Rookie Lucas Spence ripped a two-run triple to highlight a four-run third inning, helping the Houston Astros celebrate the American League West title with a 9-0 victory over the Athletics on Sunday in West Sacramento, Calif.
Christian Walker homered to lead off the sixth inning and joined Yainer Diaz, Cam Smith and Jeremy Pena in collecting two hits and an RBI for the Astros (81-81), who won the division for the eighth time in the last 10 seasons.
Third-seeded Houston will host the Chicago White Sox on Tuesday in Game 1 of the best-of-three wild-card series. The Astros went 5-2 against the White Sox this season.
Houston actually captured the AL West title prior to the conclusion of its victory, as the Texas Rangers (80-82) dropped a 6-4 decision to the Minnesota Twins on Sunday. If the Astros and Rangers finished with identical records, the former held the tiebreaker by virtue of winning the regular-season series, 9-4.
Yordan Alvarez went 1-for-4 with an RBI single to boost his batting average to .316, giving him his first batting title.
Rookie Ethan Pecko (2-0) relieved starter Peter Lambert and allowed one hit and struck out two batters over three scoreless innings.
Lawrence Butler had two of the five hits for the Athletics (64-98), who lost for the ninth time in 12 games.
Houston put a pair of runners in scoring position before Pena scored the game’s first run in the third inning on Jose Altuve’s groundout. Diaz scored Alvarez with a double off Brady Basso (1-4), who intentionally walked Walker before Spence’s blast eluded the outstretched arm of Butler in right-center field to give the Astros a 4-0 lead.
Walker tacked on another run in the sixth after depositing a 1-1 fastball from Scott Blewett over the wall in left field. Walker’s homer was his 29th of the season and fourth in his last six games.
Alvarez had an RBI single in the sixth inning and Smith did the same in the seventh to effectively put the game out of reach.
Basso permitted four runs on three hits in one inning.
