On Friday evening, Jose Altuve and the Houston Astros took a 3-2 lead in their ALCS series with the Texas Rangers after a thrilling 5-4 road victory. Altuve launched a three-home home run blast in the top of the ninth inning to give the Astros their final margin of victory, and the series will now head back to Houston for Game 6 and, potentially, Game 7 if necessary.
With the epic late-game home run, Jose Altuve continued to cement himself in the MLB record books in multiple ways. The blast was his tenth career go-ahead postseason home run, which passed Albert Pujols for the most in MLB history, per ESPN Stats & Info. He also now has the most go-ahead home runs in playoff history that have occurred in the ninth inning or later, with three.
Altuve is also closing in on Manny Ramirez for the most home runs overall in playoff history. Altuve has 26, while Ramirez had 28 in his illustrious career, per Brian McTaggart.
The epic late-game home run on Friday was much-needed for the Astros, who were in danger of falling into an elimination scenario had they lost the contest. Instead, Houston now heads home, where they will have two chances to close out the series against the Rangers. So far, the road team has bizarrely won every game in the series, a trend the Astros will hope to put a stop to when Game 6 gets underway on Sunday evening from Minute Maid Park.
First pitch for that game is slated for 8:03 PM ET.
Follow Us
Subscribe