HOUSTON (AP) Sean Murphy and Marcus Semien homered, hyped pitching prospect Jesus Luzardo looked sharp in his major league debut, and the Oakland Athletics beat the Houston Astros 5-3 Wednesday night.
Oakland won for the fourth time in five games. The A's opened the day 1 1/2 games behind Tampa Bay for the top AL wild card and a half-game ahead of Cleveland for the second spot.
Houston fell a half-game back of the New York Yankees for the best record in the majors. New York's scheduled game with Detroit was postponed.
Astros starter Jose Urquidy struck out 10 and pitched one-hit, one-run ball over five innings before the A's got to the bullpen.
Semien hit his career-high 28th home run leading off the fourth, and Murphy homered leading off a four-run sixth inning before Matt Olson hit a two-run double, all off Josh James (5-1). Khris Davis capped the sixth with an RBI single to up the lead to 5-2.
Luzardo was promoted from Triple-A Las Vegas on Monday. He allowed one hit in three innings - a solo homer to Martin Maldonado - and struck out two. The hard-throwing left-hander retired his final seven batters, a promising sign that the starting pitching prospect could make an October impact as a reliever.
Aledmys Diaz gave Houston a 2-1 lead in the fourth with an RBI double, but after loading the bases, Oakland starter Brett Anderson got out of further trouble by inducing an inning-ending double play from Myles Straw.
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Astros star George Springer matched a career high with his 34th home run, a solo shot in the third.
Anderson (12-9) yielded two runs and seven hits with four strikeouts in five innings.
Liam Hendriks pitched the ninth for his 20th save.
