Houston Astros infield believed to be 'one of the best infields around'

The spectacular has become routine for the vaunted Houston Astros infield of first baseman Yuli Gurriel, second baseman Jose Altuve, shortstop Carlos Correa and third baseman Alex Bregman.

On the strength of that core, the Astros have reached the AL Championship Series in each of the last five seasons and when Houston travels to Boston to face the Red Sox at Fenway Park in Game 3. Gurriel, Altuve, Correa and Bregman will be starring in their 64th career postseason game together. According to the Elias Sports Bureau, that’s the most postseason games played by any four teammates at any position in MLB history.

“This infield has played more postseason games together than any other four teammates in MLB history,” the team posted on Twitter. “We’ll let ya’ll be the judge of that.”

Astros manager Dusty Baker has already made up his mind, recently marveling out loud at what the group has been able to accomplish while insisting that the quartet will go down as one of the best infields in the history of the game, with much of their damage having come at the most critical moments, namely the postseason.

“It's one of the best infields around, one of the best infields in history offensively and defensively,” he told MLB.com. “It really helps to have some guy beside you that you know his range, you know what he is capable of doing, you know his range on pop-ups, on ground balls. And so being familiar with the guy next to you is very, very important, similar to football. If you have the same front four and same linebackers, then you probably got a hell of a defense.”

Individually, Altuve has earned seven All-Star appearances, three batting titles, five Silver Slugger Awards, a Gold Glove Award and the 2017 AL Most Valuable Player Award. Both Correa and Bregman are two-time All-Stars, with Correa also being named Rookie of the Year in 2015 and Bregman finishing second in the AL MVP Award voting in 2019. Gurriel won the AL batting title this year.

“It's been fun to go out and compete with those three guys and try to win,” Bregman said. “Whether it's being down in games and having to try to fight back or having a lead and trying to play good defense to preserve the lead, it's just been fun competing through the ups, the downs, the good, bad, the ugly. It's been a blast, and I wouldn't want to do it with anybody else.”