Jeffrey Springs allows four runs in loss to Twins

The AL West should be ashamed of itself. With the loss, the Astros remain tied with the Rangers, and with both teams 79-81, it guarantees that the winner of the division won’t have a winning record. Walker gave the Astros a 1-0 lead with his solo homer, but the A’s scored the next six and Houston wasn’t able to complete the comeback. Walker has homered 28 times in his second season with the Astros, and he’s plated 85 runs.

Harris issued a walk, but he worked around it by not allowing a hit and picking up a strikeout. He also picked up his 17th save of the season while seeing his ERA drop to 3.33. It wouldn’t be a huge surprise if he was tasked to close games again for the A’s in 2027.

Baseball is so weird. A start after Lopez gave up a whopping 10 runs in 2 2/3 innings, Lopez allowed just a solo homer to Christian Walker and one other hit in one of the best starts of the 28-year-old’s career. There have been flashes of this from Lopez in his short career, but this was the closest we’ve seen to him putting it all together, much to the Astros’ dismay. Lopez still ends the year with a 5.47 ERA, and will need to win one of the final spot in the A’s rotation in the Cactus League come next spring.

Brown had some control issues, as he walked four and threw just 60-of-100 pitches for strikes. He was able to whiff four, and he would have allowed just a single run if not for some poor defense behind the 28-year-old. The Astros remain in first place despite being two games under .500, and if they clinch the division, Brown will likely start Game 2 of the Wild Card. If not, his season ends with a 3.18 ERA, 6-4 record and 124/55 K/BB over 107 1/3 innings.

Lawlar gave the D-backs a 4-0 lead with an opposite-field shot off Casey Mize — one of three homers Mize allowed — in the second inning. The 24-year-old has once again been unable to stay on the field because of injuries, but the talent has been readily apparent when he has been able to take the field. If he can stay healthy, the future is incredibly bright. Pretty big if, however.

Arenado is no stranger to reaching 30 homers, as this is the eight h time the 35-year-old has reached that figure. It is the first time he’s done it since 2022, however, and his .803 OPS is the first time he’s been over that .800 mark since that campaign. He’s not the same player he was with Colorado, but Arenado has shown in 2026 that he’s not done being a productive player.

With the win for Arizona and the Phillies’ loss Friday, the Diamondbacks are now just a game back of the final playoff spot with two games to play, with the D-backs holding the tiebreaker. Perdomo also drew a pair of walks, and scored twice in the blowout win. He hasn’t come close to matching his 2025 success, but he’s forged a solid-enough .738 OPS with 82 runs driven in.

Mize allowed three homers in the start, and gave up a three-spot in the first inning to eliminate any chance of this becoming a literal/figurative quality start. The 29-year-old has not pitched well — for the most part — since being acquired from the Tigers at the deadline, and there’s no guarantee he’ll be part of the San Diego playoff rotation. Either way, he ends 2026 with a 4.32 ERA and 6-10 record.

Pfaadt gave up runs in the seventh and eighth to make what was an impressive start a relatively pedestrian one. It’s still good enough for him to pick up his eighth — and almost assuredly final — win of the regular season, and he struck out seven against two walks. If the Diamondbacks can catch the Phillies, Pfaadt will likely start in the Wild Card Series. If not, he finishes with a 3.77 ERA, and showed enough in 2026 to suggest there’s more good things to come.

Keaschall certainly doesn’t want this season to end. He helped put an exclamation point on the Twins’ six-run, second-inning rally with a two-run triple and then hit another run-scoring double in the fourth. He’s now up to a .281 batting average and .781 OPS with two games left on the season to go along with 10 home runs and 20 stolen bases. If you split out for just the second half, Keaschall has a .313/.402/.475 slash line. That would be star-caliber production if he could sustain it for a full season.