understanding is both garner respect. Sunday, after a deficient series, with a late slide threatening to torpedo his team’s playoff hopes, Alvarez spoke.
In their final regular-season series at home, the Astros were swept by an Atlanta team that secured both a playoff spot and its division over a weekend at Daikin Park while knocking the Astros from atop theirs.
Houston Astros Yordan Alvarez (44) hit a single during the first inning of an MLB baseball game in Houston, Sunday, Sept. 20 2026.
Jason Fochtman/Houston Chronicle
With six games left, the Astros do not control their postseason fate. A frustrating 4-2 loss Sunday left them two games below .500 and one behind the first-place Rangers in the American League West. In its wake, and before they departed for Seattle and a road trip that will define their year, Alvarez convened and addressed the clubhouse.
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“We had a team meeting about that,” Alvarez said afterward, through an interpreter. “Basically, for us, it was three slaps in the face that they gave us, right in front of our fans especially. Just use tomorrow to take it as a reset day, a rest. And then the only thing left is to go out there and win those six games that we have left.”
Alvarez declined to offer specifics about the brief meeting, including his message or whether any other players spoke. First baseman Christian Walker described it as putting Houston’s position in perspective.
“ ‘Settle down, we’re still in the fight,’ ” Walker said. “‘It feels like s—’s sliding right now, but we have an opportunity to make the postseason and that’s what we’re fighting for.”
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The past 10 days have imperiled that opportunity. The Astros entered last Friday with a three-game lead over Texas in the AL West. They have lost seven of nine games since, with the two wins against a Royals team in the AL Central cellar, and 10 of their last 14 games overall.
Sunday’s left their record at 77-79 and seemed a tipping point for Alvarez, who spoke animatedly as he addressed reporters postgame. Alvarez attributed that “frustration” to “just losing in general.” Walker said Alvarez’s words to the team conveyed “calmness,” but the fact Alvarez delivered them “stresses a sense of urgency.”
“It’s not, like, a secret recipe or secret formula what we’ve got to do,” Walker said. “But I think from time to time, just getting back on the same page, maybe guys who have never been to the postseason or are new to the big leagues, for them to hear some calmness and steadiness out of a vet like Yordan I think is important.
“Everybody’s going to interpret things differently. Everybody’s going to have to find their own headspace to play well here in the next week or so.”
That, spurred by speech from a Triple Crown candidate or not, is the bottom line for the Astros. To reach the playoffs, they will require a better record over the final week of the season than the Rangers, over whom they hold a tiebreaker, or potentially the White Sox, who are three games ahead of them for the final AL wild-card spot and technically within reach.
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The Astros will play two games against the Mariners, who lead 9-2 in the season series, before finishing with four games against the lowly A’s. Both clubs, Walker noted, figure to “have nothing to lose” and an objective “to knock us out.” Seattle, at 10 games under .500 and on the cusp of elimination, still owns a better run differential, at minus-56, than Houston’s minus-59 mark.
“We’re a good team and we can still make a big push here,” ace Hunter Brown said. “And we’re right in it. We’re not dead yet. So that’s what we’re going to do, give it our all this last six games and find out where we’re at after that.”
