AL West in Astros’ reach
Win over Seattle puts magic number at 1.
On a day when the Astros could clinch the American League West — with some late help — Dallas Keuchel and the team’s potent offense looked ready for the playoffs.
Keuchel held the Seattle Mariners to one run through six innings Saturday in an 8-6 win that reduced the Astros’ magic number to one. Their next victory or Angels loss would give them the division title. Los Angeles was hosting the Texas Rangers late Saturday night.
The Astros have reached 90 victories for the first time since winning 92 games in 2004. Their last division title came in 2001, when they won the National League Central.
“We still have high hopes of getting home-field advantage,” Keuchel said, looking further ahead at a race with the Indians for the best record in the American League. Cleveland, which won Saturday, is 1½ games ahead of the Astros but has the tiebreaker advantage by virtue of a 5-1 record in their season series.
Dominant pitching has been rare for the Astros this season. Resiliency more often has propelled their success, and they displayed the signature signs of it with a four-run, two-out rally in the second inning. The bottom of the order produced, George Springer lost his helmet chugging around third base, Josh Reddick inspired hoots, and the middle sluggers exhausted the opposing starter.
After giving up a season-high four walks in his last outing, Keuchel lived low in the strike zone on Saturday. Of 17 balls the Mariners put in play against him, only one was hit on a pitch thrown above chest height. He induced 11 groundouts and struck out the side in his final inning. DP as easy as 1-2-3
Keuchel cruised until he loaded the bases in the fifth. He undid the jam by starting an inning-ending 1-2-3 double play.
With a 6-0 lead in the sixth, Keuchel gave up a leadoff home run to Jean Segura and a single to Mitch Haniger. Then he slowed his pace to surgically dissect the Mariners’ slugging trio Robinson Cano, Nelson Cruz and Kyle Seager with a series of cutters and sliders.
The Astros had not hit well in a small sample size of at-bats against Mariners starter Erasmo Ramirez, but they battered him in the second-inning rally.
Derek Fisher, who started his first game since Sept. 9, ended an 0-for-9 slump by slicing an inside fastball down the left-field line for a double that drove in Carlos Beltran.
Springer followed with a single up the middle that scored Alex Bregman and Fisher, who did not break stride from the moment Springer made contact.
The Astros went up 4-0 when Reddick drove in Springer with his 32nd double, the Astros’ third consecutive two-out hit.
In the fifth, Beltran made it 5-0 Astros with an RBI single. He went 3-for4 in the game and drove in Jose Altuve twice. With his double in the seventh, Beltran tied Cal Ripken Jr. for 24th all-time in extra-base hits at 1,078.
Astros manager A.J. Hinch removed Keuchel after he had thrown 90 pitches.
“He was done — this time of year, with the lead that he had, with nine outs and a six-run lead,” Hinch said.
The Astros’ bullpen, which came in ranked 20th in ERA, mostly has been ineffective this month. A 7-1 lead in the seventh offered relievers opportunities to improve their recent reputations and future chances of making the postseason roster. Martes struggles
After Luke Gregerson finished a tidy seventh inning, rookie Francis Martes and Tony Sipp jeopardized the lead in the eighth. Martes faced five batters and allowed four earned runs on four hits. Sipp surrendered a single to the only batter he faced.
Then Joe Musgrove entered with no outs, two runners on and the Astros’ lead whittled to 7-5.
Known before as a cerebral starter, Musgrove appears transformed into a fiery setup man. He struck out consecutive hitters and induced a weak flair toward shortstop. He swaggered off the mound, barked with his fist clenched and slapped catcher Brian McCann on the back on their return to the dugout.
“We had a lot of restrictions on the bullpen today,” said Hinch, who wanted to rest several relievers, including closer Ken Giles.
Hinch lauded Musgrove for enduring an exit from the rotation and stint in the minors earlier this season to emerge as a critical resource at the back end of games.
“It’s hard not to give him the ball in the seventh, eighth or ninth,” Hinch said.
The Astros scored their final run when Fisher doubled again and Reddick plated him with a single.
Musgrove surrendered a home run to Haniger in the ninth but closed out the game for his first career save.
With a win behind them, the Astros waited, hopeful for a victory to unfold in Anaheim. Saturday night would be one of the rare times the Astros root for the Texas Rangers.
“We’ll be watching the TV,” Reddick said. hunter.atkins@chron.com twitter.com/hatkins35