The Houston Astros earned their first win of the ALCS in Game 3 Wednesday night, defeating the Texas Rangers 8-5 on the road. Houston now trails 2-1 in the best-of-seven series and can even the score with another road victory on Thursday.
In his first start since suffering a muscle strain in early September, Max Scherzer was dull in his 28th career postseason appearance. Though he became the second pitcher ever to make postseason starts for five different teams, his playoff debut for Texas was not memorable for good reason. He allowed five runs on five innings in four innings of work before exiting.
“I thought he had good stuff,” Rangers manager Bruce Bochy told reporters. “He’s a little rusty. It’s been a month since he’s been out there. He’s only going to get better. He feels good. That’s the good news.”
Scherzer told reporters after the game that he had mixed feelings about his performance, arguing that he did better than the box score might suggest.
“In these situations, look there’s some bad in this I get it, but that’s what you kinda gotta tune out and look at the good,” Scherzer said. “Look, I made some mistakes, I get it. I got punished for it. There were some good things I did as well. … I’m not going to sit here and beat myself down.”
The Astros and Rangers have now played three closely contested games, with the pair matching up well on the mound and at the plate. Texas took Games 1 and 2 on the road by 2-0 and 5-4 scores, respectively, meaning that there has not yet been a home win for either team heading into Game 4.
Both teams are reaching the bottom of their rotations as the series reaches a potential midway point, as the Rangers’ Andrew Heaney and Astros’ Jose Urquidy are expected to match up this evening. Urquidy was one of Houston’s heroes in the ALDS, as he led the team to a win over the Twins to clinch that series. Heaney had several bad outings for Texas during the regular season, inflating his ERA, but also recorded 151 strikeouts in 28 starts.
