Victor Caratini and Jason Hayward celebrates after hitting a home run in the 5th inning

After falling 10 games behind the Seattle Mariners in mid-June, the Houston Astros were clearly struggling. But first-year manager Joe Espada worked hard every day to remind his team that they could still turn things around.

“`We got this,’” he said to the players. “`We are a good team. We’ve just got to go on a hot streak and we’ll turn this around.’”

They have now claimed seven AL West championships in eight seasons, with the only miss coming in the shortened 2020 season when Oakland took the title.

Houston started the season with a tough 7-19 record, trailing Seattle by 10 games on June 18. However, they won their next seven games, kicking off a 13-2 stretch that brought their record to 46-42 by July 5.

By mid-August, they moved ahead of the Mariners into first place and continued strong to finish the

These injuries led the Astros to bring in Ronel Blanco and rookie Spencer Arrighetti into the rotation. Blanco threw a no-hitter in his first game and is now second on the team with 12 wins and a 2.88 ERA.

Arrighetti has made 28 starts and was named AL rookie of the month for August after finishing with a 3-2 record and a 1.95 ERA.