Astros beat Texas after melee and D-backs win in MLB playoffs

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.

Also rallying to win was Arizona, which edged Philadelphia 6-5 to level the National League Championship Series at 2-2 with game five on Saturday in Phoenix.

“It’s an awesome feeling,” said Arizona’s Alek Thomas, who hit a two-run homer. “We’re going to keep doing our thing.”

The Astros, who downed Philadelphia in last year’s World Series, have now won 19 of their past 22 road games and seven in a row at Texas.

“That was a huge victory,” Baker said. “This will go down in history.”

Texas outfielder Adolis Garcia crushed a three-run homer in the sixth to give the Rangers a 4-2 lead before he was tossed as intense emotions boiled over.

Garcia was hit by a pitch from Houston’s Bryan Abreu, sparking a melee that saw both players and Baker ejected.

“It was just the heat of the moment,” Garcia said. “I just reacted to being hit by the pitch... he could have hurt me.”

The Rangers