BATTERS
AVG
OBA
AB
R
H
2B
3B
HR
RBI
BB
SO
SB
CS
E
Team Totals
.240
.313
5236
688
1255
228
19
209
657
502
1282
46
20
70
Alvarez
.313
.430
543
98
170
32
1
40
99
105
115
1
0
2
Correa
.279
.369
122
22
34
8
0
3
16
18
26
1
0
1
Diaz
.278
.309
316
35
88
14
0
13
40
12
52
0
2
3
Peña
.275
.325
422
75
116
19
2
20
51
24
109
9
2
12
Allen
.271
.318
140
24
38
5
0
3
14
10
31
2
0
5
Paredes
.260
.358
539
64
140
26
1
22
90
67
85
0
0
8
Shewmake
.256
.272
78
10
20
4
0
3
9
2
13
0
0
2
Altuve
.249
.307
498
67
124
24
2
16
45
40
107
5
3
5
Delgado
.243
.300
37
4
9
1
0
1
4
3
7
0
0
2
Harris
.226
.286
31
4
7
0
1
0
4
2
6
2
0
0
Walker
.221
.294
548
66
121
25
1
25
80
48
142
0
0
3
Loperfido
.214
.311
103
13
22
7
1
1
12
14
32
1
1
1
Meyers
.213
.268
141
15
30
7
0
3
11
10
31
1
2
0
Dezenzo
.213
.280
75
11
16
4
0
1
3
7
31
1
0
1
Smith
.209
.274
489
62
102
16
6
20
54
39
140
11
2
6
Wade
.208
.308
125
17
26
6
0
4
19
18
35
0
0
0
Vázquez
.206
.261
238
22
49
7
0
7
25
18
52
1
0
2
Trammell
.202
.290
242
29
49
10
2
8
22
26
85
4
3
2
Matthews
.198
.250
212
23
42
5
1
7
22
15
73
4
4
1
Varsho
.172
.224
151
12
26
4
1
5
14
10
36
3
0
0
Price
.167
.231
12
1
2
1
0
0
0
1
6
0
0
1
Spence
.162
.244
37
4
6
1
0
0
3
3
15
0
1
1
Cole
.157
.189
51
4
8
1
0
3
8
1
21
0
0
1
Johnson
.143
.294
14
1
2
0
0
0
0
2
3
0
0
0
Barrosa
.143
.333
7
1
1
1
0
0
0
2
3
0
0
1
Whitcomb
.130
.167
23
2
3
0
0
2
5
1
11
0
0
0
Velázquez
.125
.154
24
2
3
0
0
2
6
1
12
0
0
1
Salazar
.056
.227
18
0
1
0
0
0
1
3
3
0
0
0
___
PITCHERS
W
L
ERA
G
GS
SV
IP
H
R
ER
HR
BB
SO
Team Totals
77
79
4.53
156
156
48
1383.2
1233
747
696
201
626
1359
Meyers
0
0
0.00
1
0
0
1
0
0
0
0
0
0
Hader
4
1
0.83
44
0
26
43.1
17
4
4
1
11
55
Santa
0
1
1.17
10
0
0
15.1
8
6
2
1
6
9
Okert
6
2
2.13
68
1
0
67.2
45
17
16
7
14
68
VanWey
1
0
2.25
6
0
0
8
8
3
2
1
0
5
Brown
6
3
3.26
19
19
0
102
79
40
37
11
51
120
Ullola
0
0
3.38
8
2
0
10.2
5
4
4
2
4
10
Wesneski
5
2
3.50
10
10
0
54
43
25
21
4
19
41
Pearson
1
0
3.60
16
0
1
20
16
10
8
1
12
16
Lambert
8
10
3.70
27
27
0
151
128
64
62
15
57
147
Blubaugh
5
3
3.70
61
0
1
92.1
75
40
38
13
40
92
Pecko
1
0
3.77
6
4
0
28.2
20
13
12
5
12
19
Abreu
6
4
3.88
64
0
8
60.1
42
28
26
9
40
79
Arrighetti
7
5
4.60
17
17
0
88
68
47
45
12
50
87
Teng
5
7
4.76
30
10
0
73.2
69
43
39
10
33
73
De Los Santos
3
3
4.79
66
0
5
71.1
69
43
38
11
20
67
Imai
6
4
5.00
22
15
0
75.2
58
42
42
9
51
96
Roa
0
1
5.19
7
0
0
8.2
10
5
5
1
7
6
Sousa
1
3
5.27
32
1
0
27.1
30
18
16
4
16
27
Javier
2
6
5.31
16
11
0
61
63
36
36
10
26
57
King
3
6
5.40
58
1
6
58.1
66
39
35
9
22
46
Bolton
0
1
5.40
8
3
1
20
21
12
12
3
14
22
Burrows
4
9
5.99
18
17
0
94.2
112
69
63
21
35
75
McCullers
2
3
6.86
8
8
0
39.1
38
32
30
7
22
43
Blanco
0
1
7.11
7
5
0
31.2
30
25
25
9
15
26
Murray
0
0
7.43
8
0
0
13.1
19
11
11
1
7
8
Weiss
0
3
7.62
9
2
0
26
35
24
22
8
20
30
France
0
0
8.10
3
0
0
6.2
6
6
6
1
5
4
Salazar
0
0
9.00
1
0
0
1
1
1
1
1
0
0
Alexander
1
1
9.33
4
2
0
18.1
21
19
19
4
8
14
Gordon
0
0
11.57
4
1
0
9.1
21
12
12
6
3
11
Muñoz
0
0
15.75
3
0
0
4
7
7
7
3
6
6
Wade
0
0
18.00
1
0
0
1
3
2
2
1
0
0
One game out of playoff position in a flawed American League, the Astros are far from dead. Still, recent sweeps by the Rays and Braves, the AL East and NL East champions, renewed questions of whether they resemble a contender at all.
