José Adolis García hit a grand slam in the ninth inning and the Texas Rangers topped the Houston Astros 9-2 in Game 6 of the American League Championship Series.
Nathan Eovaldi remained undefeated throughout the playoffs, while Mitch Garver and Jonah Heim hit home runs early in the game.
Eovaldi, who also got the victory in the second game of the series, gave up five hits and two runs in six and a third innings of work, to improve his record this year in the playoffs to 4-0 with a run average earned of 2.42.
The defending champion Astros did not get the desired performance from Framber Valdez, who allowed five hits and three runs, with six strikeouts in five innings of work. Valdez still doesn’t have a win in three playoff games this year, along with his 9.00 ERA.
In the eighth inning, Garver slammed Bryan Abreu’s ball into left field and allowed Evan Carter, who was on second base at the time after stealing from first, to make it 4-2.
It was Garver’s third hit and second RBI of the game.
Next at bat, Abreu hit a base hit to go to first and push Alex Bregman, who had drawn a walk, to go to second base.
Kyle Tucker, who was next at bat, drew a walk from José Leclerc, who entered the game after Abreu’s single.
The Astros had the bases loaded with just one out, but couldn’t take advantage. Leclerc ended the threat by striking out Jon Singleton.
Rafael Montero was on the mound for the Astros in the ninth inning. Still with no outs and up 4-2, the Rangers loaded the bases.
Ryne Stanek came on in relief, but things didn’t improve when he hit Corey Seager on his second pitch, and the Rangers added a run to take a 5-2 lead with the automatic walk.
On the next batter, García hit a grand slam to make it 9-2.
The final game will be played Monday night in Houston, as the Rangers, one of six major league teams to never win the World Series, are one win away from returning to the grand final for the first time since their two years in a row, in 2010-11.
