3 runs was all they needed to win ball games. That's it. If they just scored 3 runs in every single game, they would have still been an elite team. And they were 38-0 when scoring 7 runs or more runs (includes postseason), so they were nearly unbeatable if the offense clicked.

Forgive me as an Astro fan for not paying serious attention to AL standings until 2015. But still, in every season since we've been in contention, there has been at least one AL team that I didn't want to face.

In 2015, it was the Blue Jays. In 2017, it was the Indians. In 2018, it was the Red Sox. In 2019, it was the Yankees. In 2020, it was the Rays. In 2021, it was the Rays again.

This year, there is no such team in the AL that I desperately want us to avoid. Sure, any team can beat us or take us to 7 games, just like the Red Sox won 4 out of 6 games against us this year. Any playoff team can turn out to be better than expected like the Braves last year. I just won't have an "oh s**t, we're screwed" reaction to facing any of these teams.

When I looked up the Fangraphs World Series projections, I noticed that the Mets and Dodgers win the World Series in more projections than the Astros. That's actually because the AL has fewer elite teams. The Guardians win the ALCS 5.8% of the time, but only win the World Series 1.6% of the time. For the Mariners, it's 10.8% and 4.3% respectively. So, the Astros are the only AL team that appears to be competitive (33.3, 15.8%) if they make it to the World Series. If the AL is going to be able to avoid losing the 4th straight World Series to the NL, it will likely have to be the Astros who make it.

I just remembered how rare it used to be for us to play the Angels in interleague play (though we didn't play the Indians AT ALL between 2002 and 2011!). I conclude the MLB's schedule makers used to do a lazy job, but they've gotten a little better.

Between 2007 and 2013, we never played the AL West except the Rangers. These are the teams we played in interleague play:

2001: AL Central

2002: AL West

2003: AL East

2004: AL West

2005: AL East

2006: AL Central

2007: Mostly AL West, but we played the White Sox too for some strange reason

2008: AL East

2009: AL Central

2010: Mix. We played the Royals, Yankees, Rays, and Rangers

2011: AL East

2012: AL Central

2013: We move to the AL and play the NL Central