The MLB’s new extra inning rule has not treated every team the same. If you were to ask the first and second place teams in the AL West their feelings about it, you would get two completely different answers.
Entering Thursday, the Oakland Athletics are 2.5 games above the second place Houston Astros.
This past Tuesday, the Astros’ 6-5 loss to the Texas Rangers solidified the key component to why the Astros are having their first mediocre season since 2014: the Astros can’t win in extra innings.
Is it the MLB’s new rule that is holding them back? Could it be the curse of Dodger’s pitcher Joe Kelly from earlier this season, in which the Astros lost their first extra inning game the day after benches cleared in Houston?
Nobody knows. What we do know is that Houston’s poor performance past the ninth inning is preventing them from taking the division lead.
The Astros’ seven extra inning contests this season are second most in all of baseball, only two behind the Toronto Blue Jays nine extra inning games. Houston is 2-5 in those seven games, with one of those five losses being to the A’s.
Oakland, on the other hand, is perfect in extra inning games in 2020 and leads the MLB with a 5-0 record after the ninth.
The top two teams in the AL West, separated by just over two games, are playing in two completing different fashions in extras this year. The remaining three teams in the west have combined for a 3-8 extra inning record.
Last season, the Astros finished with one of the best extra inning records in baseball at 10-4. In just 35 games this year, Houston already has more extra inning losses this season than they did in 2019. The Astros have given up the lead in the ninth inning or later in four of their five extra inning losses in 2020.
With a struggling bullpen and an injury list longer than a grocery list, it makes sense why the Astros are having a harder time in double digit innings. If they can somehow find a way to compete in extra innings, then the Astros may have a shot at defending their control of the AL West crown.
Houston and Oakland have five scheduled games left against each other that will be played next week from September 7-10.
