The Houston Astros made an incredible run to finish the 2005 regular season, stealing the Wild Card and defeating conference rival St. Louis in the playoffs on their way to the World Series. Having to win to make the playoffs got the Astros playing great baseball and gave them good momentum heading into the postseason. We saw this same effect with the Steelers this past NFL season when they had to win do or die games for over a month to make the playoffs. While other teams were coasting, such as St. Louis, Houston was playing to win.

Many analysts were saying that the Astros ran out of gas in the World Series. Realistically, they ran out of bats. They struggled to support their elite pitching staff all season long, and I don