The defending World Series champion Houston Astros are a win away from their seventh consecutive appearance in the American League Championship Series (ALCS) after a 9-1 win over the Minnesota Twins in Game 3 of the American League Division Series (ALDS) on Tuesday.
Houston used a barrage of home runs and a stellar pitching performance from Cristian Javier to take a 2-1 lead and set up a chance to advance to the Championship Series with a win in Game 4 on Wednesday in Minnesota.
“That was much needed for us,” Astros manager Dusty Baker told the media postgame. “The runs that we got for him and for us were much-needed. You like to see your offense clicking like that, especially against a quality pitcher like Sonny Gray.”
The Astros immediately jumped on Gray and the Twins, scoring four runs in the first inning as Jose Abreu clobbered the first of his two home runs on the day. Alex Bregman added a home run in the fifth and another RBI in the sixth to pad the lead, and Yordan Alvarez and Abreu each launched homers in the ninth.
Javier lasted five innings and struck out nine while allowing just one hit and no runs, but he did walk five batters.
“We had plenty of opportunities. We really did,” Twins manager Rocco Baldelli said after the game. “There was a theme in those at-bats. I think we expanded a little bit in those at-bats. We’d get in a good spot, right where you want to be to make something happen, [but] we didn’t make it happen when the time came.”
Minnesota scored its run on a Willi Castro single with one out in the sixth, but Hunter Brown got the next batter to hit into a double play to end the threat. The Twins only put one more runner on base the rest of the game as the Houston bullpen shut the door.
Game 4 of the ALDS begins at 6:07 p.m. CT on Wednesday, with Hosuton’s Jose Urquidy (3-3, 5.29 ERA in the regular season) taking the mound against Minnesota’s Joe Ryan (11-10, 4.51). A Houston win sets up an all-Texas ALCS against the Rangers, while a Minnesota win forces a winner-take-all Game 5 on Friday in Houston.
Houston is no stranger to winning on the road, putting up a 51-30 record away from Minute Maid Park this season.
