Halfway through August, the Astros are still in playoff contention, but certainly not where they were expected to be when the season began. Coming into Monday, the Astros are in 3rd place in their division, 7.5 games behind the 1st place Rangers, and 4 games behind the 2nd AL wild card spot.
Needless to say, a wild card spot looks more plausible at this point in the season. However, a bevy of other contenders are also vying for the two wild card spots, many of them from the AL East.
Since so many of the wild card teams are from the same division and will likely play each other several times down the stretch, I thought it would be interesting to see if the Astros might benefit from the intra-division games.