WASHINGTON: Jose Altuve smashed a three-run home run in the ninth inning to deliver defending champion Houston a dramatic 5-4 comeback victory over Texas on Friday in the Major League Baseball playoffs.
The 33-year-old Venezuelan second baseman, talisman of the Astros’ dynasty run, rallied the visitors after a benches-clearing scuffle in the eighth inning saw two players and Astros manager Dusty Baker ejected.
Altuve blasted his 26th career MLB playoff homer off Rangers closer Jose Leclerc to give Houston a 3-2 lead in the best-of-seven American League Championship Series, moving the Astros within one win of their third consecutive World Series and fifth in seven seasons. “We were really down.
We didn’t want to go home down by one... so it was good to hit that one and get the team to win,” said Altuve, who rated it his best playoff homer.