Astros bats are broken but Mariners keep them alive in AL West

Hunter Brown pitched six shutout innings against the AL Central-leading Detroit Tigers and the Houston Astros' bullpen delivered three scoreless innings. Considering the fact that the Astros held the Tigers off the board through nine innings, it would've been reasonable to have expected Houston to walk away with a win for just the second time in its last five games. Instead, the Astros failed to score a run themselves through nine frames, forcing Tuesday's game to go to extra innings, where, of course, the Astros failed to bring the ghost runner home and lost on a walk-off walk.

There's no shame in failing to score against Tarik Skubal and a good Tigers team, but unfortunately, getting shutout is nothing new for the Astros. Tuesday was the third straight game in which Houston failed to score a single run.

It's actually been four times in five games that the Astros have been shut out, and the Astros have had more than five hits just once in those four games. Hitting an offensive slump is something every team experiences in any given year, but slumps like the one Houston is currently in the midst of are not normal. The Astros couldn't hit a trash can right now if they tried to (wouldn't put it past them).

Things understandably feel dire right now for the Astros, but what if I told you they haven't lost any ground in the AL West in this span? The Astros have lost four of their last five games, but the same can be said about the second-place Seattle Mariners, who have now dropped four in a row after their loss on Tuesday against the Philadelphia Phillies. Houston is still 1.5 games ahead of Seattle in the AL West. That feels like a major blessing when taking into account how the Astros have played lately, and really since the All-Star break.

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Astros picked the right time to play worst baseball of the season

Slumps are never ideal, especially when they arrive in mid-August, but playing like this and not losing any ground in the AL West is certainly an ideal scenario. If you're going to slump at any point, you'd like for it to happen at the same time as your biggest competitor, right?

Even if the Astros' offensive slump continues on Wednesday and they eke out a 1-0 win, if the Mariners lose, they will have gained a game on Seattle despite scoring one run in four games. What kind of ridiculous devil magic is that? Is this what people mean when they say the Astros are inevitable?

It becomes a lot easier to flush a slump when the Mariners are slumping at the same time, and fortunately, there's reason to believe this slump won't last too much longer for the 'Stros.

Astros are close to getting major reinforcement for playoff push

The Astros have been without Yordan Alvarez, their best hitter by far, since early May, making the fact that they're sitting in first place in the AL West in mid-August even more impressive. Well, Alvarez just wrapped up the first game of what the Astros hope will be a fairly quick rehab assignment.

When healthy, Alvarez is one of the best hitters in the game. Adding his bat to the middle of the lineup will not only give the Astros a much-needed left-handed hitter, but also the superstar that they've really lacked all season long, especially with both Alex Bregman and Kyle Tucker playing elsewhere.

It goes without saying that the Mariners will come to regret not taking advantage of the Astros at their worst. It feels like Houston is on the verge of breaking out, and adding that feeling onto Alvarez's return is scary.