The Astros fend off the Mariners after a bizarre confrontation between Hector Neres and Julio Rodriguez

The Houston Astros will enter their final series of the season with a 1.5-game lead over the Seattle Mariners in the American League wild-card race after beating them 8-3 on Wednesday.

Meanwhile, the Texas Rangers held serve with a 5-0 win over the Los Angeles Angels, maintaining a 2.5-game lead over the Astros to win the AL West.

The three teams, which have been vying for supremacy in MLB’s most competitive division for more than a month, will enter the final series of the season with the division title still on the line. The Rangers will face the Mariners in a four-game series in Seattle, while the Astros will travel to face the Arizona Diamondbacks, who are still waging their own battle in the National League wild-card race.

1. Rangers: 89-69

2. Astros: 87-72, 2.5 GB

3. Mariners: 85-73, 4.0 GB

1. Rays: 97-62, +10.0 games

2. Blue Jays: 87-71 +0.5 games

3. Astros: 87-72

4. Mariners: 85-73, 1.5 GB

The tiebreakers in division form a perfect triangle. The Mariners have the edge over the Astros with a 9-4 record against them, the Astros have the edge over the Rangers with a 9-4 record, and the Rangers get the nod over the Mariners thanks to their 8-1 record.

Thanks to that tiebreaker and the four-game gap between the Rangers and Mariners, there is only one remaining scenario in which Seattle wins the West. That would require a four-game sweep of the Rangers, as the Astros have won two games and only two games against the D-backs.

In this case, sailors The tiebreaker will be won by three teams.

The Mariners could have moved into a playoff spot with a win on Wednesday and looked very close to doing so at times. J.B. Crawford led off the bottom of the first inning with a homer for a 1-0 lead, which was lost in the Astros’ four-run fourth inning on home runs by Yordan Alvarez and Mauricio Dupont.

The Mariners cut the lead to one on a bases-loaded single by Eugenio Suarez in the bottom of the fourth inning, but the Astros put the game away with more scoring in the seventh.

However, the most bizarre moment of the game came in the bottom of the sixth inning, when Astros outfielder Hector Neres struck out Rodriguez and then hard-hit the young outfielder. Rodriguez did not appreciate the treatment, and the two were soon led away from each other while the dugouts and bull pens were cleared.

It was a bizarre moment in a series that already saw a baseball thrown from the stands at Mariners outfielder George Kirby.

On the Rangers side, Texas scored early against the Angels, while starting pitcher Dane Dunning tossed seven scoreless innings. Aroldis Chapman and José Leclerc combined to end the shutout, leaving Texas needing to win just two of four games against the Mariners to close out the division, even if the Astros sweep the D-backs.