After going down 0-2 at home in the series to their rivals, the Houston Astros got a big 8-5 win over the Texas Rangers in game three to pull within one game of tying the ALCS. In game four, the Astros got the scoring started and would continue to score throughout the game as Houston tied the series with a 10-3 win over Texas Thursday night.
HOW IT HAPPENED:
The Astros wasted no time getting on the scoreboard. Jose Altuve hit a double through the third base line and Mauricio Dubon hit a single into center field. Alex Bregman then hit an RBI triple off the wall and Yordan Alvarez’s single made it a 3-0 game with no outs.
Rangers starting pitcher Andrew Heaney was replaced by Dane Dunning after Chas McCormick was walked. Jeremy Pena reached first and made the bases loaded but Martin Maldonado struck out to end the inning.
Jose Urquidy was on the bump for Houston and started at the bottom of the first by forcing a lineout, flyout, and pop-out against Marcus Semien, Corey Seager, and Evan Carter.
Adolis Garcia kept the baseball inside of the foul pole for the solo home run. Mitch Garver was walked and then advanced to third base on a double by Nathaniel Lowe. Josh Jung drove Garver in on a sacrifice fly to make it a 3-2 game.
At the bottom of the third, Seager hit a solo shot of his own to tie the game. Urquidy would give a single to Carter and Garcia and would get replaced by Ryne Stanek, who forced a ground-out double play to end the inning.
Houston reclaimed the lead at the top of the fourth. Maldonado and Altuve were walked, then Dubon hit a single to load the bases. Cody Bradford came in for Dunning right before Alvarez hit a sacrifice fly into center field to bring home Maldonado. Jose Abreu then came up right and hit a three-run shot 438 feet over the left-center wall, into the bullpen to make it a 7-3 game.
Hunter Brown came in to pitch for the Astros at the bottom of the fourth and recorded two strikeouts.
At the top of the seventh, Abreu was walked and McCormick brought both of them home with a two-run shot over the wall to extend the Astros lead to 9-3.
Altuve started off the eighth inning with a double off of the wall and advanced to third on a ground out by Dubon. Alvarez would then hit an RBI single to put Houston up by seven.
Raphael Montero came in the ninth for the Astros and would help secure a 10-3 win to tie the ALCS at two games a piece.
BIG NUMBER: 4
There were four home runs in game four of the ALCS, two by each team as Houston came away with the 10-3 win to tie the series with one game left to go on the road for the Astros before heading back home to Minute Maid Park.
PLAYER OF THE GAME: Jose Abreu
Abreu was a part of the middle of the lineup that did the most damage to the Rangers on Thursday night. He went 1/3 but scored two runs and had three RBI on his home run hit in the fourth inning.
UP NEXT: The Houston Astros and Texas Rangers will play game five of the ALCS tomorrow, Friday, October 20th. First pitch at Globe Life Field is scheduled for 7:03 p.m.