WEST SACRAMENTO, Calif. – A platitude often floated in the early days of spring training is everyone in a team’s camp might see a chance to contribute at some point during a long season. It is a calming notion when rosters are still forming and hopes are nascent and October feels far away.
Thursday night, with their season and playoff hopes perhaps on the line, the Houston Astros witnessed it manifest.
Houston Astros Lucas Spence, center, celebrates with Brice Matthews after hitting a solo home run, his second of the game, to take a 5-4 lead during the seventh inning of an MLB baseball game at Sutter Health Park in Sacramento, California, Thursday, Sept. 24, 2026. (Jason Fochtman/Houston Chronicle)
Two rookies who were not on their opening day roster, who did not debut until midseason, who were at Triple-A earlier this month, propelled the Astros to a 7-5 win over the A’s at Sutter Health Park that held their position in the American League West race with three days remaining.
With the Rangers winning earlier in the day, the Astros needed to win to stay tied atop the division with Texas, against whom they own the tiebreaker. No two players proved more important to the effort than center fielder Lucas Spence and reliever Miguel Ullola.
Spence, recalled from Triple-A a day earlier amid Houston‘s center-field injuries, playing in his 16th major-league game, hit three home runs. They were his first in the majors. A three-run homer gave Houston an early lead. A solo shot wrested it back in the sixth after the A’s had erased it.
Another in the ninth padded a one-run lead. Spence became the 14th player in Astros history to record a three-homer game, per Baseball Reference. At 23 years and 240 days, he is the second-youngest. Yordan Alvarez, who had one at 22 years and 44 days old in 2019, was the youngest.
Ullola, making his 10th major-league outing, two days after he threw a career-high 33 pitches in Seattle, threw three scoreless relief innings on 35 pitches, creating stability in the middle of a pitching carousel.
Starter Peter Lambert did not escape the third inning. The Astros trailed 4-3 when Ullola entered for the fifth. They led 5-4 when Ullola ended the seventh by inducing a fly out by Shea Langeliers, unleashing a burst of emotion on the mound. Ullola retired nine of 10 batters he faced.
While he worked, solo home runs by Isaac Paredes and Spence put the Astros back ahead, 5-4. Christian Walker made it 6-4 with a home run in the eighth. Zack Gelof pared the lead back to one with his second home run of the night in the bottom of the inning.
Bryan Abreu, called on for a four-out save after Josh Hader threw 44 pitches a night earlier, retired Jonah Heim to end the eighth with two runners on base. Spence provided an insurance run in the ninth. Abreu returned to the mound and finished a win that felt mandatory.
Barnett, a 25-year-old right-hander, entered with a 7.16 ERA in 44 major-league innings this year. None of his previous 10 major-league starts had lasted six innings. This one did.
The Astros mustered four hits against Barnett, who walked two batters and struck out six. Two of those hits cleared the fence: Spence’s three-run home run in the second inning and Paredes’ solo home run in the sixth. The latter tied the game after Barnett had retired 11 of his last 12 hitters.
Barnett led with a four-seam fastball that averaged 93.7 mph, throwing it 51% of the time. Astros hitters whiffed on six of 20 swings against it and averaged an 88.1 mph exit velocity on six put into play. Paredes did drive a 3-1 four-seamer onto the roof of the clubhouse beyond left field to forge a 4-4 tie.
After that swing, Barnett retired his next three batters to finish the sixth at 87 pitches. His six innings and eight strikeouts, against an Astros offense that entered with the majors’ second-fewest runs scored since the Aug. 3 trade deadline, were both career highs.
Lambert worked his first two innings scoreless. He struck out six of his first 11 batters faced. His outing derailed quickly in the third inning.
After a leadoff walk turned the A’s lineup over, Lambert struck out his next two batters. Shea Langeliers singled after overturning a called third strike with an ABS challenge. Jeff McNeil then hit a 2-2 fastball into the visitors’ bullpen. Lambert spun around and put his hands on his head in apparent disbelief.
McNeil’s swing tied the game. Two pitches later, Gelof hit a changeup 413 feet to straightaway center field to put the A’s ahead. A single by Donovan Walton marked the fourth straight hit against Lambert and ended his night. He recorded eight outs on 62 pitches.
It marked the third straight game the Astros’ starter did not complete the third. Cristian Javier threw two innings Tuesday before exiting with a groin injury. Ethan Pecko was chased in the third inning Wednesday in Seattle.
The outing was Lambert’s shortest of the season. He had completed at least five innings in all but four of his previous 27 starts. The quick hook likely reflected the magnitude of this game, but it could potentially also keep Lambert in play for an appearance later in the series.
Houston’s embattled outfield is limping to the finish line. Astros outfielders entered Thursday with a .651 OPS this season, the majors’ lowest mark. Center fielder Daulton Varsho, the Astros’ lone trade deadline addition, landed on the injured list Thursday with a wrist ailment. Outfielder Brice Matthews returned to the IL on Wednesday after aggravating the left knee that sidelined him for two months.
Matthews’ IL placement ushered Spence back to the majors. Spence had played in 15 games for Houston prior to Thursday, going 6-for-40 with one extra-base hit.
After one-out singles by Walker and Cam Smith in the second, Spence drove a changeup from Barnett an estimated 429 feet to right field at 105.8 mph off the bat for his first major-league home run. Spence has 24 home runs in 859 career minor-league at-bats, so power is not his forte. His first with the Astros lent production from a depleted position group that has sorely lacked it.
His next two created a historic night and kept the Astros on pace in a division race.
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