Major League Baseball's best road team continued its winning ways on Thursday night, as the Houston Astros destroyed the Texas Rangers 10-3 in Game 4 to tie the AL Championship Series at two games a piece.
Here are some takeaways:
Rangers pitching struggles again
The Rangers rolled out left-handed hurler Andrew Heaney to start the game but he couldn't make it out of the first inning. Heaney allowed a lead-off double to Jose Altuve, followed by a Mauricio Dubon single, Alex Bregman's 2-RBI triple, and Yordan Alvarez's RBI single.
Heaney would get Jose Abreu and Kyle Tucker to ground out, but walked Chas McCormick, ending his night after 0.2 innings.
Dane Dunning entered the ballgame and was able to put the fire out. After a quick third inning, the right-hander issued back-to-back walks to Astros' No. 9 hitter Martin Maldonado and Altuve. Dubon followed with a single to load the bases with no outs. Dunning was able to bounce back and strike out Bregman before Rangers manager Bruce Bochy pulled him in favor of left-handed Cody Bradford to face the left-handed hitting Alvarez.
Alvarez nearly hit a grand slam, but Leody Taveras made the putout near the wall. But the next hitter, Abreu, didn't miss and blasted a monster three-run home run into the second deck, giving Houston a 7-3 lead in the fourth.
Right-hander Chris Stratton was solid, and didn't allow a run in 1 2/3 innings.
Will Smith and Martin Perez allowed a home run each, putting the game out of reach.
Rangers offensive woes
The game had the makings of a high-scoring back-and-forth affair through three innings. After facing a 3-0 deficit in the second, Adolis Garcia hit a solo home run to get Texas on the board. After a Mitch Garver walk and a Nathaniel Lowe opposite field double, Josh Jung hit a sac fly to bring the Rangers within 1.
Corey Seager broke out of his mini-slump when he hit his second home run of the postseason, a solo blast to tie the game 3-3. That's all the fight the offense put up on the night, as they only had three hits from the fourth inning to the end of the game.
Marcus Semien continues to struggle this postseason, as he is just 3 for 16 in the ALCS and 7 for 39 (.179) this postseason. That's not going to cut it from your leadoff hitter.
Best of three-game series
Suddenly, the best-of-seven-game American League Championship Series has been whittled down to a three-game series.
The Rangers will turn back to their top two starters in Games 5 and 6, as Jordan Montgomery and Nathan Eovaldi will go up against Justin Verlander and Framber Valdez to try and prevent a do-or-die Game 7 on Monday night.
Game 5 is set for 4:07p on Friday afternoon at Globe Life Field and Game 6 will be at 7:03p on Sunday night in Houston.