Astros collapse may be traced to one stunning factor nobody predicted

Houston Astros shortstop Jeremy Peña | Ron Jenkins/GettyImagesThe Houston Astros are in trouble as Joe Espada's team is battling it out with the Seattle Mariners for AL West supremacy with two weeks left to go in the 2025 season. While most MLB experts and pundits expected the Mariners to make a run — especially after picking up some key pieces at the MLB trade deadline — few expected the Texas Rangers to be in the mix as well.

Houston now faces the grim reality that both Seattle and Texas could usurp them heading into the final weeks of the 2025 season, and even the tiebreaker scenarios don't really favor the Astros.

With the Astros now staring down the very real possibility that they could…