HOUSTON — They have a pulse.

And after rallying for an 8-1 romp of the Astros on Wednesday afternoon, the Seattle Mariners have at least a chance to play for something meaningful entering the final weekend of the regular season back home at T-Mobile Park.

“I’m expecting everybody to be bringing the energy in Seattle,” Julio Rodriguez said. “Because it’s a pretty important time in the season for us, you know. It’s really exciting to be playing for something and not just checking boxes and finishing our schedule.”

Justin Turner delivered the breakthrough hit off ex-Mariner left-hander Yusei Kikuchi in the sixth inning Wednesday, Mitch Garver and Rodriguez hit add-on homer runs late and George Kirby threw six sharp innings to keep alive the Mariners’ minuscule playoff hopes for at least one more day.

The Mariners (82-77) will have an off day Thursday before hosting the Oakland A’s for the final series of the regular season starting Friday night at T-Mobile Park.

And now they have a reason to pay attention to what’s happening around the league Thursday.

The three teams the Mariners are chasing in the American League wild-card standings — the Tigers, the Royals and the Twins — all play Thursday, and the Mariners obviously need all three to lose.

“We’ve got everything right in front of us for the three games we have to win, and probably have to get some help along the way too,” manager Dan Wilson said. “But we’ve just got to do what we do and not worry about anything else.”

There are various scenarios at play, but the gist is this: The Mariners, realistically, need to sweep the A’s to get to 85 wins and hope that two of the three teams they’re chasing don’t finish with any more than 84 wins.

The Tigers, the Royals and the Twins all hold tiebreakers over the Mariners.

“Quite frankly,” Wilson said, “it’s confusing sometimes when you look at what is in front of us.”

Since taking over as manager on Aug. 22, Wilson has kept his messaging simple with the Mariners. That won’t change now.

“We have to take care of ourselves,” he said. “And these guys have done such a great job of that, bouncing back again today after a tough one [Tuesday] night. And again, they just continue to bounce back and continue to stay in the race.”

Garver hit his 14th homer into the Crawford Boxes at Minute Maid Park in the seventh inning, and Rodriguez added his 20th in the ninth off Astros reliever Hector Neris in their first matchup since their confrontation in Seattle last September nearly started a benches-clearing incident.

Rodriguez joins Kansas City’s Bobby Witt Jr. as the only players to begin their careers with three consecutive 20-homer/20-steal seasons.

“Obviously, we’re in a must-win situation the rest of the way,” Wilson said Wednesday morning. “We’ve got to let it fly. … Trying to go out and play nervous or scared is not the answer, and I think these guys need to go out and do what they do and what they have been doing.

“We talk about it a lot, just leaving everything out on the field. And I’m confident. I know these guys want that and that’s what they’re going to go out and do.”

The Mariners didn’t do much against Kikuchi early Wednesday.

An All-Star during his final season with the Mariners in 2021, Kikuchi has reinvented himself over the past two months since joining the Astros, who had won all nine starts the Japanese left-hander had made with them coming into Wednesday.

Kikuchi’s slider usage has increased dramatically in Houston and it’s been a devastating pitch for him.

The Mariners barely touched his slider Wednesday, managing only one hit (a Jorge Polanco single) through the first five innings.

Kikuchi nearly got through the sixth inning unscathed, striking out Randy Arozarena for the second out with the bases loaded.

But the next batter, Turner, got a first-pitch fastball on the inner edge of the strike zone and turned on it, sending it into the left-field corner.

That drove in Dylan Moore and Victor Robles for the Mariners’ first runs off Kikuchi, turning a one-run deficit into a 2-1 lead.

Turner, at 39, is the oldest position player in MLB and he now has the longest active on-base streak in MLB at 20 games.

In the bottom of the sixth, Turner made a full-extension diving stop on a hard-hit one-hopper off the bat of Jason Heyward. Turner flipped to George Kirby covering first for the final out of the inning.

That ended Kirby’s strong outing, giving him a career-high 191 innings pitched in what will likely be his final start of the season.

Kirby allowed only one run over six strong innings, with four hits, one walk and six strikeouts. He picked up his career-high 14th victory.

The Astros (86-73) clinched the AL West title with a 4-3 victory over the Mariners on Tuesday night. They celebrated late into the night, and played much of Wednesday’s series finale without several regulars in their lineup.

Yordan Alvarez remains out with a knee injury and Kyle Tucker did not play. Alex Bregman played the first few innings before exiting to a standing ovation.

The Mariners added three more runs in the seventh, thanks in large part to three errors in the inning on Astros third baseman Shay Whitcomb, who had replaced Bregman a few innings earlier.

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