Astros travel road back into ALCS with Game 3 win

ARLINGTON -- There isn’t a team that’s more comfortable playing at Globe Life Field than the Astros, who returned to the site of their three-game destruction of the Rangers last month and broke out offensively Wednesday night in Game 3 of the American League Championship Series.

The heroes on the offensive side were many, with Jose Altuve hitting another postseason homer and Martín Maldonado and Yordan Alvarez coming up with clutch RBI hits, but the game may have swung on a tumbling catch in the sixth inning by 36-year-old Michael Brantley, who couldn’t help but crack a rare grin after saving a run.

The smiles were all around the visiting clubhouse at Globe Life Field after the Astros beat the Rangers, 8-5, to put themselves in position to tie the series with a win in Thursday’s Game 4. Texas leads the best-of-seven series, 2-1, but the Astros may have seized some momentum with one of their most complete victories of the postseason.

“Down in the series 0-2, it feels like we had no choice but to win tonight,” said Altuve, who hit his 25th career postseason homer in the third inning.

• 'No panic' in Astros as Alvarez, Altuve spark G3 win

In all best-of-seven postseason series, teams behind 2-1 after three games have gone on to win the series 44 of 148 times (30 percent). Teams that have won Game 3 after trailing 2-0 have come back to take the series 13 of 50 times (26 percent).

“I don't think we ever really necessarily got off track,” said closer Ryan Pressly, who’s 14-for-14 in save chances in his postseason career. “It was more getting in the groove of things. This team has been in the postseason so many years. We know how to bounce back, and hopefully we keep the momentum going.”

Astros starter Cristian Javier ran his streak of consecutive scoreless innings in the postseason to 20 1/3 by sending down 14 of the first 15 batters he faced. He threw 5 2/3 innings of two-run ball to improve to 4-0 with a 0.82 ERA in four career playoff starts.

“I was very happy with everything that the pitches were doing,” Javier said. “They were doing exactly what I wanted them to do. I was able to control the strike zone, so I was very happy about that.”

• Unhittable fastball carries Javier to latest postseason gem

Rangers rookie Josh Jung ended the scoreless streak with the first of his two home runs, but Houston’s offense was too much for Max Scherzer. Maldonado’s two-run single capped a three-run second inning, and Altuve took Scherzer deep in the third for a 4-0 lead.

“I put a lot of work in and I believe in what I can do,” Maldonado said. “You still have to get a pitch and do the job. ... Whatever I can do to contribute, I put a lot of hard work on it. Dusty [Baker] has faith in me, believes in me. That’s something every hitter wants to have, is bases loaded.”

Alvarez, who was robbed of a homer on a great catch by Leody Taveras at the center-field wall in the sixth, blooped a two-run single off reliever Will Smith in the seventh for a 7-2 lead that gave Houston some breathing room. The Astros were able to exhale a bit for the first time in the series.

“I feel like we lost two games and they could have gone either way,” Maldonado said. “We felt like the second game, we got good at-bats and didn’t get the big hit. Other than that, you’re just trying to put runs on the board as a team, and we know how well we play at this stadium.”

Brantley made a great catch of his own to end the sixth when he ran nearly 90 feet in the left-center-field gap to track down a ball off the bat of Adolis García, making a tumbling catch to strand a runner at second. Center fielder Mauricio Dubón raised his arms in celebration while standing over Brantley.

“I just know that I was trying to take the proper angle,” Brantley said. “I tried to put my head down and get to a spot and pick the ball back up. I kind of undercut it a little bit but, obviously, I was able to make the play.”

Brantley missed the Astros’ postseason run in 2022 while recovering from right shoulder surgery, and he rehabbed throughout this year to be on the field for moments like that one in the sixth inning.

“We’re happy for him that he’s in the lineup and also happy he made the big play that probably gave us the win,” Altuve said.