Jonah Heim homered, Nathan Eovaldi pitched six effective innings and the Texas Rangers beat Framber Valdez and Houston Astros 5-4 on Monday for a 2-0 lead in the AL Championship Series.
Adolis García, Mitch Garver and Nathaniel Lowe each hit an RBI single during Texas' four-run first inning against Valdez, and José Leclerc closed it out for the Rangers after Yordan Alvarez powered an Astros rally.
Eovaldi struck out nine, including two in a row after Houston loaded the bases with none out in the fifth. He was charged with three runs and five hits in his third win this postseason.
The Rangers improved to 7-0 in the playoffs, including six wins on the road. They swept the Rays in the Wild Card Series and the Orioles in the Division Series and then posted a 2-0 win at Houston in the ALCS opener.
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Game 3 of the best-of-seven series is Wednesday night in Arlington.
Alvarez hit two solo home runs to become the sixth player in MLB history to have two multihomer games in one postseason. The second one was off Aroldis Chapman, trimming Houston's deficit to 5-4 with two out in the eighth.
Leclerc then came in and walked José Abreu and Michael Brantley, but Chas McCormick grounded out to end the threat.
Jeremy Peña flew out to deep right field for the first out in the Houston ninth. Yainer Diaz then grounded out and Jose Altuve flew to center, giving Leclerc his second save of the series.
The Astros, who went 39-42 at home in the regular season, continued to struggle at Minute Maid Park. The defending champions fell to 1-3 at home in the playoffs this season.
The Rangers jumped all over Valdez. Semien smacked the first pitch to center field for a single. Corey Seager sent his next pitch to left field for another single before Valdez made two errors on the same play on a ball hit by Robbie Grossman.
Valdez bobbled a chopper hit by Grossman for an error that allowed him to reach first and Semien to score. His second error occurred when he badly overthrew first to move Grossman to second and Seager to third.
Valdez put his hands on his knees and shook his head at the end of the play.
García then hit a liner to right field to score Seager. Garver singled home another run before Valdez finally got his first out when he struck out Heim.
The Rangers weren’t done yet.
LONE STAR SERIES
Lowe singled on a ground ball to left to make it 4-0. Valdez retired the next two batters to end the inning.
Alex Bregman also connected for the Astros, who went 0 for 6 with runners in scoring position. Alvarez, who is dealing with an illness, looked much better than he did in Game 1 when he went 0 for 4 with three strikeouts.
Valdez (0-2) allowed seven hits and five runs — four earned — in 2 2/3 innings in his second loss this postseason. He also took the loss in Game 2 of the Division Series against Minnesota.
The Astros missed a huge opportunity in the fifth. Brantley and McCormick hit back-to-back singles to open the inning before Peña reached on an error by third baseman Josh Jung.
But Eovaldi escaped the jam by striking out pinch-hitter Diaz and Altuve before Bregman grounded out.
Alvarez walked with one out in the sixth before scoring on a two-out double by Brantley. Alvarez also hit a leadoff homer in the second into the second deck in right field.
Heim homered high off the wall in left field to push the lead to 5-1 with no outs in the third.
UP NEXT
Max Scherzer will start for Texas in Game 3 after sitting out since Sept. 12 because of a muscle strain in his shoulder. It will be the fifth different team that the three-time Cy Young Award winner has pitched for in the postseason.
The Astros haven’t announced their starter.
