The signs of a revival are present for the Houston Astros in ways beyond their steady climb back to .500.

With their 7-4 road win over the Los Angeles Angels on Wednesday, the Astros finally evened their season record following a 20-31 start that contributed to their falling as many as six games behind in the American League West. When the Astros host the Texas Rangers on Friday, they will have an opportunity to claim the top spot in their division for the first time since April 6.

The three-game sweep of the Angels was the fourth of the season for the Astros, who have won eight of nine games and 28 of 47 games on the road since a 1-9 road trip early in the campaign. Since tumbling to a season-low 11 games under .500, Houston is 35-24.

“I’m very proud of how hungry we are out there,” Astros catcher Yainer Diaz said through an interpreter following his four-hit game on Wednesday. “Sometimes results are not how we want, but you have to keep going back out there. I’m very proud of how things are turning out for us.”

The Astros welcomed back right-hander Hayden Wesneski (elbow) from a 15-month stint on the injured list on Wednesday and, with the Rangers’ 3-2 loss to the Tampa Bay Rays to conclude a three-game series on Thursday, moved within a half-game of Texas in the AL West. Ascension seemed improbable when injuries decimated the Astros’ rotation. But now that the first step back into contention is complete, they have a legitimate jumping-off point to continue their climb up the standings.

Right-hander Hunter Brown (2-1, 3.45 ERA) will start the series opener for the Astros on Friday. He produced his best start since his return from a 10-week stint on the IL last Saturday at the Chicago White Sox. He threw seven shutout innings, allowed two hits and recorded seven strikeouts in a 4-1 victory. Brown was 0-1 with a 5.22 ERA in his first six starts off the IL.

Brown has a 4-4 record with a 3.00 ERA across 10 career starts against the Rangers. He did not factor into the decision in a 7-3 loss at Texas on July 10 after allowing three runs on four hits and five walks with four strikeouts over six innings.

Right-hander Nathan Eovaldi (10-8, 4.05) has the starting assignment for Texas. He is tied for second in the AL in victories and stands 11th with 130 strikeouts, but his 22 home runs allowed are the second-most in the league and one shy of his career high.

Eovaldi has nine quality starts in his last 14 outings.

Eovaldi is 5-6 with a 3.66 ERA in 16 career starts against the Astros, including a 1-1 record and 3.21 ERA in two starts this season. The Rangers have won his past three starts in Houston.

After mustering only six runs in the three-game series against the Rays, Texas will again lean on its rotation in Houston, with Jacob deGrom and Kumar Rocker following Eovaldi in the series.

“We feel good with those guys going,” Rangers manager Skip Schumaker said. “You always like deGrom and Evo going the first two games of a series, and then Rocker has been pitching really well. It should be an exciting series this weekend, and we’re looking forward to getting there.”

–Field Level Media

If Kody Clemens is looking for endorsements, he might try Denny’s. After all, an ultimate grand slam sounds like something you might order at one of their restaurants.

Clemens hit the 34th known “ultimate slam” in major league history Thursday — a walk-off homer with the bases loaded while trailing by three runs — to give the Minnesota Twins an improbable 4-3 victory against the visiting Kansas City Royals.

The Twins (55-55) reached .500 and pulled within a game of the American League’s third and final wild-card berth as they begin a nine-game trip Friday against the Seattle Mariners.

“That’s stuff that you dream about, stuff like that, when you’re a little kid,” Clemens said. “That’s what you envision doing.”

The Twins had just one hit through 8 2/3 innings, a single by Ryan Jeffers leading off the seventh against Royals starter Noah Cameron.

Jeffers sparked the ninth-inning rally when he was hit by a pitch from Lucas Erceg. Royce Lewis blooped a single to center and Josh Bell walked.

“Sometimes it starts with something very simple as a hit by pitch,” said Twins manager Derek Shelton, who celebrated his 56th birthday, “and then all of a sudden it’s like, ‘OK, there’s a little bit of life.'”

The Royals brought in left-hander Matt Strahm to face Clemens, who fell behind 0-2 in the count before hitting a blast to right-center field.

“The belief in every player in the lineup for me is so immense, and it’s for real, man. And it shows why,” Lewis said. “I just knew that we were going to get the job done. Until they say the game is over and you lost, I have belief that we’re going to win every game. It’s so much fun to be a part of.”

