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Houston wins series 3-1
This squad is moving on yet again. Jose Urquidy had a strong start, Jose Abreu homered, and the Houston Astros defeated the Minnesota Twins with a 3-2 victory on Wednesday night in Minneapolis.
With the win, the Astros sent the Twins home in 4 games, advancing to the ALCS for the 7th straight season. The last time they missed the ALCS was in 2016, and they've advanced to the World Series in 4 of the 6 years they made the ALCS, with 2018 and 2020 being the only years they didn't win the AL pennant.
Houston 3rd baseman Alex Bregman said "Just looking around the room right now, I’m just so proud of everybody in here. It’s not easy. There are great teams in the postseason. The Twins have a great team and so do the Rangers. So does every team in the postseason. We look forward to competing every year, and we were very fortunate to come out on top in this series."
Royce Lewis gave the Twins an early lead. In the first inning, he blasted a solo home run to left field, giving the Twins a 1-0 lead. In the second inning, Michael Brantley provided an answer for the Astros. Brantley hit a solo home run over the right center field wall, tying the score 1-1.
The score remained tied until the 4th inning. It was there that Jose Abreu continued his hot streak after two homers in game 3. He added a two run shot to right field, putting the Astros ahead by a 3-1 score. Come the 6th inning, Edouard Julien hit a solo home run for the Twins, cutting the deficit to 3-2 before the Astros bullpen locked it down after that.
Getting the start for the Astros was Urquidy, who allowed two runs on 3 hits and a walk in 5 2/3 innings, striking out 6 hitters. Hector Neris pitched 1 1/3 scoreless innings before Bryan Abreu worked a scoreless 8th. Ryne Stanek got his second save of the series in the 9th inning.
Urquidy said after the game that "I feel very comfortable being here with this team, pitching there, creating a good plan of attack with my catcher. I know I've got good offense and defense behind me, and that makes me feel a lot of confidence. I think that's why, in those kinds of moments, I know I've got to compete and throw the ball well through the zone and put hitters away."
Joe Ryan started for the Twins and lasted two innings, allowing one run. Brock Stewart pitched an inning before Caleb Thielbar allowed two runs in 2/3 of an inning. Chris Paddack pitched 2 1/3 scoreless innings before Griffin Jax threw a scoreless inning and Jhoan Duran pitched two innings.
After the game, Julien said that "The strikeouts, we can talk about strikeouts all day. But for me, I don't see it as, 'The at-bats are bad because of a bad result.' Yeah, we struck out, but we had a lot of walks, too, and we had a lot of people on base. We just were one double away, one hit away from taking the lead."
Up next, the Astros head for the ALCS, where they'll host the in state rival in the Texas Rangers for the first two games of the series. After winning their first playoff series in over 20 years, the Twins enter the offseason with greater ambitions entering next season.
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