Yordan Álvarez, José Abreu and Veteran Stars Are Putting the Astros on Their Backs

AP Photo/Godofredo A. Vasquez

Things were on the verge of getting away from the Houston Astros in Game 4 of the American League Championship Series, but then it was a pair of history-making sluggers to the rescue.

It was indeed in seemingly no time at all that the 3-0 lead the Astros grabbed in the first inning on Thursday went “poof.” With help from solo home runs by Adolis García and Corey Seager, the Texas Rangers clawed back in the second and third to tie it.

In the very next inning, though, Yordan Álvarez did what he does best and gave Houston the lead back with a bases-loaded sacrifice fly. It was the jab that set up a haymaker in the form of José Abreu going 438 feet with a three-run homer:

There was no looking back as the Astros went on to win 10-3. And with the series tied at 2-2, now they can look forward to Friday’s Game 5 knowing what was a best of seven is now a best of three.

There are a number of reasons they can feel optimistic, not the least of which is they have the Rangers’ number at Globe Life Field. They’re now 8-1 against the Rangers in Arlington, with 81 runs scored compared to 40 for the home team.

There’s also the sudden gruesome twosome that is Álvarez and Abreu. There had been players who tallied at least four home runs and 10 runs batted in through the first eight games of a postseason before, but they’re the first pair of teammates to do so.

The José Abreu Redemption Tour Is Ongoing

For anyone who’s just now joining us from the middle of August, that Abreu is suddenly one of Houston’s hottest hitters might come as a shock.

The three-year, $58.5 million deal he inked with the Astros last winter was questionable from the start, and it didn’t take long for it to look downright hopeless. By Aug. 9, the 2020 AL MVP and three-time All-Star was sitting on a .634 OPS and 10 home runs. His minus-1.2 fWAR was threefold lower than the next-worst hitter in the American League.

It also probably never should have been allowed to happen. It turned out that Abreu was dealing with lumbar spine inflammation, for which he went on the injured list for a couple of weeks. After he came back it was like a switch had been flipped, as he finished the year strong with an .845 OPS and eight homers in 31 games.

The 1.020 OPS, four homers and 11 runs batted in he has so far in the playoffs are thus something of a “Don’t Call It a Comeback” situation, but either way there’s no denying the impact.

Even before he broke Game 4 of the ALCS open, the 36-year-old Abreu was instrumental in delivering the Astros to victory over the Minnesota Twins with three homers in the last two games of the Division Series.

Things are good, in other words. Real good.

Houston’s Other Veteran Bats Have Also Showed Up

Álvarez, meanwhile, just continues to do Álvarez things in the playoffs.

After racking up three more RBI in Thursday’s game, he’s now driven in multiple runs in five of Houston’s eight games in these playoffs. He’d also have seven home runs rather than six if it hadn’t been for that dastardly Leody Taveras, yet even David Ortiz can’t help but refer to Álvarez as “Baby Papi” at this point.

Rightfully so. Through his first 55 playoff games with the Boston Red Sox, Ortiz had a .964 OPS and 12 homers. Through his first 55 playoff games for Houston, Álvarez has a .922 OPS and 12 homers.

As for the other veteran mainstays in the top half of Houston’s lineup, it’s fair to say Jose Altuve and Alex Bregman have turned a corner since back-to-back losses at Minute Maid Park:

The turnaround is mostly Altuve’s doing, as he’s had consecutive multi-hit games and momentarily made it two in a row with a homer before a replay review overturned the call on the field.

Even if he just missed on what would have been his 26th career homer in the playoffs, Thursday’s game was another landmark for Altuve’s postseason career. He became just the seventh player to top 100 games played in the postseason, and on the four-year anniversary of his pennant-clinching shot off Aroldis Chapman, no less.

It was Bregman, though, who had the big hit that preceded Abreu’s big hit with a two-run triple in the first:

At least as far as the postseason is concerned, Bregman is sort of the unsung hero among the Astros’ core hitters. He now has 52 RBI in the playoffs since 2017, the second-most of any hitter in this span.

All the Astros need now is to get Kyle Tucker going. He was arguably Houston’s best player in the regular season, but an 0-for-5 on Thursday dropped him to 3-for-29 for the postseason.

But given they’ve gotten the team this far, it’s not out of the question that merely having four dangerous hitters will be good enough to get the Astros the two wins they need to return to the World Series for the fifth time in seven years.

The Stage Is Set for Houston’s Ultimate Veteran…And Texas’ Best Pitchers

With four games in the books, the Astros and the Rangers will get to turn their starting rotations over for Game 5. If we’re strictly talking legacies, that’s where the advantage is Houston’s.

Toeing the rubber for the Astros on Friday will be Justin Verlander, and the L that he took in Game 1 is not to be confused for a sign that the 40-year-old is out of gas. He allowed just two runs over 6.2 innings, striking out five.

To say that the three-time Cy Young Award winner and future Hall of Famer likes pitching in the Championship Series is an understatement. He has a 2.99 ERA for his career in 13 ALCS starts, including a 2.31 ERA in his last 10 dating back to Game 3 of the 2012 series against the New York Yankees.

But if anyone can stop Houston’s momentum, it’s Jordan Montgomery. And if anyone else can, it’s Nathan Eovaldi.

They didn’t give up much of anything as they started six of the Rangers’ first seven playoff games, ultimately compiling a 2.19 ERA over 37 innings. Notably, they were the ones who shut down Altuve, Bregman and even Abreu (1-for-7) in the first two games of this series.

The Rangers have already asked a lot of Montgomery and Eovaldi, but they don’t have much choice but to ask for even more. Because even if this is technically an even series and still on Texas’ turf, it’s the Rangers who are on the defensive.