{"id":31403,"date":"2023-10-01T23:47:37","date_gmt":"2023-10-02T05:47:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/astros-beat-diamondbacks-for-third-straight-al-west-title\/"},"modified":"2026-03-31T01:40:16","modified_gmt":"2026-03-31T07:40:16","slug":"astros-beat-diamondbacks-for-third-straight-al-west-title","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/astros-beat-diamondbacks-for-third-straight-al-west-title\/","title":{"rendered":"Astros beat Diamondbacks for third straight AL West title"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Houston
Houston Astros starting pitcher Cristian Javier throws against the Arizona Diamondbacks during the first inning of a baseball game, Sunday, Oct. 1, 2023, in Phoenix. (AP Photo\/Ross D. Franklin)<\/span>Ross D. Franklin<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

PHOENIX \u2013 The Houston Astros celebrated clinching a playoff spot with T-shirts and a subdued toast.<\/p>\n

A day later, after rallying to claim a bigger prize in their crosshairs, the Astros held an all-out locker room rager of cigars and champagne-and-beer showers that left puddles on the plastic-covered floors.<\/p>\n

A season of injuries and inconsistencies ended with another division title. Even for a team that won the World Series last fall, that’s worth celebrating.<\/p>\n

The Astros rallied to clinch their third straight AL West title, beating the Arizona Diamondbacks 8-1 on Sunday behind Christian Javier’s six strong innings and Alex Bregman’s two-run homer.<\/p>\n

\u201cA lot of people wanted to know what it’s like if the Astros didn’t win the division,\u201d Bregman said before popping the cork on a champagne bottle. \u201cI guess we’ll never know.\u201d<\/p>\n

Needing a win and a Texas loss to win the division, the Astros did their part by jumping on Kyle Nelson (7-4) from the first pitch. Houston had a 5-0 lead after two innings and Javier (10-5) held an Arizona lineup mostly devoid of everyday players to three hits.<\/p>\n

Kyle Tucker had a sacrifice fly to finish with 112 RBIs, most in the AL and third in the majors. Jos\u00e9 Abreu added a two-run homer in the seventh to clinch Houston’s sixth AL West title in seven years after the Rangers lost 1-0 to Seattle<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\"Major
Major League Baseball's postseason bracket (MLB.com)<\/span>cca<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The Astros have a first-round bye in the AL playoffs while Arizona will play at Milwaukee in a best-of-three NL wild card series that starts Tuesday.<\/p>\n

\u201cAt the end of the day, we kept it within striking distance and put it together at the end, which makes it very special,\u201d Houston general manager Dana Brown said.<\/p>\n

Houston had a solid follow up to its second World Series title, finishing 90-72 after going 106-56 last season. The Astros’ fourth straight victory to close the regular season gave manager Dusty Baker his 13th season with at least 90 wins.<\/p>\n

\u201cI didn’t want to end on 89 and we got to 90,\u201d Baker said in between champagne dousings.<\/p>\n

The Diamondbacks backed into the playoffs, scoring two runs in three games against the Astros to close the regular season on a four-game losing streak. Arizona finished 84-78 after going 74-88 last season and losing 110 games the year before.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou definitely want to finish on a high note, but it’s whatever and you’ve got to throw it away,\u201d Diamondbacks outfielder Alex Thomas said. \u201cNow we’ve got October baseball to focus on.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Astros and Diamondbacks had dual celebrations Saturday night after clinching playoff spots.<\/p>\n

Houston did it with a 1-0 victory over Arizona<\/a> that led to a muted reaction in the clubhouse for the reigning World Series champions.<\/p>\n

The Diamondbacks celebrated in the dugout when Cincinnati’s 15-6 loss to St. Louis clinched their first playoff berth since 2017. They had a much more raucous celebration after the game, a party that spilled over into the pool behind Chase Field’s right-center wall.<\/p>\n

Still within reach of the AL West title, the Astros jumped on the Diamondbacks early, needing two pitches to take a 2-0 lead.<\/p>\n

Jose Altuve opened with a single and Bregman followed with his 25th homer, a two-run shot to left. Houston scored another run on Arizona first baseman Emmanuel Rivera’s throwing error and went up 4-0 on Jeremy Pe\u00f1a’s run-scoring single.<\/p>\n

Tucker hit a sacrifice fly in the second inning and made it 6-0 in the fifth with a triple and head’s up baserunning after Diamondbacks shortstop Jordan Lawlar held the relay throw.<\/p>\n

\u201cMaybe we were a little flat, most of us were probably up a little late last night,\u201d Arizona manager Torey Lovullo said. \u201cFor sure there was a little lull in focus and energy. I get that, but let’s push that aside.\u201d<\/p>\n

Homer, no homer<\/div>\n

Tucker\u2019s bid to become the second member of Houston\u2019s 30-30 went on a wild ride.<\/p>\n

Tucker\u2019s triple and run in the fifth was initially ruled an error on the Diamondbacks, then a fielder\u2019s choice.<\/p>\n

After consultation with the Elias Sports Bureau, the official scorer changed it to an inside-the-park homer, seemingly giving Tucker his 30th homer.<\/p>\n

One inning later, after another consultation, Tucker\u2019s hit was changed back to a triple and fielder\u2019s choice, leaving Jeff Bagwell (1997 and 1999) as the only Houston player with 30 homers and 30 stolen bases in a season.<\/p>\n

Diamondbacks attendance<\/div>\n

The Diamondbacks drew 30,703 fans for their final home game, finishing with 1,961,182 for the season. It was Arizona\u2019s highest home attendance since eclipsing 2.1 million in 2019.<\/p>\n

Up next<\/div>\n

Houston: The Astros have a first-round bye in the AL.<\/p>\n

Arizona: The Diamondbacks will face Milwaukee in an NL wild card playoff series starting Tuesday.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Houston Astros starting pitcher Cristian Javier throws against the Arizona Diamondbacks during the first inning of a baseball game, Sunday, Oct. 1, 2023, in Phoenix. (AP Photo\/Ross D. Franklin)Ross D. Franklin PHOENIX \u2013 The Houston Astros celebrated clinching a playoff spot with T-shirts and a subdued toast. A day later, after rallying to claim a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":31404,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[470,346],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-31403","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-baseball","tag-sports"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31403","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=31403"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31403\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":81429,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31403\/revisions\/81429"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/31404"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=31403"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=31403"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=31403"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=31403"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}