WEST SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) — Yordan Alvarez launched a three-run homer and the Houston Astros went deep five times Saturday night as they moved closer to a division title with a 13-2 victory over the Athletics.

Houston (80-81) can clinch the AL West crown and the No. 3 seed in the American League playoffs with another win Sunday over the A's in their regular-season finale or a Texas Rangers loss at Minnesota. Either team will become the first to win a division with a .500 record or worse, excluding shortened seasons.

Alvarez homered in the fifth inning to put the Astros up 6-1. His 42nd homer of the season tied him with Tampa Bay slugger Junior Caminero for second in the AL.

Houston finished with 16 hits as Jeremy Peña, Isaac Paredes and Jose Altuve combined for nine of them and seven RBIs.

Peña hit a pair of two-run homers, one in the third and the other in the eighth. He finished 4 for 6 with four RBIs. Parades homered in the first to open the scoring and went 3 for 5.

Hayden Wesneski (6-2) threw seven innings and struck out five while allowing six hits and two runs.

The Astros scored six runs, including Lucas Spence's solo homer, between the seventh and ninth to expand their lead to 13-2.

Jack Perkins (3-13) pitched five innings for the Athletics. He struck out nine but gave up six runs and three homers.

Up next

Neither team had announced a starting pitcher for Sunday's regular-season finale.


See AP’s full MLB coverage here

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