Astros win AL West with 81-81 record, worst for first-place team, beat A’s 9-0

By: The Associated Press Posted: 5:48 PM CDT Sunday, Sep. 27, 2026 Last Modified: 7:27 PM CDT Sunday, Sep. 27, 2026

WEST SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) — The Houston Astros won their fifth AL West title in six years despite finishing with the worst record for a first-place team, beating the Athletics 9-0 Sunday behind Lucas Spence’s two-run triple to finish at 81-81.

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Nick Allen had just doubled leading off the eighth with the Astros leading by eight runs when Texas lost at Minnesota, assuring the Astros of their ninth postseason trip in 10 years after missing out in 2025.

Houston will host the Chicago White Sox in a best-of-three Wild Card Series starting Tuesday. The Astros finished one game ahead of Texas (80-82) but would have earned the division title even with a defeat because they held the tiebreaker.

Houston Astros' Christian Walker celebrates after hitting a home run during the sixth inning of a baseball game against the Athletics Sunday, Sept. 27, 2026, in West Sacramento, Calif. (AP Photo/Sara Nevis)

Houston had the lowest winning percentage for a team reaching the postseason in a non-shortened year, breaking the mark set when the 2005 San Diego Padres went 82-20.

Yordan Alvarez finished as the major league batting leader at .316, going 1 for 4.

The Athletics went 64-98 in their second season at a Triple-A ballpark in West Sacramento before a planned move to Las Vegas in 2028, down from 76-86 last year. They drew 10,022 for their season finale at Sutter Health Park and finished with a major league-low 799,240 home attendance, the only team not to reach 1 million.

Jose Altuve’s RBI groundout, Yainer Diaz’s run-scoring double and Spence’s two-run triple built a 4-0 lead in the third against Brady Basso (1-4), who allowed four runs and three hits in one inning.

Christian Walker’s solo home run and Yordan Alvarez’s RBI single extended their lead to 6-0 in the sixth inning.