Will Raleigh finish strong? Can Astros score without Alvarez? 5 things that will decide the AL West race

The ragtag, scrappy Houston Astros big the big, atrocious Seattle Mariners this weekend, including the bid finale connected "Sunday Night Baseball" astatine 7 p.m. ET connected ESPN, successful a bid that mightiness determine the American League West -- arsenic the brace is tied atop the division.

Wait ... what?

That's right. The Astros, who person won 7 consecutive full-season AL West part titles, are rightfully described arsenic the underdog. How are they adjacent successful this position? They traded Kyle Tucker, mislaid Alex Bregman successful escaped agency, person played astir of the play without Yordan Alvarez, mislaid Jeremy Pena for implicit a month, person conscionable 2 pitchers with astatine slightest 15 starts and person been without Josh Hader since aboriginal August. In ESPN's preseason predictions, lone 3 of 28 voters picked them to triumph the division.

The Mariners, meanwhile, are warring to triumph their archetypal part rubric since 2001. Only the Miami Marlins and Colorado Rockies, who person ne'er finished successful archetypal place, and the Pittsburgh Pirates, who past won successful 1992, person gone longer without a part title. Yet, erstwhile the Mariners acquired Eugenio Suarez and Josh Naylor astatine the commercialized deadline, galore pundits believed they were present the squad to bushed successful the AL.

What volition determine the AL West rubric implicit these last 10 days of the season?

The Astros and Mariners are tied successful the play bid astatine 5-5, truthful whoever wins the play bid volition ain the all-important tiebreaker. The Texas Rangers, aft the Astros conscionable swept them, are each but eliminated from the part race, truthful it's conscionable betwixt Seattle and Houston now.

Here are 5 cardinal questions to the division:

1. What volition Cal Raleigh bash for a last encore?

After hitting nether .200 successful some July and August (while inactive mashing 17 location runs), Raleigh has been mixing successful a fewer much singles with his location runs successful September and has an OPS implicit 1.000 for the period heading into the commencement of the series. He has inactive missed conscionable 3 games each play and, with the Mariners warring for their playoff beingness down the stretch, hasn't missed a crippled since July 23. Even with DH games mixed in, that's a phenomenal workload (only J.T. Realmuto and William Contreras person caught much innings this season). It seemed arsenic if Raleigh deed the partition a spot successful August, but playoff fever erases each fatigue.

Indeed, Raleigh Read Entire Article