Their offense totaled seven runs in three games against Atlanta. They have scored three or fewer runs in 25 of 43 games since the Aug. 3 trade deadline, a span in which only the AL-worst Angels have produced fewer runs. Their bullpen, on fumes, could not protect slim leads in two losses over the weekend.
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Sunday, the Astros received five scoreless innings from Brown. Their lineup failed to score in two bases-loaded opportunities, however, resulting in a 1-0 lead the Braves flipped to a 4-1 deficit in a four-batter span in the sixth. The Astros stranded 19 runners in the series and were outscored by a 16-7 margin.
“We’ve got to use tomorrow to really gather our thoughts and get a good game plan together for the next week,” manager Joe Espada said. “This was not a good series. No doubt about it that we need to bounce back and really dig deep and fight, because this series was not what we expected.”
Houston Astros designated hitter Jose Altuve (27) reacts after grounding out during the eighth inning of an MLB baseball game in Houston, Sunday, Sept. 20 2026.
Jason Fochtman/Houston Chronicle
Houston Astros pitcher Tatsuya Imai (45) delivers during the eighth inning of an MLB baseball game in Houston, Sunday, Sept. 20 2026.
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Houston Astros pitcher Tatsuya Imai (45) delivers during the eighth inning of an MLB baseball game in Houston, Sunday, Sept. 20 2026.
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Houston Astros Jose Altuve (27) is seen in the dugout during the eighth inning of an MLB baseball game in Houston, Sunday, Sept. 20 2026.
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Houston Astros Jose Altuve (27) is seen in the dugout during the eighth inning of an MLB baseball game in Houston, Sunday, Sept. 20 2026.
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Houston Astros pitcher Miguel Ullola (66) delivers during the sixth inning of an MLB baseball game in Houston, Sunday, Sept. 20 2026.
Jason Fochtman/Houston Chronicle
Houston Astros pitcher Miguel Ullola (66) delivers during the sixth inning of an MLB baseball game in Houston, Sunday, Sept. 20 2026.
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Houston Astros pitcher Bryan King (74) reacts after giving up a 3-run home run to Atlanta Braves Mike Yastrzemski during the sixth inning of an MLB baseball game in Houston, Sunday, Sept. 20 2026.
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Houston Astros right fielder Cam Smith (11) reacts after pitcher Bryan King gave up a 3-run home run to Atlanta Braves Mike Yastrzemski during the sixth inning of an MLB baseball game in Houston, Sunday, Sept. 20 2026.
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Houston second baseman Nick Allen (20) is seen alongside Houston right fielder Cam Smith (11) after hit by Atlanta Braves Ozzie Albies drops in for an RBI single to tie the game 1-1 during the sixth inning of an MLB baseball game in Houston, Sunday, Sept. 20 2026.
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Houston right fielder Cam Smith (11) tries to field an RBI single by Atlanta Braves Ozzie Albies that tied the game 1-1 during the sixth inning of an MLB baseball game in Houston, Sunday, Sept. 20 2026.
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Houston right fielder Cam Smith (11) tries to field an RBI single by Atlanta Braves Ozzie Albies that tied the game 1-1 during the sixth inning of an MLB baseball game in Houston, Sunday, Sept. 20 2026.
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Houston Astros pitcher Bryan King (74) delivers during the sixth inning of an MLB baseball game in Houston, Sunday, Sept. 20 2026.
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Houston Astros Jose Altuve (27) reacts after striking out with the bases loaded during the fifth inning of an MLB baseball game in Houston, Sunday, Sept. 20 2026.
