Astros’ lead shrinks

David Freese hit a go-ahead, tworun double in a three-run eighth inning to help the Los Angeles Angels rally for a 6-5 victory over the Houston Astros on Wednesday, trimming Houston’s wildcard lead over Los Angeles to 1½ games.

HOUSTON — The Los Angeles Angels aren’t where they want to be yet, but they’re closer than they were at the start of the week.

David Freese hit a go-ahead tworun double in a three-run eighth inning to help the Angels rally for a 6-5 victory over the Astros on Wednesday to gain ground in the AL wild-card race.

Los Angeles took two of three in the series and is 1 ½ games behind Houston for the second AL wildcard spot.

“We’re staying focused, know what we need to do, don’t try to force it, just do our job and win series,” slugger Albert Pujols said.

The Astros are 2 ½ games behind AL West-leading Texas.

The Astros took their first lead of the game in the seventh, and the Angels trailed 4-3 entering the eighth. Mike Trout hit a leadoff double off Will Harris (5-5) before David Murphy drew a walk with one out, and Harris was replaced by Pat Neshek.

Freese’s double sailed just beyond left fielder Colby Rasmus’ reach on the warning track and made it 5-4.

“I started praying that the juice box was small enough for it to go off the wall,” Freese said, using a nickname for Minute Maid Park. “But yeah, I clipped it, and it just went far enough out of reach of Rasmus. So it ended up being good for us.”

Carlos Perez’s RBI single made it 6-4 and chased Neshek.

Trevor Gott (3-2) induced the last two outs of the seventh for the victory, and Huston Street allowed one run in the ninth before retiring