Defending champ Astros continue playoff dominance, win Game 1

HOUSTON -- The comforts of home weren’t so comfortable for the Astros in the regular season, with Houston becoming the first team to win a division with a losing record at home since the 2001 Braves. None of that matters in October, when the Astros have been nearly invincible in Houston since losing all four home games of the 2019 World Series.

The defending World Series champions returned to Minute Maid Park and continued their postseason dominance at home by riding six scoreless innings from Justin Verlander, a leadoff homer from Jose Altuve and two homers from Yordan Alvarez to beat the Twins, 6-4, in Game 1 of the American League Division Series on Saturday.

“I don’t think we’re really thinking about it,” Altuve said. “The regular season is behind us already. We’re playing to win and focused on winning, and that’s what we did tonight.”

In all best-of-five postseason series, Game 1 winners have taken the series 105 of 148 times (71 percent). In Division Series with the current 2-2-1 format, teams who won Game 1 at home advanced 36 of 50 times (72 percent).

The Astros improved to 12-0 at Minute Maid Park in the ALDS since the start of 2017, including seven consecutive Game 1 victories. Overall, they are 19-5 in the ALDS since 2017, when their run of seven consecutive postseason berths began.

“It was just a much-needed victory at Minute Maid,” Astros outfielder Chas McCormick said. “Obviously, it’s the first game of the ALDS, but it was Astro playoff baseball. We went up, we’re cruising, they come back and we gain a little more momentum to seal the deal.

"It’s fun to be a part of it. It’s a crazy roller coaster just because you’re in the playoffs and you’ve been in the playoffs for the past [few] years and you can just tell this team knows when to get comfortable and when not to get comfortable.”

Nothing seemed comfortable early for Verlander, who escaped jams in the first and second innings by getting ground-ball double plays. He wound up allowing four hits and three walks while striking out six batters on 93 pitches. His 17th career postseason win leaves him two shy of Andy Pettitte for the most in history.

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“We took him as far as we could take him, especially without [reliever Kendall] Graveman there,” Astros manager Dusty Baker said. “We were hoping he could go into the seventh, but he had that one inning in the sixth inning where he threw a lot of pitches and got up to 90-some pitches, so we had to go get him. He gave us all he had like he usually does, and he gave us quality. Even when he doesn't have his great stuff, he still manages to get people out.”

Altuve, who didn’t have an RBI in any of Houston’s 13 postseason games last season, crushed the first pitch he saw from Twins starter Bailey Ober and homered to left -- his 24th career playoff homer. That was a sign of things to come for the Astros. His eight first-inning playoff homers are the most of any player in history.

“Obviously, the first pitch of the game, hitting a home run there, I think it gave the team a spark, and I think we were able to see that,” Alvarez said.

Nothing Altuve does anymore surprises his teammates.

“I don’t even think I sat down in my seat before I heard the crack of the bat and I was like, ‘Go figure, he hit another one,’” closer Ryan Pressly said. “It’s always fun to watch him go out there and lead off games.”

Alvarez made it 3-0 with a two-run homer in the third, and the slugger added a solo homer in the seventh off lefty reliever Caleb Thielbar after the Twins had cut the lead to 5-4 on back-to-back homers by Jorge Polanco and Royce Lewis off Hector Neris moments earlier.

The Astros’ bullpen, which allowed only five runs in last year’s entire postseason, picked up Neris with Bryan Abreu and Pressly setting down the final six Twins hitters. Pressly is 12-for-12 in save chances in the playoffs and hasn’t allowed an earned run in the postseason in his last 16 appearances.

“Bryan’s been, I think, one of the best relievers in the game,” Pressly said. “For him to keep going out there and keep doing what he’s doing is impressive. He’s definitely a workhorse, same with Hector. All these guys, they come out of the 'pen, the mental part of it is the toughest part, and I think we have the mentally strongest bullpen in the league.”