Astros 9, Athletics 0: Houston Takes the AL West at 81-81

Game 162, a shutout, and an 81-81 division title

September 27, 2026 - West Sacramento - The third inning did the heavy lifting, and the rest of the afternoon was a long exhale. The Houston Astros beat the Athletics 9-0 at Sutter Health Park, finished the regular season at 81-81, and won the American League West after Texas lost 6-4 in Minnesota.

Partly cloudy. 66 degrees. Wind 6 mph out to center. First pitch 12:05 p.m. Attendance 10,022. The game lasted 3 hours, 3 minutes. Houston outscored Oakland 22-2 over the weekend and left nothing to a tiebreaker.

"That's all that's left," Jeremy Peña said after the game, per MLB.com. "There's no other option. Now, we go."

Houston hosts the Chicago White Sox in Game 1 of the AL Wild Card Series on Tuesday at Daikin Park. The Astros went 20-31 in mid-May. They still took the West in a division where nobody finished over .500.

Four in the third, and Basso never recovered

Brady Basso (the loss, 1-4) inherited a mess and made it worse. He threw 19 pitches in one inning: three hits, four earned, one walk, one strikeout, one hit batter. Peña scored on Jose Altuve's groundout. Yordan Alvarez scored on Yainer Diaz's double to left. Lucas Spence tripled to center, his first of the year, and Diaz and Christian Walker came in. 4-0.

That was the game, even if six innings remained. Oakland put five hits on the sheet and never scored. Lawrence Butler had two of them. The rest of the Athletics' afternoon was traffic that died on the bases.

Walker homered to left in the sixth, his 29th. 5-0. Cam Smith scored on Alvarez's single later in the inning. 6-0. Smith singled Walker home in the seventh. Peña lifted a sacrifice fly, Spence scoring. 8-0. Nick Allen scored on Diaz's double play in the eighth. 9-0.

Walker went 2-for-3 with a homer, two walks, three runs, and one RBI. Spence went 1-for-2 with a triple, three walks, and two RBI. Peña went 2-for-5 with a sacrifice fly. Diaz went 2-for-5 with a double. Smith went 2-for-4. Houston had 12 hits and left 11 on. The extra traffic did not matter once the third inning landed.

Pecko, then a parade

Ethan Pecko (the win, 2-0) was not a traditional Game 162 starter. He threw three innings in relief of the plan: one hit, no runs, no walks, two strikeouts, 34 pitches. Logan VanWey, Tatsuya Imai, Peter Lambert, Bryan King, and Miguel Ullola covered the last six. Combined, Houston allowed five hits and walked four. Nobody scored.

"Any other team would have folded, but these guys chose not to, man," manager Joe Espada said, per MLB.com. "It's about the characters on this team; they didn't quit."

Alvarez, who missed time a year ago when Houston lost a Wild Card tiebreaker to Detroit, put the health in plain language. "Last year, we missed the playoffs by one game and I missed a lot of the season, so I feel very proud of myself to be able to stay healthy this season and be able to help the team get back in the playoffs and win the division," he said, per MLB.com.

Hunter Brown, who spent a chunk of the year on the injured list with Josh Hader and Peña, kept the May hole in perspective. "Every team deals with adversity at times, and that was just ours," Brown said, per MLB.com.

Oakland finished 64-98. Chris Roycroft walked four in the first inning and still escaped. Drew Rom threw a clean frame. Geoff Hartlieb, Seth Johnson, Scott Blewett, Basso, and Elvis Alvarado followed. Alvarado struck out three in 1 1/3. It was the only Athletics pitching line that looked like a major league inning.

Houston's postseason home losing streak, dating to 2023, is still seven games. Tuesday is the first chance to snap it. The Astros just made sure they get to take that chance as division champions, not as a club that needed Minnesota to finish the job.

"It's the beauty of this game," Alvarez said, per MLB.com. "It's the beauty of what we do. There's always a chance."

AthX Engine after the baseball

AthX Engine (our projection and scoring system) put Houston at 21 team fantasy points, first on a 15-game Sunday. Walker had 11 hitting FP. Spence had 9. Pecko had 12 pitching FP.

Fantasy points measure the night under platform scoring rules. Share prices also move with traders through dynamic pricing. They are related. They are not the same number.

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*Sources: MLB.com schedule; MLB Gameday wrap; ESPN scoreboard; ESPN box score; AthX Engine daily scoring. Information only; not financial advice.*