With two games remaining in the regular season, the Astros and Rangers are tied for first place at 79-81. Both lost Friday night—Houston 6-5 to the 63-96 Athletics and Texas 10-2 to the Twins—guaranteeing that whoever eventually gets dragged, kicking and screaming, across the finish line will become the first division champion in the Divisional Era to finish a full season without a winning record.
History for All the Wrong Reasons
Until now, the 2005 San Diego Padres held the distinction of having the worst record by a division champion in a full season. They won the NL West at 82-80, finishing five games ahead of the 77-85 Arizona Diamondbacks despite being outscored by 42 runs. The Padres were then swept by the Cardinals in the NL Division Series.
Houston and Texas have already ensured that record will fall.
The Astros have also ensured the end of a remarkable streak of their own. Houston will finish without a winning record for the first time since 2014, when the Astros went 70-92. Beginning with an 86-76 finish in 2015, Houston posted a winning record in each of the next 11 seasons.
At 79-81, the best either team can do in this pillow fight of a division race is 81-81. That means the AL West champion will finish either .500 or below it. An 81-81 champion would be the first full-season division winner in the Divisional Era without a winning record. An 80-82 champion would take the distinction a step further as the first full-season division winner in the Divisional Era to reach the postseason with a losing record.
There is one historical oddity worth mentioning. The 1981 Kansas City Royals reached the postseason despite finishing 50-53 overall, but that season was interrupted by a players’ strike and split into two halves. Kansas City qualified by winning the second-half AL West title with a 30-23 record, making it a very different circumstance from what is unfolding in 2026.
Nobody Seems to Want It
The Astros have repeatedly had opportunities to separate themselves from Texas and repeatedly failed to do it.
Wednesday offered one of the clearest chances. Texas had already lost to the Mets, and Houston carried a four-run lead into the late innings against Seattle. The Mariners came back to win 6-5 in 10 innings, with Josh Hader throwing 44 pitches as Houston exhausted its bullpen trying to secure the game.
Friday provided another opportunity.
The Rangers were routed 10-2 by Minnesota, but the Astros couldn’t capitalize. Houston led the Athletics 1-0 through five innings before a six-run sixth turned the game upside down. The Astros rallied to within a run in the eighth but lost 6-5, leaving the division exactly where it started: tied.
Texas has hardly seized its opportunities, either. Because Houston won the season series 9-4, the Rangers cannot simply match the Astros. If the teams finish with identical records, Houston wins the division.
And yet, with 160 games completed, neither club has managed to put the other away.
Someone Has to Advance. Hey, We Didn’t Make the Rules.
There is no Wild Card escape hatch for whichever team finishes second. Both Houston and Texas have been eliminated from Wild Card contention. One will win the AL West and advance to October; the other will go home.
The Astros still control the tiebreaker, but their path could produce one of the strangest clinching celebrations baseball has seen.
With a win over the Athletics and a Texas loss to Minnesota, Houston can clinch the division Saturday. If the race survives until Sunday, the possibility remains that the AL West could ultimately be decided not by which team wins, but by which one manages to lose less often.
After six months and 160 games, the Astros and Rangers have reached the final weekend tied at 79-81, guaranteed to crown the least successful full-season division champion of the Divisional Era.
Somebody has to win it.
Apparently.
