The American League West is currently a two-horse race between the Houston Astros and Seattle Mariners. Both teams overcame some early struggles and are now neck and neck in the division. The Astros are up by 1.5 games over the Mariners entering play on Thursday. The Texas Rangers are falling out of the race and might be an afterthought before too long as the season hits the final month.
This seemed like it was setting up to be another photo finish between teams that have grown to hate each in recent years. But while it's certainly tight, right now, neither of these teams are actually playing good baseball, and it's turning the AL West into one of the least exciting division races in the league. The Astros have lost four games in a row, while the Mariners are on a five-game losing skid.
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AL West is becoming a sad race due to Astros and Mariners struggles
When a division race is tight, it typically means that both teams have been playing each other tough all season long. For the most part, that is the case with the Astros and Mariners, but things haven't been going well lately for either team.
Seattle's pitching has fallen apart in recent weeks. They are 1-7 in their last eight games and 3-7 in their last 10. Meanwhile, Houston's offense has fallen completely silent. They suffered several shutouts this week and are now 2-6 in their last eight games and 4-6 in their previous 10.
There is still just over a month to go in the regular season, so there is plenty of time for both teams to initiate a turnaround and make this division race interesting again. But right now, things aren't looking too hot for either club. When both teams are struggling as badly as the Astros and Mariners are, then it essentially becomes a race between a movable object and a stoppable force — quite the contrary to what fans want, which is two juggernauts going at each other.
In fact, the Rangers are lucky they haven't fallen further out of the race. Because Houston and Seattle have struggled so badly recently, Texas is still within 6.5 games of the top spot in the AL West despite having gone into a tailspin of their own after the trade deadline.
Even the Los Angeles Angels are eight games back. So, Seattle and Houston are going to have to kick things into gear soon if they want to make the AL West exciting again.