*Photo from the Houston Chronicle*
Houston leads series 1-0
The October Astros are a different kind of dangerous. Jose Altuve homered, Yordan Alvarez hit two homers, and the Houston Astros defeated the Minnesota Twins with a 6-4 victory on Saturday afternoon in Houston.
The defending champions got off on the right foot to start the series against the Twins, winning their 10th straight division series game one victory. Alvarez became the x factor in the game, blasting two home runs for the Astros.
Houston outfielder Chas McCormick said that "It was just a much-needed victory at Minute Maid. 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."
On the first pitch in the bottom of the first, Altuve cranked a solo home run to left field, giving the Astros a 1-0 lead. In the 3rd inning, Alvarez hit a two run home run, tripling the Astros lead to 3-0. In the 5th, both McCormick and Jose Abreu added RBI singles for the Astros, making it a 5-0 game after 5 innings.
In the 7th inning, the Twins offense got into the game. Jorge Polanco got them on the board, blasting a 3 run home run to right field, cutting the deficit to 5-3. Royce Lewis followed that up with a solo shot to make it a 5-4 game. In the bottom of the 7th, Alvarez gave the Astros an insurance run with his second homer of the night.
Astros closer Ryan Pressly said of Altuve's leadoff homer that "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.' It’s always fun to watch him go out there and lead off games."
Starting for the Astros was Justin Verlander. He pitched 6 scoreless innings, striking out 6 hitters. Hector Neris allowed 4 runs in 2/3 of an inning before Bryan Abreu pitched 1 1/3 scoreless innings. Pressly came on in the 9th for the save.
Bailey Ober lasted 3 innings for the Twins, allowing 3 runs. Kenta Maeda allowed two while pitching two innings. Chris Paddack worked 1 1/3 scoreless innings before Caleb Thielbar allowed a run in 2/3 of an inning. Emilio Pagan pitched a scoreless 8th inning.
Twins catcher Ryan Jeffers said of the loss that "I think we know who we are as a team. We know we can hang with whoever. I don’t think we’re coming out of this game with our tails between our legs and scared of what happened today. I think we hung in there pretty well. We fought back. We got some bigtime outs."
Game two of the series is on Sunday night in Houston. Framber Valdez starts for the Astros as they go for a 2-0 series lead. Pablo Lopez takes the hill for the Twins as they look to tie the series and at least force a game 4.
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