Astros Minor League Playoff Picture

Oklahoma City
Oklahoma City is currently in first place with a magic number of 4 to clinch the division, with 10 games left to play. Albuquerque has crept up to share second place with Round Rock; both are seven games behind the RedHawks. Oklahoma City has two more head-to-head games with Round Rock. Albuquerque and Round Rock face off for four next week.

Prompted by a question from @brettmo13 at the game last night, I looked at the PCL playoff schedule from last year. If Oklahoma City makes the playoffs and if the conference series and the finals both last the full five games and if they take the same days off as last year, get your tickets for the Astros-Reds series starting September 16th, because that's when you'll be seeing George Springer's MLB debut. You may want to get tickets for the preceding Angels series just in case.

Corpus Christi
The Hooks are in the playoffs by virtue of winning the first half of the season. The schedule for the first four games has already been set with the first two against San Antonio at home on Wednesday, September 4th and Thursday, September 6th and the next two at San Antonio on that Friday and Saturday. The Hooks will get plenty of practice for the playoffs since six of their last 10 games are against the Missions. The Hooks currently trail the Missions by one game for the second half title. The Hooks lead the Missions by two and a half games for the season.

Lancaster
The JetHawks are also in the playoffs by virtue of winning the first half. The schedule for the first four games has been set with Lancaster playing at home on Saturday, September 7th and Sunday, September 8th (and will be attended by yours truly) and on the road the following Monday and Tuesday. What is still to be determined is the JetHawks opponent. If they win the second half (they have a magic number of 3 with 10 games left to do so), they will play the winner of a mini-series between the #2 and #3 seeds. At this point, Inland Empire, Rancho Cucamonga and Lake Elsinore are all in the hunt to play in the mini-series.

Quad Cities
Quad Cities has to be in first or second place in the second half to make the playoffs. They are currently in second place, four and a half games behind Western League leader Cedar Rapids and four and a half games ahead of third place Clinton. They have won two in a row with 10 games left to play. They have no more head-to-head games with the first or third place teams.

Tri-City
The ValleyCats have two ways to make it to the playoffs. They are currently in first place, two games ahead of second place Lowell with 13 games left to play. The magic number to eliminate Lowell is 11 (5 for the other two teams in the division). If they fall out of first place, they can earn a wild card berth. Their current record would give them the wild card lead if they weren't in first place. They have won three games in a row and have two games left to play against Lowell.

Greeneville
The Astros need to be in first or second place in their division to make the playoffs. They are currently in second place a half game in back of Kingsport and two games ahead of third place Elizabethton and two and a half ahead of fourth place Johnson City with seven games left to play. This one will likely come down to the wire. Greeneville was on a 4-game losing streak before yesterday's win. They can't afford to do that again. They have 4 games left against Danville who they have gone 1-1 against thus far and three games against the East division leader Bluefield who they are 1-2 against this season.

GCL Astros
The GCL club has been eliminated from playoff contention. They are 25-29 with six games left (including the completion of a suspended game from yesterday). They will need to go 5-1 to get to .500 and 6-0 to end the season over .500.

DSL Astros
The DSL team was also eliminated from contention, but at 38-31 with their last game today, they are guaranteed a winning season.