Altuve’s three homers send ’Stros into orbit in ALDS opener

HOUSTON — Jose Altuve hit three home runs in an unprecedented show of power for the diminutive major-league batting champion as the Houston Astros roughed up Chris Sale and the Boston Red Sox 8-2 Thursday in Game 1 of the AL Division Series.

Buoyed by chants of “MVP” in each trip to the plate, the five-footsix Altuve hit solo homers in the first and fifth innings off Sale. He connected again in the seventh off reliever Austin Maddox to give Houston a quick boost in the bestof-five series.

It was just the 10th time a player has hit three homers in a post-season game and first since Pablo Sandoval for the Giants in the 2012 World Series. Babe Ruth did it twice.

Justin Verlander pitched six effective innings and improved to 6-0 since Houston got him in a trade with Detroit. Sale, the major-league strikeout leader, was tagged for seven runs in five-plus innings of his post-season debut.

Game 2 is Friday with Dallas Keuchel starting for the Astros against Drew Pomeranz.

Among the shortest players in the majors, Altuve couldn’t be a bigger leader for the Astros. He’s one of the few players remaining who languished through a rebuilding process that led to three straight 100-loss seasons from 2011-13 and is perhaps the biggest reason the team ran away with the AL West title this year.

Altuve hit .346 this year, his fourth straight 200-hit season, with 24 home runs. This was his third career multi-homer game and the first time he’d hit three in one game.

Quite a comeback from his only previous post-season — in 2015, he batted just .154 (4-for-26) without an extra-base hit.

Alex Bregman and Altuve hit backto-back homers in the first inning, making Sale look a bit rattled. The Red Sox tied it up by scoring a run each in the second and fourth innings before Marwin Gonzalez lined a two-run double in the fourth for a 4-2 lead.

There were two outs in the fifth inning when Altuve connected again to push the lead to 5-2 and make him the third player in franchise history with a multi-homer game in the post-season, joining Carlos Correa and Carlos Beltran. Sale never got into a rhythm and was chased after walking Josh Reddick with no outs in the sixth. The left-hander was tagged for nine hits and matched a season high for most runs allowed.