Houston Astros Overwhelm Scherzer, Texas Rangers in ALCS Game 3

Max Scherzer returned after a month on the shelf due to a strained teres muscle and rust was probably inevitable. But he teased Rangers fans with a perfect first inning, during which he struck out a previous nemesis, Astros outfielder Michael Brantley.

Then came the second inning and he allowed three runs, and the 2 RBI single allowed to Martín Maldonado was a back-breaker. Scherzer struggled with command and he never quite got it back.

He also gave up a leadoff home run to Jose Altuve in the third and an RBI single to Mauricio Dubón in the fourth.

He left after four innings, having faced the Astros order two times through. He tossed 63 pitches (42 strikes), gave up five hits, five runs (all earned), one walk and struck out four. It was not vintage Scherzer, to be sure. But the Rangers — and Scherzer — were hoping for more effectiveness. 

Martín Maldonado is probably the last Astros hitter you expect to break your back if you’re an opponent. While Astros manager Dusty Baker relies on the veteran catcher for his work with his pitching staff and game-calling, offensively productive he is not.

How bad is it? He hasn’t hit better than .200 since the 2020 COVID season when he batted .215.

But, in the second inning, he was the hitter that broke open the game for the Astros.

Scherzer loaded the bases and gave up the first run on a wild pitch Jeremy Peña, which scored Yordan Alvarez. But Peña grounded out and that put the Rangers one out away from getting out of the jam only allowing one run.

Maldonado had other ideas. He hit a hard grounder to third base and third baseman Josh Jung just couldn’t get all of his glove on it. The ball glanced off the top of the glove and rolled into left field, scoring Peña and Mauricio Dubón to make it 3-0.

It says a lot that it took that kind of a hit for Maldonado to break things open. The harder hit balls came later — Jose Altuve’s home run, José Abreu’s double — but Maldonado’s hit that put the Astros in control. 

For nearly five innings, Astros starter Cristian Javier looked like he was on cruise control. He retired the first eight hitters he faced and didn’t give up a hit until Nathaniel Lowe’s one-out single in the fifth. That was followed by Josh Jung, who hammered a 79 mile-per-hour slider into the Rangers’ bullpen in right-center field for a two-run home run and the Rangers’ first runs of the game.

For Jung, it was his second postseason home run, and he became the first Rangers rookie to hit two home runs in a postseason.

That was nearly all of the damage Javier allowed, but he had to leave with two out in the sixth after Astros right fielder Kyle Tucker seemed to misjudge Evan Carter’s screaming line drive, which turned into a double. Astros reliever Hector Neris pitched to Adolis García, who flew out to Michael Brantley in the left-center field gap on a ball Brantley had to run down for the catch. 

Jung hit another home run in the seventh, another two-run shot with Lowe at first base, but the Rangers were down 7-2 at that point and all the home run did was cut the Astros' lead to three runs for the second time on Wednesday. But he did become the 12th rookie in MLB history to have a multiple home run game in the postseason.

In the top of the sixth, Astros slugger Yordan Alvarez hit first. Jung had just homered and there was still that buzz in the ballpark. Alvarez has been incredible this postseason and hit two home runs in Game 2 of the series.

Well, he took Rangers reliever Cody Bradford deep to lead off the inning and it looked like he had a solo home run until center field Leody Taveras brought it back with a catch that rivaled what left fielder Evan Carter did to Houston’s Alex Bregman in Game 1. Just look at it.

 Had Alvarez homered, it likely could have flushed any of the momentum the Rangers could have built off Jung’s home run.

The Rangers weren’t going to keep Alvarez down all night, and in the seventh he delivered what looked like the final runs the Astros needed to control the game. The Rangers started the inning with Chris Stratton in relief and he gave up a one-out single to Maldonado. Altuve singled after that, and the Rangers went to left-hander Will Smith. 

The logic was that the Astros had two left-handers coming up — Brantley and then Alvarez two hitters later. The Rangers were playing the lefty-on-lefty matchup.

Smith got Brantley to fly out to Taveras in center for the second out. But he walked Bregman to load the bases for Alvarez, who hits lefty about as well as right-handers. He didn’t take it deep, but he guided it into the shallow gap in left-center field and scored Maldonado and Altuve to make it 7-2.

That was enough to keep the Astros in control. 

The Rangers have been a great team at home all season. They were 50-31 at Globe Life Field. The Astros have been a great road team all year. They were 51-30 on the road.

In the postseason, those have held steady, though the sample sizes were small. The Rangers won their only home game in the playoffs in Game 3 of the ALDS. The Astros won both road games in Minnesota in the ALDS.

But, wrapped inside all of that is a caveat — the Astros owned the Rangers at Globe Life Field in the regular season. While the Astros had a 9-4 overall record against Texas, they were 6-1 at GLF. The run differential in those seven games is also absurd — 63 to 32 in favor of the Astros. But even that has a caveat. In the four-game series in late June and early July, the Astros won three of the four but the run differential just two in favor of the Astros (24-22).

In the three-game series in September? The Astros won all three and outscored the Rangers 39-10.

The Astros’ mastery of the Rangers at GLF continued on Wednesday. And the road team has now won the first three games of this series.

Game 1: Texas 2, Houston 0

Game 2: Texas 5, Houston 4

Game 3: Houston 8, Texas 4 (Rangers lead series, 2-1)

Game 4: Thursday: Houston at Texas, 7:03 p.m. (FS1)

Game 5: Friday: Houston at Texas, 4:07 p.m. (FS1)

Game 6*: Sunday: Texas at Houston, 7:03 p.m. (FS1)

Game 7*: Monday: Texas at Houston, 7:03 p.m. (Fox/FS1)

*If necessary