It’s hard to feel this way right now, less than a week after losing Game 7 of the World Series, but the 2019 season was a success for the Astros. Only one team out of thirty can win it all each year; you can’t go into the season thinking of each season as “World Series or Bust”, or you’ll drive yourself crazy. Houston still got further than 28 other teams in the league, claimed only their third pennant ever, and still won more games than ever before in their history.
Even among the small-but-successful group of “teams with three straight 100-win seasons”, the 2017-2019 Astros still stand out as a stunning success, given that the last two teams to pull that feat off combined for one pennant and no World Series in their six seasons.