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

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.

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 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.

Ethan Pecko (3-0) allowed one hit in three innings.

Houston has not announced its probable pitcher for Tuesday.