HOUSTON -- The Texas Rangers held off a late charge from the Houston Astros to win 5-4 at Minute Maid Park on Monday and take a 2-0 lead in the ALCS .
So now both teams are in unfamiliar territory. The Astros have rarely been put in a postseason hole during their seven-season run of October dominance. And while Texas hasn't been in this of kind of pressure cooker situation as a group, a number of their key performers have been in the thick of moments like this during their careers.
Rangers starter Nathan Eovaldi turned in key performance, earning his seventh career playoff win. He went six innings, allowing three runs and striking out nine. Eovaldi has now struck out 23 batters over three starts in the 2023 playoffs.
Texas gave Eovaldi an early cushion to work with, as they jumped all over Houston starter Framber Valdez for four runs in the first inning and chasing the lefty after 2 and 2/3 innings. The Rangers would built a 5-1 lead before Houston started chipping away.
Eovaldi seemed to waiver a little when Yordan Alvarez homered off of him the third and Alex Bregman followed with a solo shot in the fourth.
Then in the fifth, it felt as though the game was about to flip in Houston's favor when Michael Brantley and Chas McCormick singled, leading to a based loaded situation with one out and the Rangers clinging to a 5-2 lead.
But Eovaldi won the moment, striking out Yanier Diaz and Jose Altuve and then got Bregman to ground out on a chopper to third to end the threat.
"That was the turning point in the game," Rangers manager Bruce Bochy said. "Found a way to get through it. And terrific job by [Eovaldi]. He had good stuff today. He pitched very well."
But the Astros would still not go away, as Alvarez took lefty reliever Aroldis Chapman deep for his second homer of the game and sixth of the postseason, to trim the Rangers' lead to one run.
So Bochy decided to bring in Jose Leclerc for a possible four-out save.
Things didn't look good at first, as Leclerc walked two batters. But instead of disaster, he got McCormick to chop at a slider out of the zone. The ball was deflected into the air by third baseman Josh Jung, but the rookie managed to corral the ball and step on third for the force out to end the inning. Leclerc was back out for the ninth and shut down the Astros comeback with getting two batters to fly out and the other to ground out and preserve the win.
Game 3 is slated for Wednesday at Globe Life Field. Texas has ace Max Scherzer on the mound for his first action of the postseason. Houston will counter with right-hander Cristian Javier.
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