WEST SACRAMENTO — No team in the American League West will finish the season with a winning record, something the Astros made sure of Friday night with a sixth-inning meltdown en route to a 6-5 loss to the A’s at Sutter Heath Park.
The Astros and Rangers remain tied for first place in the AL West with identical 79-81 records entering the penultimate day of the regular season, but Houston squandered a chance to push Texas to the brink of elimination Friday. The Twins beat the Rangers, 10-2, earlier in the day.
Still, the Astros, who own the tiebreaker over Texas, can clinch the division with a win Saturday night against the A’s and a Rangers’ loss at Minnesota.
Neither Texas team is making a push to take a winnable division in the season’s final days, but someone has to win it. The Astros have lost nine of their last 13 games, while the Rangers have dropped five of their last eight.
On Friday, the A’s scored six times in the sixth to take control of the game and then held on for dear life. Astros starter Hunter Brown took a shutout into the sixth and gave up a leadoff single to Jeff McNeil. Zack Gelof followed with a grounder to shortstop to Jeremy Peña, who threw to Jose Altuve covering second base, but Altuve dropped the ball.
Things spiraled out of control from there, with lefty reliever Bennett Sousa giving up three consecutive singles on three pitches to allow the A’s to take a 3-1 lead. Henry Bolte’s two-run triple off AJ Blubaugh pushed Houston into a 5-1 hole.
A’s starter Jacob Lopez, who had allowed 19 runs, including five home runs, in 12 1/3 innings in his previous three starts, threw six innings and held the Astros to two hits and one run on a fourth-inning homer by Christian Walker that put Houston ahead, 1-0.
Cam Smith homered to left in the seventh to make it 6-2, and Houston scored three times in the eighth on an RBI single by Yordan Alvarez, a sac fly by Altuve and a wild pitch. But Smith struck out to end the inning and stranded runners at second and third.