Matchup: Scherzer vs. Verlander

Cy Young winners go head-to-head

When both were traded by the New York Mets into the AL West at the trade deadline, they knew it was possible. That possibility becomes reality Wednesday night in Arlington Texas when the Texas Rangers face the Houston Astros in the heat of an AL playoff race.

Max Scherzer will pitch for Texas. Justin Verlander will pitch for Houston. And for the first time in their long careers, they will pitch against each other.

That doesn’t mean there isn’t some shared history. This matchup marks the 14th meeting of pitchers with at least three Cy Youngs apiece. It also features the two active leaders in strikeouts (Verlander has 3,361 to Scherzer’s 3,311) and two of the top three on the active wins list. Verlander leads with 254, and Scherzer is third at 213.

Tuesday’s games

Astros 14, Rangers 1: Jose Altuve homered his first three times up — giving him homers in four consecutive at-bats going back to Monday — and Houston handed Texas its 14th loss in 18 games. Martin Maldonado added two homers as the Astros set a Globe Life Field record with six.

Yankees 5, Tigers 1: Giancarlo Stanton hit his 400th career home run to help make a winner of Gerrit Cole (13-4), who allowed one run over six innings, lowering his ERA to 2.90.

Marlins 6, Dodgers 3: Bryan De La Cruz hit a two-run homer in the eighth inning to break a tie and give Miami its fifth win in a row.

Twins 8, Guardians 3: Jorge Polanco hit a sacrifice fly and Donovan Solano added a threerun triple in Minnesota’s fiverun eighth inning and Minnesota extended its AL Central lead over Cleveland to seven games.

Mets 11, Nationals 5: Pete Alonso hit his 42nd homer and Brandon Nimmo homered twice to back a sharp outing from José Quintana (2-5). Quintana went seven innings and did not allow a hit after the third inning.

Reds 7, Mariners 6: Nick Martini came off the bench to hit a game-tying three-run home run in the eighth inning and Christian Encarnación-Strand drove in Elly De La Cruz in the ninth as the Reds scored their major league-leading 44th comeback win of the season.

Notes

Yankees first baseman Anthony Rizzo will miss the remainder of the season with post-concussion syndrome. Rizzo was placed on the injured list Aug. 3, more than two months after getting hurt May 28 when he collided with San Diego’s Fernando Tatis Jr. on a pickoff play.