The Houston Astros celebrated their first win in the American finals on Wednesday evening and are now 2-1 in the series against the Texas Rangers.
In that first matchup at Globe Life Field, manager Dusty Baker’s men won 8-5.
The Astros took the lead at bat in the second inning and never looked back after that. Yordan Alvarez took advantage of a missed throw from Max Scherzer to step up to the plate and open the scoring. Moments later, Martin Maldonado hit a single that scored Kyle Tucker and Mauricio Dudon.
Jose Altuve extended his arms on the winning side. In the third, he threw a Scherzer shot 413 feet from the plate. Dubon, Alvarez and Jeremy Pena drove in the Astros’ other runs.
The Rangers’ answer came with the bats of Josh Jung and Adolis Garcia. The first of his two athletes hit two two-run home runs.
Astros starter Cristian Javier gave up two runs, three hits and a walk while also striking out three in five and two-thirds work. Ryan Pressly completed the task in the ninth game and recorded his third save in the current playoffs.
Scherzer saw his match over after four innings on the mound. He allowed five runs on as many hits to get to safety.
The Astros and Rangers meet for game four on Thursday night.