On a gray afternoon in April, his club in last place and mired in an 11-20 hole, Christian Walker looked around the Houston Astros clubhouse, paused and told USA TODAY Sports, "There's a hundred wins in this room."
He was wrong. The Astros only won 81 games this season - yet they're going to the playoffs, anyway.
The Astros did just enough to capture the feeble American League West title, clinching the division on the season' season's final day before their game in West Sacramento even finished.
Houston became the first team in major league history to reach the playoffs with a non-winning record in a full season. The Astros captured the division by one game over the Texas Rangers, who finished 80-82 and lost their must-win season finale at Minnesota.
Houston will open the AL playoffs at home, taking on the upstart Chicago White Sox at Daikin Park in the best-of-three wild-card series beginning Tuesday.
The Astros, owning the tiebreaker between the teams, needed just a win to get in. And they left no doubt.
They jumped on Athletics starter Seth Johnson and reliever Brady Basso for four runs in the third inning. Walker homered in the sixth. Starter Peter Lambert and reliever Ethan Pecko provided five shutout innings before the Astros ran and hid.
It looked easy. The season was anything but.
They entered the final week after getting swept at home by Atlanta, erasing a one-game West lead and putting them a game behind the Rangers with six to play. But the Astros also had a nice voucher in their back pocket: Four games in Yolo County to finish the season.
They took three of four from the woebegone Athletics (64-98), capping a 4-2 final week to overcome the Rangers. MVP favorite Yordan Alvarez finished the season as the AL batting champ, his .316 average 10 points greater than the Rays; Chandler Simpson. Alvarez finished second in home runs, his 42 one shy of Baltimore's Pete Alonso.
It's the Astros' eighth AL West title in the past 10 years. And probably the strangest.
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Astros become MLB's worst-ever playoff team with AL West title
