The 2023 American League Championship Series (ALCS) is tied at two games apiece after the Houston Astros came away with their second consecutive win in a 10-3 victory over the Texas Rangers at Arlington’s Globe Life Field on Thursday night.
Houston wasted no time as it scored three runs off Texas starter Andrew Heaney on the game’s first 10 pitches and batted around the order in the first inning.
Second baseman Jose Altuve led off the game with a double, and third baseman Alex Bregman followed a Mauricio Dubon single with a triple to score the game’s first two runs. Bregman came around to score as Yordan Alvarez ripped the next pitch into centerfield, forcing pitching coach Mike Maddux to come out of the dugout and meet with Heaney on the mound.
Heaney settled down to retire the next two hitters and eventually struck out Houston catcher Martin Maldonado with the bases loaded to end his only inning before being replaced by Dane Dunning.
“We were hoping to go as far as we could with him,” Rangers manager Bruce Bochy told the media postgame. “We looked at 60, 70 pitches in there depending on how the innings went. It didn’t go as planned. We wanted to keep the game where it was, and Dane did that.”
The Rangers began to battle back in the second, cutting the deficit to one on an Adolis Garcia home run and a sacrifice fly from Josh Jung. Then, shortstop Corey Seager tied the game in the bottom of the third with a home run that helped chase Houston starter Jose Urquidy, but Texas could not push another across the plate as Mitch Garver hit into an inning-ending double-play with two runners on base.
Houston returned the favor with a four-run fourth inning — capped by a three-run home run from Jose Abreu to take a 7-3 lead.
The Rangers threatened again in the fifth with back-to-back singles to start the inning, but Seager scalded a line-drive that Abreu caught and reacted quickly to tag Marcus Semien for a double-play, and Evan Carter followed with a flyout to center to end the inning.
The Astros piled on three more runs, while Texas put only two runners on base the rest of the game.
“We tied the game and got their starter out,” Bochy said. “Their bullpen did a great job on us, and we just couldn’t get back in it.”
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WHAT TO KNOW
— The Astros beat the Rangers in Game 4 of the ALCS to tie the series ahead of Friday’s Game 5. Both teams need two more wins to reach the World Series.
— Houston has played in four of the last six World Series and is trying to become the first team to reach the final in three consecutive years since the New York Yankees of the late 1990s and early 2000s.
— The Rangers are playing in their first ALCS since 2011 and trying to reach their first World Series since that same year. Texas began the postseason with an eight-game winning streak but has lost its last two games.
— According to the FOX broadcast, Seager’s home run in the third inning made him the first shortstop to hit homers in both the ALCS and NLCS.
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BY THE NUMBERS
— The Astros are now 51-30 on the road this season and 8-1 in Arlington.
— Houston has scored 57 runs in its last five games at Globe Life Field, including 18 this postseason.
— The Rangers went 0/4 with runners in scoring position, while the Astros were 8/16.
— The teams combined for five home runs on Thursday.
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WHO SAID
— Bochy on the series coming down to the final games: “I always like my chances with this club. They’ve battled all year. We’re playing a good team. Nobody thought this was going to be easy. We’ve been in this kind of situation before where we have to bounce back, and that’s what we need to do. [The Astros] have played very well in this ballpark, and we need to change that.”
— Astros manager Dusty Baker on pitcher Hunter Brown, who pitched three scoreless innings: “He pitched like a veteran. He did the same thing last year [when] we had him in relief. I liked that he was aggressive. He threw 33 strikes and 24 balls and didn’t walk anybody. … That was huge because it saved my bullpen.”
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NEXT UP
— The Rangers and Astros will play Game 5 of the ALCS at 4:07 p.m. CT in Arlington on Friday before returning to Houston for the remainder of the series.
