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          Saturday's Top 5: Angels rising in AL wild-card race

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          AL wild-card race getting interesting (2:18)

          1. The Los Angeles Angels sweep the Minnesota Twins to move up in the American League wild-card race: By winning the day game 4-3 in 12 innings and then the nightcap 5-2 behind Garrett Richards' masterful start, the Angels moved to the head of the herd trying to get the final wild-card spot. The Angels are 1 1/2 games behind the Astros for the second wild card.

          To put things in perspective as far as their performance in the AL's wild-card field since their 120th game, Saturday's two wins lifted the Halos' performance in the past month up to 13-15, so this isn't exactly a power move toward the postseason. But with the Yankees mucking around .500 (14-13), they’re only ahead of the rest of the wild-card pack because of the team they were more than a month ago. The Astros (13-16) are doing no better than L.A. of Anaheim, and even after getting swept by the Angels, the Twins' 16-12 record in that time is the strongest among this weak bunch.

          That said, if the Angels head to Houston on Monday just 1.5 games or less behind the Astros, you essentially have to believe in star power or power pitching because that's what the Angels have going for them. Mike Trout has gotten his power stroke back, hammering his fifth home run in a week in the nightcap, but he's the only Angels regular producing an OPS higher than .800 in the second half. And if the Angels advance, Richards, Hector Santiago and rookie Andrew Heaney give them a nice power trio to start in a postseason series should they get past the wild card, and Richards in particular might be peaking at the right time. Saturday's turn was Richards' ninth quality start in his past 13, and he's still pumping gas at 96 mph but has boosted his strikeout rate to 21.3 percent since the All-Star break.

          2. The Houston Astros end their losing streak: The Astros' tumble down the stretch might belatedly prove right those who were wondering if they could really pull off a trip to the postseason, and heading into the bottom of the sixth trailing 6-3 going up against Sonny Gray, a contender for the league ERA title, you might have wondered if this was going to keep getting worse before it got better. But Saturday's 10-6 win was a reminder of what they still have going for them: power and relief pitching. Evan Gattis' three-run home run in the seventh was the big blow to give the Astros the lead in their seven-run rebound, while the pen contained the damage with three shutout innings.

          3. The Chicago Cubs add another reason for playing the season to its end: Allowing for some extra drama and ejections as the Cardinals tried for a late rally, the Cubs pulled off their latest win behind another pair of rookies' home runs with Kris Bryant and Jorge Soler delivering the honors in their 5-4 win. The Cubs still talked a tough game about how they're in this to win the division before they run out of regular-season games. Seem unlikely? Well, both teams have just one more series apiece against a winning team -- the Pirates -- but with as much noise as the Cubs are making lately, this might be as much about making themselves the team to beat in October as it is about pulling off a late National League Central title.

          4. The Boston Red Sox prove the Toronto Blue Jays' new late-game combo isn't perfect: As Gordon Edes noted earlier on Saturday, Boston had lost all 65 games they trailed after eight innings, and the Blue Jays had won all 73 they led after eight. So naturally there had to be a first time for both teams, as the Red Sox put a five-spot on the board in the ninth to win 7-6. This is less about the Red Sox's resilience -- admirable as that may be as Jackie Bradley Jr. makes a continuing case for why he's the real deal with his two-run shot -- than whether it's a cause for concern after the Jays' late-game answers for their late-game needs, Roberto Osuna and Aaron Sanchez, were lit up for that fistful of runs in the ninth.

          5. Today's ‘Bryce Harper is awesome' update: The new claimant for the title of baseball's best ballplayer belted his 41st home run in the Nationals' 5-2 win over the Marlins, putting him just one behind MLB leaders Nelson Cruz and Chris Davis.

          Christina Kahrl writes about MLB for ESPN. You can follow her on Twitter.