Astros Division Lead Continues to Dwindle as August Rolls Along

The MLB season has always been, and will always be, a marathon where the teams who have the best endurance more often than not are the ones who end up in the chase for World Series glory as October approaches.

One of the biggest ways championship contenders end up having their ability to win it all tested throughout a 162-game regular season campaign is by the dreaded injury bug. Every team deals with some level of attrition throughout the year, and the mark of truly resilient squads is their ability to overcome these obstacles.

The Houston Astros have been a shining example of this sort of resiliency all season long in 2025, as they have endured more bad injury luck than any top team in recent memory. It seems like every single week has seen a different Astro put on the shelf for one reason or another, with the starting rotation in particular being hit the hardest.

Despite all of this, however, Houston has looked completely unfazed by their awful string of injury luck for most of the year. Prior to the All-Star break, the Stros looked completely unstoppable out West, even with over a dozen players on the IL.

As August has continued to roll along, and several more Houston players have found their way onto the IL, it appears as if the mounting stress of their depleted roster has finally started to catch up to the team, and this reality has been illustrated perfectly by their dwindling lead in the AL West standings.

Knock
Knock
AL West Standings@Mariners are coming pic.twitter.com/LTCoEp6DpY
— Russell Hartness (@RussellHartness) August 10, 2025

After getting off to a slow start to begin the season, the Astros captured first place in the divisional standings back on May 31. They've managed to maintain their hold over the top spot out west since then, running their lead up to as high as 10 games at one point in the middle of June.

Since then, however, the Seattle Mariners and Texas Rangers have slowly chipped away at Houston's once commanding division lead to the point where they now only hold a half-game advantage over the red-hot Mariners, and are within striking distance of the Rangers as well, at 5.5 games.

There's no question that the repeated blows the Astros have taken in terms of injuries have played a massive role in their current slide. The fact that they have been able to hold up for so long despite everybody they have been forced to play without is one of the most impressive feats any team has pulled off in a while.

As commendable as the effort may be, though, Houston has much bigger aspirations they hope to obtain, and if they want to reach those goals, then they have to find a way to keep winning in the face of all their bad injury luck.

They're will be reinforcements coming back over the next couple of weeks, but Houston will now have find themselves in a dog fight down the back stretch if they want to secure their fifth consecutive AL West crown.