The Houston Astros seem to be breaking a different team record every week so far in the 2017 season, and fans in the Lone Star State are starting to get World Series fever.
Record No. 50
The Astros won their 50th game of the MLB season this past Thursday afternoon, defeating the Oakland A's 12-9 to complete a four-game sweep at Oakland Coliseum. That victory not only marked Houston’s 10th straight win over the A’s at the Coliseum, it put them in the history books as the fourth-fastest team to 50 wins this century. The Astros are just the 19th team in the last 50 years to win 50 of its first 74 games to begin a season.
Coming into the 2017 season, MLB experts believed that the Astros would be a good team, but not this good! As of today, June 25, the Houston Astros lead the American League in runs scored with 416, and even more impressively, they own the league's best road record at 28-9. Houston is off to such a great start that if they only play .500 baseball for the rest of the 2017 MLB season, they will still win 93 games.
Astros pass Cubs on Vegas odds board
It's not just the fans that are noticing Houston's hot start to the season, Las Vegas odds makers are as well. Heading into the 2017 campaign, the Houston Astros were listed at 15/1 to win the 2017 World Series title. That was a far cry from the heavily favored Chicago Cubs, who were set at 7/2 odds to repeat as champs.
Today, the popular website The Spread.com indicates that several sports books now have Houston as the Team To Beat at 11/2.
The Astros have now been moved into the driver's seat as World Series favorites, passing the Chicago Cubs, who are currently listed at 15/2 to win back-to-back World Series titles. Other favorites include the LA Dodgers (6/1) Cleveland Indians (7/1), Boston Red Sox (7/1) and New York Yankees (8/1).
While it is way too early to count out any team officially from contention to make the 2017 MLB playoffs, teams like the Detroit Tigers, Baltimore Orioles, San Francisco Giants and New York Mets have all failed to live up to their potential this season. With that being said, look for several of the teams falling out of contention to possibly start dealing away players before the July 31 trade deadline.
Look for teams like the Astros and other contenders to likely be interested in picking up a starting pitcher or a slugger or two as the month of July progresses. By the way, the team with the worst chance to win the 2017 World Series according to Las Vegas odds makers are the Philadelphia Phillies at 1000/1.
