Astros beat Boston 9-2, tie ALCS 2-2
BOSTON — Jose Altuve hit a tying home run in the eighth inning and the Houston offense awakened with seven runs in the ninth on Tuesday night as the Astros came back to beat the Boston Red Sox 9-2, evening the AL Championship Series at two games apiece.
Six outs from falling behind 3-1 in the best-of-seven series and facing a Game 5 in Fenway Park — where Boston hadn’t lost all postseason — the AL West champions instead guaranteed themselves at least one game back in Houston.
“Now it’s down to a threegame series with two games at home,” Altuve said.
In a series that had been dominated by offense — especially Boston’s — the teams traded first-inning homers and then both pitching staffs put up six straight zeros on the Fenway scoreboard before Altuve’s leadoff shot in the eighth.
Carlos Correa doubled and scored the go-ahead run on Jason Castro’s two-out single in the ninth. But that was just the beginning for Houston, which had seen Boston bully its pitchers for 10 homers in the series, including a record-setting three grand slams that turned Games 2 and 3 into routs.
“That’s what they’ve been doing to us this whole series,” Astros manager Dusty Baker said. “We’re capable of doing that as well.”
After Alex Bregman hit a solo homer into the Green Monster seats in the first, Xander Bogaerts topped it with a towering, two-run drive onto Lansdowne Street in the bottom half to give the Red Sox a 2-1 lead.
Then, the pitchers took over. It was still 2-1 when Altuve homered against Garrett Whitlock. Game 2 winner Nathan Eovaldi, making his first relief
appearance since he was coming back from an injury in 2019, came on for the ninth and gave up Correa’s leadoff double.
With two outs and two on, Castro singled in Correa to give Houston the lead.
And the Astros just kept on scoring.