Five home runs and a dominant Wesneski outing sent Houston into the season's final day tied atop the AL West, holding the tiebreaker over Texas.
The Houston Astros took back control Saturday night and blew the Athletics out, 13-2. Despite the monstrous win, they are still tied with the Texas Rangers for the division lead. Both teams are sitting just below .500. The Astros are keeping their fans on their toes until the very end.
Here is a look at what went down for the second-to-last game of the regular season.
Hayden Wesneski took the mound for the Houston Astros. Wesneski pitched seven innings and allowed only two runs. A great outing for the right-hander. Ronel Blanco came in and pitched the final two innings. Blanco came in with about as comfortable of a cushion as you could ask for, but did his job and didn't give the A's a chance to catch up.
Isaac Paredes kicked things off with his 25th home run of the season, putting the Astros on the board early and setting the tone. Wesneski followed with a solid first inning, keeping the momentum going.
For the A's, Perkins wasn't exactly making things easy for Houston, racking up strikeouts early on, but gave up a second home run to Jeremy Peña in the third. A two-run shot extending the Astros' lead to 3-0.
The Astros were getting the job done at the plate, but also on the field. They had an outstanding double play, a perfect display of textbook baseball. Paredes with a backhand from his knees to help get the job done. Things were looking good early on for Houston, covering all bases of the game.
They did, however, miss a double play for the second straight night on a groundball, and Peña had another chance for a double play and still couldn't get it done. But it didn't matter much once they started driving in run after run.
Again, Perkins wasn't exactly making it easy, as he reached a career high in strikeouts, but then in comes Yordan Alvarez. You guessed it: a home run. His 42nd of the season, a three-run shot doubling the runs on the board. 6-1 Astros, and they weren't even close to done.
Bolte for the A's did the Astros a huge favor by dropping a ball at the wall, giving the Astros another opportunity to drive in another run. At this point, things got ugly for Sacramento. The Astros were driving in runs faster than anyone could count. To make things worse for the A's, Peña was red hot and crushed his second home run of the game. Now the Astros were sitting with double digits in the eighth. Another two-run home run for Peña. This Astros lineup could not be stopped at the plate Saturday night.
On top of everything, Lucas Spence crushed yet another home run to give the Astros the final run of the game, 13-2. An incredible series for Lucas Spence. He is on a roll.
Now the Astros are getting ready for the final game of the regular season, and the pressure is on, once again another must-win game. They are going into the final game of the series tied for the AL West lead, and Houston holds the tiebreaker over Texas. That means a win Sunday, combined with anything but a Rangers win, secures the division outright. It will be interesting to see how Sunday afternoon plays out, and what the postseason will look like for the Houston Astros.
