For playoff-hopeful Astros, it’s winning time

HOUSTON — With the Astros’ final series against the Rangers — a team that’s haunted them to the tune of 15 losses in 19 games — in the books, the club is looking down the stretch with its playoff hopes teetering on the brink.

Heading into Thursday’s off-day, the Astros were 3 1/2 games out of the second American League Wild Card spot. With 16 games left on the regular-season slate, Houston’s problem isn’t so much the number of games back as it is the number of teams ahead of it in the standings.

The Astros (76-70) currently trail Baltimore (80-65), Toronto (79-66), Detroit (78-67), Seattle (78-68) and New York (77-68) in the Wild Card race. Of that group, the Astros can quickly make up ground on the Mariners, against whom they still have six games left, beginning with a huge weekend series starting Friday at Safeco Field.

As for the rest of the field, the Astros will just have to win as much as possible and hope it’s enough in the end.

“Every game matters right now,” infielder Marwin Gonzalez said. …

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