Angels begin last stand in playoff chase with a win over Mariners

The Angels began their final homestand of the regular season Friday. Whether it also becomes their last stand of the playoff race will take another week to sort out.

Either way they aren’t going to go quietly or conventionally, as they proved Friday when they started their final sprint to the finish line behind one-footed slugger Albert Pujols, whose two-run first-inning home run put the Angels in front to stay in an 8-4 win over the Seattle Mariners.

The win was the sixth in eight games for the Angels, who gained precious ground in the American League wild-card race. With both Houston and Minnesota losing, the Angels pulled to within a half-game of the Astros and moved a game ahead of the Twins in the battle for the final playoff spot.

“We’ve still got nine games left. You’ve just need to take them one game at a time,” Pujols said. “It’s right where you want to be. But we haven’t earned anything.

“We just need to try to do whatever it takes to come out with a W every night for nine days. And we’ll see what happens.”

The Angels already appear to have the schedule on their side; of the three wild-card contenders, their path to the finish looks to be the least challenging.

The Angels have five games against Seattle and Oakland at home — where they are 14 games above .500 — followed by a four-game series against division-leading Texas. But the Rangers probably will have clinched a playoff berth by then, giving them the luxury of resting their regulars.

The Astros, meanwhile, have two left against Texas before finishing the season with six games against Seattle and Arizona on the road, where they have the league’s worst record.

The Twins have two games left in Detroit and four games in Cleveland before they finish the year against the Kansas City Royals, the AL’s best team.

None of that will mean anything, though, if the Angels don’t take care of their business first.

“There’s only one thing we can concern ourselves with on a given night. That’s our game and how we’re playing,” Manager Mike Scioscia said.

“We need to put up wins. That’s the only thing we can control.”

The Angels took control of Friday’s game in the first inning, with four of the first five batters collecting extra-base hits off Mariners left-hander Vidal Nuno (1-4). That led to four runs, two coming on a home run by Pujols, who has been so hobbled by a painful right foot that he’s played just one game in the field while hitting .173 in September.

But he came up big Friday, collecting two hits, scoring two runs and driving in two for just the second time since July 20.

“It’s the moment of truth every day,” Pujols said. “No matter how we get there, the most important thing is to try to get into the postseason.”

The Angels tacked on single runs in the fourth and sixth innings, the second coming on a triple by Johnny Giavotella, who was playing his first game after being out more than a month because of a rare eye disorder.

C.J. Cron closed the scoring with a towering two-run homer to center in the seventh.

That was more than enough to make a winner of Garrett Richards (15-11), who struggled through the first two innings but gave up just a pair of singles the rest of the way, striking out eight in seven innings.

“We’re starting to become the team that we were at the beginning of the year and the team that we were at the All-Star break when we were in first place,” Richards said. “We feel good about where we are right now. But we know that the job’s not done.”

Up next

Left-hander Andrew Heaney (6-3, 3.30 ERA) will face the Mariners and right-hander Felix Hernandez (18-9, 3.54) at 6 p.m. Saturday at Angel Stadium. TV: FS West; Radio: 830, 1330.

kevin.baxter@latimes.com

Twitter: @kbaxter11