The Twins got another boost when, after landing in Seattle, they learned they’d reportedly acquired left-handed reliever A.J. Minter from the New York Mets.

While the Twins were going 4-2 at home against the Athletics and Royals, the Mariners finished a 2-5 trip to Texas and Los Angeles on Thursday night with a 6-2 loss to the defending World Series champion Dodgers.

The Mariners dropped 2 1/2 games back of the Rangers in the AL West and are three back in the wild-card standings.

“We know what we’ve got to do here, and we’ve just got to get it done,” said Seattle manager Dan Wilson, whose team won the division title last season and reached Game 7 of the AL Championship Series.

Friday’s series opener is scheduled to feature a pair of right-handers in the Twins’ Zebby Matthews (4-8, 5.21 ERA) and the Mariners’ Bryce Miller (4-5, 2.75).

Matthews has lost his past three outings, though he had a quality start last Friday against the Athletics when he allowed two runs on three hits over six innings of a 2-0 defeat. He’s 0-0 with a 5.14 ERA in one previous start against Seattle.

Miller, who debuted in 2026 on May 13, has also lost three starts in a row. He gave up a season-high five earned runs last Friday in a 5-4 loss at Texas. He’s 1-1 with a 6.75 ERA in three career starts versus Minnesota.

–Field Level Media

After Shohei Ohtani received an unexpected day off, the Los Angeles Dodgers are expected to have their star back at the top of the order to open a three-game series against the visiting Boston Red Sox on Friday.

Ohtani has been dealing with a sore left knee and some right biceps tightness of late, which has forced him out of the rotation since the return from the All-Star break, but not from the designated hitter spot until Thursday.

After a recent run of five hits in seven at-bats, including three extra-base hits, Ohtani went in for treatment on his knee late Wednesday and was given some downtime.

“The last couple days he’s been on base a lot more, so I think that’s been a good thing in one sense whereas the last part of the (recent) road trip he wasn’t,” Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said. “So there might have been a little something to that.”

Ohtani received an injection in the knee during the All-Star break and had been making progress with the injury, according to Roberts.

With Tommy Edman in the leadoff spot Thursday, and Teoscar Hernandez serving as the designated hitter, the Dodgers earned a 6-2 victory over the Mariners to take two of the three games in the series. Hernandez hit his first home run since July 3, while Dalton Rushing added a three-run shot.

With Ohtani out of the mix in a six-man rotation, Roberts has resorted to bullpen games on occasion, with another one set for Friday. Right-hander Edgardo Henriquez (4-1, 2.79 ERA) is set to pitch the opening inning.

The Red Sox have a trio of left-handers lined up to face the Dodgers over the weekend, with Ranger Suarez (4-3, 3.02) set to take the ball in the series opener.

Suarez returned from the injured list Sunday, after recovering from a left groin strain and an illness, then delivered four scoreless innings in an eventual victory over the Toronto Blue Jays.

“The first couple innings, I was kind of nervous, because I didn’t know how I was going to feel,” Suarez said. “After that, I felt pretty good.”

Suarez gave up four hits with six strikeouts and threw 64 pitches.

“(For) three weeks I never stopped throwing,” Suarez said. “I wasn’t surprised I had my command.”

In eight career appearances (five starts) against the Dodgers, Suarez is 3-2 with 3.64 ERA.

Boston arrived at Los Angeles after rallying for a 5-4 road victory over the Athletics on Thursday with back-to-back home runs in the eighth inning from Wilyer Abreu and Willson Contreras.

The Red Sox improved to 20-3 since July 3 and 25-5 since June 25 when they entered the day with a 32-46 record.

In the midst of his own rough season, Boston’s Jarren Duran appeared to question why Contreras did not tag up from third base on his fly ball in the sixth inning. He gestured back toward the infield as he returned to the dugout. After the game, Duran downplayed the incident.

“That’s nothing. It’s something that, within the team, that we have, that we work on, and it’s nothing,” Duran told reporters. “Like, you guys don’t need to know. Nobody needs to know. That’s something between us and the team that we know (what) it’s about. That doesn’t really matter.”

–Field Level Media