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Houston Astros Jose Altuve (27) reacts after striking out with the bases loaded during the fifth inning of an MLB baseball game in Houston, Sunday, Sept. 20 2026.
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Houston Astros starting pitcher Hunter Brown (58) reacts after getting Atlanta Braves Matt Olson to ground out to end the top of the fifth inning of an MLB baseball game in Houston, Sunday, Sept. 20 2026.
Jason Fochtman/Houston Chronicle
Houston Astros starting pitcher Hunter Brown (58) reacts after getting Atlanta Braves Matt Olson to ground out to end the top of the fifth inning of an MLB baseball game in Houston, Sunday, Sept. 20 2026.
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Houston Astros Cam Smith (11) walks back to the dugout after striking out during the fourth inning of an MLB baseball game in Houston, Sunday, Sept. 20 2026.
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Houston Astros Jose Altuve (27) gets high-fives in the dugout after hitting a solo home run during the fourth inning of an MLB baseball game in Houston, Sunday, Sept. 20 2026.
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Houston Astros Jose Altuve (27) reacts after hitting a solo home run during the fourth inning of an MLB baseball game in Houston, Sunday, Sept. 20 2026.
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Houston Astros Jose Altuve (27) hits a solo home run during the fourth inning of an MLB baseball game in Houston, Sunday, Sept. 20 2026.
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Houston Astros starting pitcher Hunter Brown (58) puts is arm around catcher Yainer Diaz (21) during the third inning of an MLB baseball game in Houston, Sunday, Sept. 20 2026.
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Houston Astros shortstop Jeremy Peña (3) throws out Atlanta Braves Ronald Acuña Jr. during the third inning of an MLB baseball game in Houston, Sunday, Sept. 20 2026.
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Houston Astros right fielder Cam Smith (11) reacts after striking out during the first inning of an MLB baseball game in Houston, Sunday, Sept. 20 2026.
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Houston Astros Christian Walker (8) reacts after hitting a fly ball with the bases loaded to end the first inning of an MLB baseball game in Houston, Sunday, Sept. 20 2026.
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Atlanta Braves starting pitcher Grant Holmes (66) drops the ball as he tries to throw out Houston Astros Jose Altuve at first during the first inning of an MLB baseball game in Houston, Sunday, Sept. 20 2026.
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Houston Astros Jose Altuve (27) bunts for a single during the first inning of an MLB baseball game in Houston, Sunday, Sept. 20 2026.
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Houston Astros Yordan Alvarez (44) hit a single during the first inning of an MLB baseball game in Houston, Sunday, Sept. 20 2026.
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Houston Astros starting pitcher Hunter Brown (58) delivers during the first inning of an MLB baseball game in Houston, Sunday, Sept. 20 2026.
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Houston Astros Yainer Diaz, right, celebrates with Cam Smith (11) after hitting a solo home run during the eighth inning of an MLB baseball game in Houston, Sunday, Sept. 20 2026.
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Jeremy Peña, Alvarez, Isaac Paredes and Jose Altuve combined to record 16 of their 23 hits in the series, upholding a lack of lineup depth. Paredes drove in four of their seven runs. The 5-through-9 spots in the order were a combined 7-for-57 with 21 strikeouts. Peña, who went 2-for-13, and Altuve, who was 6-for-12, both declined comment after Sunday’s loss through a team spokesperson.
“It feels like there’s a lot of pressure right now — and there is and that’s a good thing,” said Walker, who has a .562 OPS since the All-Star break. “Because we’ve played ourselves into a spot to be competitive.”
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The Astros have displayed resilience at points this season. They started 20-31 before a gradual climb to claim first place in the division on July 31. They sank below .500 again on Aug. 23, during a disastrous homestand that preceded the dismissal of general manager Dana Brown, then won four of the next five series, three against teams in contention.
A subsequent lull leaves them no choice but to respond again if they are to return to the playoffs. Last season, too, they embarked on their final road trip with a chance to salvage fading postseason hopes. Losing three of the first four games dashed them, ending a streak of eight straight playoff appearances. One of those precedents must fall.
“The only option left is to win,” Alvarez said. “There’s nothing we can say. The only option is to win.”