After a wild 162 game season, the Major League Baseball playoffs return to their normal format, as 10 teams will once again compete for the championship.

You know who’s loving life right now? Houston Astros ace Justin Verlander. Since leaving Detroit for H-Town back in August 2017, Verlander has won three division titles, one American League pennant, one championship series MVP and a World Series.

Much like their diminutive second baseman, the Astros meteoric rise started small.

A class of two hundred-win teams, one delivering on the promise of a rebuild, the other finally besting a postseason slump.