ARLINGTON, Texas (AP) — Yordan Alvarez homered twice for the second consecutive game, including a tiebreaking solo shot in the eighth inning of the Houston Astros’ 4-3 victory over the Texas Rangers on Wednesday night.
Alvarez’s fifth homer in three games put him at 20 on the same night Munetaka Murakami reached that number for the Chicago White Sox. Philadelphia slugger Kyle Schwarber leads the majors with 21.
Joc Pederson also had two solo homers for the Rangers, giving him six for the season, and finished with three hits and scored three times.
Pederson’s second long ball pulled Texas within a run in the eighth after the Astros went ahead 4-2 following Alvarez’s homer when Christian Walker scored from first on reliever Tyler Alexander’s throwing error on Taylor Trammell’s sacrifice bunt.
Alvarez went deep in back-to-back games for the first time in his eight big league seasons.
The first solo shot off Jacob deGrom pulled the Astros even at 2-all in the fourth inning. Alvarez led off the eighth with a 448-foot drive off Alexander, who had entered the game for the lefty-lefty matchup. It landed not far from Alvarez’s 449-foot homer in a 10-7 Houston loss a night earlier.
The Rangers walked Alvarez intentionally with a runner on first in the ninth, and Gavin Collyer struck out Walker to end the inning.
Houston right-hander Mike Burrows (3-6) matched his longest outing of the season at seven innings, allowing five hits and two runs with six strikeouts.
Enyel De Los Santos retired the final five Texas batters with three strikeouts for his fourth save.
The third attempt by deGrom for his 100th career victory ended in a no-decision. The Texas right-hander gave up four hits and two runs with six strikeouts and a walk in six innings.
Up next
Houston RHP Spencer Arrighetti (6-1, 1.32 ERA) is set to face RHP Nathan Eovaldi (5-5, 3.55) Thursday in the finale of the four-game series.
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