One night, thirteen runs, no room for nerves
Houston needed a statement, and Jeremy Pena delivered one almost by himself. Four hits in six at-bats, two home runs, four RBIs. Yordan Alvarez added a three-run shot of his own, and by the time the Astros were done with the Oakland Athletics, the scoreboard read 13-2. One day left in the regular season, and Houston is still tied for first.
Isaac Paredes got things moving early, a two-out homer in the first inning that set the tone before Houston pulled away for good over the next six frames. Lucas Spence chipped in his fourth home run of the series alone, a stretch that says as much about Oakland’s pitching as it does about Houston’s bats.
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Alvarez keeps building his case
Alvarez’s homer, his 42nd of the season, pushed his batting average to a league-leading .316, a number that has quietly made him one of the best hitters in baseball this year while Houston’s rotation questions dominated the headlines. On the mound, Hayden Wesneski improved to 6-2, allowing just two runs on six hits across seven innings, exactly the kind of length a team wants from a starter heading into a winner-take-all stretch.
Oakland had no answer. Jack Perkins fell to 3-13, giving up six runs on five hits in five innings, and the Athletics limped to a 64-97 finish, their fate long since sealed while Houston was still fighting for something real.
Texas still waiting in the wings
The Astros, now 80-81, share the division lead with the Texas Rangers but hold the tiebreaker, meaning a win on the final day locks up the AL West outright regardless of what Texas does. It is the kind of position Houston has occupied for most of the last decade, and one more division title would extend a run of contention that has become the standard against which the rest of the division measures itself. Oakland’s season is already over. Houston’s biggest game of the year is still one afternoon away.
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