Tuesday evening, the Houston Astros obliterated the Texas Rangers proper from the leap. The overall ranking used to be 14-1, but it surely used to be 9-0 via 3 innings and the extra of the sport used to be an insignificant officialism. The famous person of the sport used to be Astros 2d baseman Jose Altuve. Following a duel by which he homered two times to aid the Astros lead the Rangers, 13-6, Altuve homered in every of his first 3 plate appearances. In truth, he homered within the first, 2d, and 3rd innings, respectively. 

He was simply the fourth participant in MLB historical past to homer thrice via 3 innings, becoming a member of Manny Machado (2016), Mike Cameron (2002) and Carl Reynolds (1930), via ESPN. 

Right here’s the 3rd homer: 

I simply love Astros supervisor Dusty Baker’s minute head shake there. It used to be more or less a kind of, “I can’t believe it, but I can” appears to be like. 

Relationship again to Monday’s duel, Altuve had homered in 4 consecutive at-bats.

This used to be the primary profession regular-season duel for Altuve with 3 house runs. He additionally clash 3 homers in Recreation 1 of the 2017 ALDS. Additionally, looping again to Monday’s duel, Altuve homered in 5 out of six plate appearances and 4 directly. He was the primary Astros participant ever to clash 5 house runs in a two-game span (via Astros.com). 

Given the ranking, it gained’t be sudden to listen to that Altuve used to be some distance from abandoned in having a large offensive duel. Typically light-hitting catcher Martín Maldonado homered two times. Yordan Alvarez homered. Jeremy Peña gathered 3 hits. Let’s now not put out of your mind the skillful paintings at the mound from Framber Valdez, as he allowed just one run in seven innings. 

The Astros appear to be again on course. That they had gained 5 in a row however later had been swept at house over the weekend via the last-place Yankees. They’ve now gained two directly, which means that they’ve gained seven of 10 total. 

At the alternative facet of the spectrum, right here will be the Rangers. They opened August with an eight-game profitable streak and had been 12-2 at the date via Aug. 15. They had been 24 video games over .500 and sitting with a three 1/2 duel manage within the AL West at that age. They’ve long gone 4-14 since. They’re now in 3rd position, two video games out of first and are at risk of lacking the playoffs then it appeared like a near-certainty only a few weeks in the past. The Blue Jays entered play games Tuesday only a half-game in the back of the Rangers for the 3rd AL Wild Card. 

Talking of playoff place, the Mariners blew a overdue manage in Cincinnati and misplaced in walk-off type, 7-6, to the Reds. By way of importance of that end result and what came about in Texas, the Astros at the moment are in first position abandoned for the primary age all season. They’ve gained the AL West each complete season since 2016.