This round goes to Astros against A’s

HOUSTON — After the Astros wrapped up their season series with the Athletics on Wednesday, manager A.J. Hinch likened the last three games to a heavyweight title fight.

His Astros won two of three to take the belt for now, but he knows that they’ll have to play well down the stretch to fend off the Athletics for the AL West title.

“Wehave a lot of games to play, a lot of games to win,” Hinch said. “This one feels like a big one, obviously, to send them out of town a little beat up from the losses. But, also their bullpen is a little beat up, ours is too. It felt like kind of a heavyweight battle.”

The Astros gave the Athletics just their second series defeat in their last 21 series when Tyler White homered with one out in the ninth inning to cap a 5-4 victory.

“It was a spirited series, really closely fought,” A’s manager Bob Melvin said. “It was pretty evenly matched. Both teams are playing really hard this time of the year, which you’d expect. If I’m a fan watching these games, I’d be pretty entertained.”

White, who also homered Monday, sent a pitch from Jeurys Familia (4-1) to the seats in left field. The victory moves Houston 21⁄ games ahead of the A’s atop the AL West.

“You want to get a win against those guys in any way possible,” White said. “It’s a good team, but we come out here and we battle every day and we give ourselves a chance to win and I was just lucky enough to be the guy today.”

George Springer and Alex Bregman added two hits apiece and both drove in a run to help the Astros to their seventh win in eight games. Roberto Osuna (2-2) allowed one hit in a scoreless ninth for the win.