Game 162 doesn’t hit quite like it used to with the proliferation of Wild Card spots, but as long as there are still some stakes, it offers some excitement. Selfishly, I always prefer when the Yankees don’t have stakes and I can just neutrally watch the chaos, which is what yesterday at least partially offered — just with an unnecessarily long stay of execution waiting for a Yankees rain delay to officially turn to cancellation. The AL West Rock Fight between Houston and Texas came to its beautifully
dumb, record-low conclusion, and there was still a Wild Card spot up for grabs in the Senior Circuit as well. Beyond that, it was a day of tune-ups.
So while Game 162, Here’s what went on among the final American League contenders.
Houston Astros (81-81) 9, The Athletics (64-98) 0
Well, we’ve reached the end of the long, dumb road of AL West baseball in 2026, where no one had a positive run differential. The Astros are your first .500 division champion in MLB history, beating out the 82-80 Padres of 2005 and the 82-79 Mets of 1973. Those Padres immediately got bounced in a Cardinals sweep, but those Mets upset the Big Red Machine and then took the dynasty Oakland A’s to Game 7 of the World Series, even holding a 3-2 series lead at one point. You just have to get in, and you never know! So while we’ve had our chuckles with this awful division in 2026, look: the Astros will home-field advantage over the overachieving White Sox in the Wild Card Series. If they get past them—which would be no great shock—then they only have to beat an 85-win Guardians team in the ALDS to go to the ALCS, and who knows what happens from there?
The franchise is a cockroach. It was delightful when Detroit dusted them in two in 2024 and when they missed the playoffs outright in 2025. But they’re not dead yet. Technically, they already knew that they were AL West champions a couple innings before the final out of this one because the Rangers lost first to clinch it, but as is probably evident by the score, their in-state rivals were rendered a nonfactor. It’s Houston’s eighth division title in the last decade.
Houston dropped four runs on A’s reliever Brady Brasso in the third, and a pair in the sixth and seventh all but put the champagne on ice. Christian Walker homered and was joined by Jeremy Peña, Yainer Diaz, and Cam Smith with multi-hit games. Yordan Alvarez fell short to Pete Alonso in his Triple Crown bid since the latter led the AL in homers (43) and RBI (113), but Yordan took home the batting crown with a .316. His 6.8 fWAR and 181 wRC+ will likely help him to an MVP as well come November.
Anyway, here’s the Astros celebrating in the A’s visitor batting cages because, well, their clubhouse is literally a minor-league clubhouse and there’s not enough room. That’s small potatoes compared to other things, but we must not be desensitized to the fact that John Fisher made this once-great franchise a joke.
Texas Rangers (80-82) 4, Minnesota Twins (77-85) 6
We’ll keep it snappy here since you already know the story. The Rangers never had a lead to make the Astros sweat at all in this one as offseason addition MacKenzie Gore looked gassed from the jump and cramping forced him out in the third. Chase Silseth gave up a two-run shot to Josh Bell and Minnesota kept the runs coming. They led 5-1 for a good chunk of this one, and though Elías Díaz hit a solo shot for Texas in the eighth, former No. 1 overall pick Royce Lewis went yard in what could be his final game with the Twins. And while Corey Seager went yard for a two runs in the ninth, Andrew Morris fanned Jake Burger and got Ezequiel Duran to fly out to put the Rangers to bed. Their championship 2023 was a high-water mark for the franchise, and yet it represents a true baseball anomaly, as that remains the only season in the past 10 in which they made the playoffs.
Boston Red Sox (87-75) 2, Chicago Cubs (89-73) 6
This game was relocated from Boston to St. Petersburg due to the nor’easter, and the assumption was that they would have to play it because there were NL Wild Card stakes for Chicago. As it turned out, the Cubs were already locked into the No. 5 seed by Saturday night, so they just had to play a meaningless game at the Trop because, well, they were there already, might as well scrimmage?
If anyone was happy about the situation, it was Alex Bregman because he hadn’t had many reps since returning from a scary facial fracture. Bregman clobbered a pair of homers to give Chicago a 3-2 lead by the third, and there the score remained until the ninth, when the former Red Sox third baseman was at it again. An RBI double marked his fourth hit and RBI of the afternoon, and two more runs scored. Unsurprisingly, none of Boston’s primary cast of characters from the pitching staff appeared in this one as they rest up for Tuesday in the Bronx.
Tampa Bay Rays (98-64) 3, Philadelphia Phillies (88-74) 7
The Phillies did their best 1964 Phold impression over the past couple weeks with 10 losses in their last 15 games entering Sunday and four in a row to keep the Wild Card-contending Diamondbacks alive heading into Game 162. They should have clinched days ago! But they kept putting up duds, even against a Rays team that didn’t have anything to play for outside of staying healthy as they await their Division Series for next weekend.
The Phils finally (phinally?) got it together on Sunday with old standby Zack Wheeler on the bump. He fired six innings of one-run ball while his offense woke up after days of malaise, scoring four in the first two innings off Nick Martinez with the last two on an emphatic two-run Kyle Schwarber double. Three more scored against Jesse Scholtens, two on homers by Bryce Harper and Edmundo Sosa. Starter Jesús Luzardo also returned from the IL and contributed a scoreless inning in relief. The party was on at Citizens Bank Park, and like Houston, they rendered their foe’s final score irrelevant (Arizona lost to San Diego shortly after this one went final anyway). They’ll go down to Atlanta and face the Braves in what couldbe another great playoff series between these division rivals; the winner there draws the tough task of dethroning the two-time defending champions in LA.
Cleveland Guardians (85-77) 2, Kansas City Royals (68-94) 3
After clinching the AL Central and a first-round bye on Saturday, the Guardians got to sit in cruise control on Sunday, rest regulars, and make sure no one got hurt. Mission accomplished in Game 162, an unimportant loss in Kansas City. Jo Adell and Daniel Schneemann both homered and likely Game 1 or 2 playoff starter Parker Messick threw three good innings before departing. Vinnie Pasquantino hit a pair of dingers off Austin Peterson to secure the win for the Royals, with his eighth-inning shot putting them ahead at the end of a tough season.
Chicago White Sox (84-78) 4, Colorado Rockies (58-104) 2
The Pale Hose didn’t have much to play for on Sunday either, but they still won because hey, the Royals are bad, but the Rockies are the worst team in baseball and will have the best odds for the No. 1 overall pick in 2027 come Draft Lottery time. Speaking of, remember how the White Sox had the No. 1 overall pick this year? It’s still wild that they are already in the playoffs, even in this unimpressive expanded field. They end the year with a 24-win improvement that would’ve impressed almost anyone anyway. Randal Grichuk and Brenton Doyle both homered to give them the win on Sunday.
The White Sox finished with a record three games better than the Astros, but because seeding rules are seeding rules, they will have to win two out of three in Houston to advance to the Division Series and a date with Cleveland.
The Playoff Field
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