ARLINGTON, Tex. — A day before Houston Astros starter Cristian Javier stepped on the mound for Game 3 of the American League Championship Series, he stood in the back of the media room at Globe Life Field and watched as battery mate Martín Maldonado answered questions.
When Maldonado was done, he walked off the stage toward Javier to trade places. Maldonado put his index finger and middle finger on Javier’s neck, as if to check his pulse. Maldonado smiled. “That guy is dead,” he said.
Javier’s pulse barely quickened during his 5⅔ innings Wednesday night. He allowed just three hits in Houston’s 8-5 win over the Texas Rangers that pulled the defending champions back into the ALCS. Game 4 is Thursday.
“He was good. Good breaking ball. Good change-up. Good location,” Manager Dusty Baker said. “I think he only walked one guy. ... And that’s the secret, if you can stop from walking guys, because you know they’re going to hit the ball out of the ballpark at some point in time.”
The Astros have seen nearly every postseason scenario since their reign over the AL began in 2017. But a 2-0 series deficit created a rare must-win situation.
Advertisement
“There’s nothing better — there’s not a better feeling than knowing that your teammates instill their confidence in you,” Javier said through an interpreter. “They expect good things in you and put their trust in you.”
The Astros went 51-30 on the road in the regular season, including a 6-1 mark at Globe Life Field that included a three-game sweep in September. Texas ended up 50-31 at home. It had played one game at home this postseason before Wednesday — a win against the Baltimore Orioles to advance to the ALCS for the first time since 2011.
In that series 12 years ago, Max Scherzer was in a Detroit Tigers uniform and the Rangers beat him en route to the World Series. Twelve years later, Scherzer was in a Rangers uniform and making his first start of this postseason.
Scherzer had appeared in 27 postseason games in his career, including 22 starts. This postseason start, though, was unlike any other he had experienced. Scherzer went on the injured list Sept. 12 with a low-grade strain of his teres major muscle. The injury was expected to end his season. Yet Scherzer found a way to work himself back in time for Game 3 of this series.
Advertisement
“That’s what he’s here for,” Rangers’ first baseman Nathaniel Lowe said Tuesday. “Max is here to make this kind of start.”
The first batter that Scherzer faced was Jose Altuve, who hit a ball at 100.7 mph that nearly traveled out of the park. Center fielder Leody Taveras caught it at the warning track. But the swing served notice.
The Astros loaded the bases in the second inning. Maldonado — the No. 9 hitter who is in the lineup for his defensive prowess behind the plate — came up with two outs. Scherzer bounced a curveball that got away from catcher Jonah Heim, allowing Yordan Alvarez to score. Then Maldonado singled to drive in two.
The following frame, Altuve launched a 413-foot blast that Taveras couldn’t track down. That homer was the 25th of his career in the postseason, trailing only trailing Manny Ramirez’s 29. Mauricio Dubón singled in the fourth to give the Astros a 5-0 advantage.
Advertisement
Scherzer didn’t come out for the fifth. The Astros put 12 balls in play off him — and 10 of them were hit at least 90 mph.
“He’s going to be a little rusty. It’s been a month since he’s been out there,” Rangers Manager Bruce Bochy said. “But overall I was really pleased with the stuff. It’s only going to get better with him. But [he] just made some mistakes there. They got the big two-out hit early, the wild pitch and then the two-out hit. He was battling out there. He’s fine. Feels good. And that’s the good news.”
That kind of run support was more than enough for Javier, who entered Wednesday having not yielded a run in his past 16⅓ playoff innings.
His dominance continued for the first four innings, when he held the Rangers without a hit. Only Taveras reached on a walk in the third. Javier’s first hit allowed was a single by Lowe in the fourth. Then Josh Jung hit a two-run homer to trim the Astros’ lead to 5-2. Jung would hit another two-run homer in the eighth. After the first homer, Rangers fans who were quiet for most of the night rose and chanted “Let’s go, Rangers!” It seemed they might have swung the momentum, but then Javier retired Tavares on four pitches.
Advertisement
“Incredible,” Alvarez said of Javier through an interpreter. “The confidence that he gives the team is amazing. That’s what we needed from him, and he’s always there for us.”
Houston desperately needed a strong showing at the plate to complement its pitching — the Astros were 1 for 9 with runners in scoring position in the first two games of the series. But they went 5 for 12 on Wednesday. Even as the Rangers tried to claw back into the game, the Astros kept their foot on the gas.
“Did you think we were panicking?” Alvarez said. “I said it before we left home that something that characterizes this team is there’s no panic. I saw it in everybody’s face that there’s no panic. … We’re going to take it one game at a time, and we’re going to play like the series is 0-0. We need four wins, and today was one of them.”
ncG1vNJzZmivp6x7uK3SoaCnn6Sku7G70q1lnKedZMCxu9GtqmhqYGeAcH2PaGhxZ5GowbO70mapmqaXmr%2B0ecClmqxlmpbDqrHRZqqcoJWnx6a%2Bjg%3D%3D