Home not-so-sweet home: Trying to make sense of the ‘Stros juice box woes

HOUSTON, Texas (KTRK) — This weekend, the Astros embark on their penultimate road trip of the 2023 regular season. When they do so, the reigning World Series champions will have just 15 games to go prior to MLB’s postseason.

“You just have to worry about focusing about how many more games we can win,” Astros outfielder Chas McCormick told before Wednesday’s game against Oakland. “There’s not much checking of the standings – you have to worry about yourselves. It’s super hard to win in this league. You have to go every single night – whoever you’re playing – and be ready to win. Any team is going to beat you on any given night.”

This season, as far as Astros fans are concerned, too many teams have beaten the ‘Stros at Minute Maid Park. Entering Wednesday’s game, the Astros did not have a winning record at home (37-and-37). Despite entering the day with the fifth-best overall winning percentage in Major League Baseball, the Astros were sporting the 19th-best home winning percentage.

Entering Wednesday, the only American League teams with more home losses than the Astros’ 37 are the Tigers, White Sox, A’s, and Royals – squads a combined 96.5 games out of first place. Despite being mediocre at home, the Astros are still in first place in the American League West division.

“For the past three years I’ve been here, we’ve played really well on the road,” McCormick noted. “We have a great stadium and great fans, so you want to play better at home. You feel like you should play better at home. It’s been strange, but that’s baseball. That’s the epitome of the ups and downs. We have a bullseye on our back, so when teams come into our stadium – they really want to get after us.”

Of the Astros’ final 15 games of the regular season, six are at home, and nine will be played on the road.