Lucas Spence walked into Thursday night in Sacramento with little momentum and walked out having delivered the kind of performance that can tilt a season.
The Astros rookie, recalled again on September 23 after Brice Matthews landed on the injured list with inflammation in his left knee, had been scuffling. He went 0-for-3 in his return last Thursday in the finale against the Seattle Mariners, a 6-5 loss at T-Mobile Park decided by Josh Naylor’s walk-off single in the bottom of the 10th. That left Spence 1-for-16 with eight strikeouts over his last 18 plate appearances.
None of that mattered once Houston opened its series against the Athletics. Spence went 3-for-4, launched three home runs and drove in five of the Astros’ seven runs in a 7-5 win that kept Houston in the playoff race.
He got it started in the second inning, turning a 1-1 changeup from Mason Barnett into a three-run shot with one out. The game then flipped the other way as the Athletics answered with power of their own, with Jeff McNeil’s three-run homer in the bottom of the third followed by a solo shot from Zack Gelof.
Houston kept hanging around. Isaac Paredes tied it in the sixth with his 24th homer of the season, and then Spence came back up in the seventh and changed the game again. Scott Blewett tried to challenge him with a 97.5 mph fastball, and Spence sent it out for a solo homer and a 5-4 Astros lead.
The back-and-forth kept rolling. Christian Walker added a solo homer to open the eighth, his 27th of the year and a 436-foot blast to center. Gelof answered in the bottom half with his second solo homer of the night, this one off Bennett Souza, to pull the Athletics within 6-5.
Then Spence finished the night in the ninth. He jumped on the first pitch from Elvis Alvarado, a 97.1 mph fastball over the plate, and crushed it at 101.8 mph into right field for his third homer of the game.
According to Sarah Langs of MLB.com, Spence became the third player in Major League history to hit each of his first three home runs in the same game, joining Joshua Baez, who did it in his MLB debut on August 15, 2026, and Seby Zavala on July 31, 2021.
He also joined a short list in Astros history. Spence became one of 14 Houston players to hit three home runs in a game, a group led by Yordan Álvarez and Jeff Bagwell with three each, and Glenn Davis with two, the only players to have done it more than once.
With three games left in the regular season, Houston moved back in control of the division, though the Astros and Texas Rangers are tied at 79-80. Houston holds the tiebreaker after winning the season series against Texas, which would give the Astros the playoff berth if the teams finish even.
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Through 10 appearances, Ullola has posted a 2.30 ERA with 15 strikeouts in 15.2 innings, a solid stretch for a pitcher asked to handle meaningful late-season work. For Houston, the bigger question now is whether this outing was a one-night boost or the latest sign that the bullpen just found another pitcher it can trust when the games start to matter most. [Read more 🡒]
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Astros Suddenly Have A New Reason To Believe In This AL West Race
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One of the louder reminders came from the American Leagues other end of the standings, where White Sox shortstop Colson Montgomery set the league strikeout record and helped underscore how unpredictable this season has been. Add in the Cubs, Guardians and White Sox already punching their postseason tickets, plus the Brewers reaching the 100-win mark and claiming the top playoff seed, and Houston's own race takes on even more urgency, especially with rookie Lucas Spence suddenly giving the Astros a fresh jolt after homering three times in one game. [Read more 🡒]