Christian Walker homered twice and the Houston Astros beat the Angels 6-1 on Saturday night, a couple of hours after getting eliminated from playoff contention.
Zach Cole and Jesús Sánchez also went deep for the Astros, who will miss the postseason for the first time since 2016.
Walker was batting in the second inning when Cleveland scored in the bottom of the ninth at Progressive Field for a 3-2 victory over Texas that clinched the final American League playoff spot for the Guardians and eliminated the Astros.
That snapped Houston’s streak of eight consecutive playoff appearances, a run that featured seven straight trips to the AL Championship Series from 2017-2023 and World Series titles in 2017 and 2022.
With Saturday night’s game rendered moot, Astros manager Joe Espada pulled his top three batters — Jose Altuve, Isaac Paredes and Carlos Correa — after two innings.
Cole followed Yainer Diaz’s second-inning single with a two-run homer off Angels starter Caden Dana (0-4). Walker led off the fourth with a homer for a 3-0 lead. Cole walked and Sanchez lined a two-run homer to right field for a 5-0 lead. Walker’s solo shot — his 27th of the season — made it 6-1 in the ninth.
Houston starter AJ Blubaugh gave up one hit in four scoreless innings against the Angels (72-89), and reliever J.P. France (1-0) allowed one run and two hits in three innings, striking out five and walking one.
Dana, the Angels’ rookie right-hander, permitted five runs and five hits in seven innings.
Key moment: France gave up an RBI double to Jo Adell and walked Logan O’Hoppe to put two on with one out in the sixth, but the right-hander struck out Christian Moore and Oswald Peraza to preserve a 5-1 lead.
Key stat: Sunday’s season finale will be only the fourth game since the start of the 2015 season that the Astros (86-75) will play while out of postseason contention. The other three came at the end of 2016, when Houston was eliminated from the wild-card race on Sept. 29.
Up next: Astros RHP Lance McCullers Jr. (2-5, 6.71 ERA) will start Sunday against Angels LHP Sam Aldegheri (0-1, 8.00).
HOUSTON — Jose Altuve hit a two-run homer and an RBI single and Ramón Urías also went deep to back up a strong start from Luis Garcia and lead the Houston Astros to an 8-3 win over the Angels on Monday.
Garcia (1-0) got the win in his return after sitting out more than two years while recovering from Tommy John surgery. He allowed three hits and three runs with six strikeouts in six innings in his first start since May 1, 2023.
The game was tied with one out in the fifth when Yordan Alvarez singled before moving to second on a groundout by Altuve. Carlos Correa then singled on a grounder to center field to score Alvarez and give Houston a 4-3 lead.
Cam Smith singled with two outs in the sixth to chase Yusei Kikuchi (6-10) before stealing second base. Mauricio Dubón walked and Jeremy Peña’s second double of the day scored Smith to make it 5-3.
Alvarez added an RBI single in the eighth before Altuve’s homer made it 8-3.
Zach Neto hit a solo home run and Jo Adell added a two-run shot for the Angels, whose two-game winning streak was snapped.
Garcia retired the first nine batters before Neto homered to open the fourth inning. Mike Trout singled with one out before Adell launched his 31st homer into the seats in left field to put the Angels on top 3-2.
Kikuchi gave up eight hits and five runs in 5⅔ innings.
The Angels haven’t announced their starter for Tuesday night’s game at Kansas City.
They are two longtime Dodger villains, hated for two vastly different reasons.
As the last remaining position player from the Houston Astros’ trash-can-banging, and (in the eyes of most Dodgers fans) World Series-stealing 2017 championship team, Jose Altuve always receives a rude welcome from the fans at Chavez Ravine.
As one of the most productive visiting players in Dodger Stadium history, Christian Walker often shuts them up.
In the Houston Astros’ 18-1 Independence Day rout on Friday, both added another tortured chapter to the Dodgers’ history against the team. Altuve went three for three with a double, two home runs, two walks and five RBIs. Walker went four for five with one long ball and four RBIs.
The Houston Astros’ Jose Altuve celebrates with Christian Walker after hitting a two-run homer against Dodgers in the third inning at Dodger Stadium on Friday.
(Kevork Djansezian/Los Angeles Times)
On a day starting pitcher Ben Casparius once again struggled (giving up six runs in three innings), reliever Noah Davis gave up 10 runs in the sixth inning alone (the most the Dodgers had surrendered in one inning since 1999), and most of a sold-out crowd stuck around for every painful minute (waiting in somber silence for a postgame fireworks show), that was plenty to lift the surging Astros to most lopsided defeat the Dodgers have ever suffered at Dodger Stadium.
Six weeks ago, the retooled Astros were one game above .500 and 3 ½ games out of first place in the American League West; seemingly missing the other 2017 stars who have departed the franchise since their sign-stealing scandal came to light five years ago.
But now, they have won 27 of their last 37, own the second-best record in the AL, and are suddenly looking like unlikely title contenders; even after turning over almost the entirety of the roster from that infamous 2017 season.
“Certainly, there’s been some history with our organizations,” manager Dave Roberts said pregame when asked if any lingering feelings remained from the Astros’ sign-stealing scandal. “But if you look at it in reality, most of those guys are gone. So it certainly doesn’t have any bearing on this series this weekend.”
Instead, in their most lopsided loss of the season, the Dodgers had bigger concerns to worry about Friday, with Altuve and Walker at the top of the list.
Altuve received his typical reception from the Dodgers faithful, serenaded with booming boos and loud chants of “cheater” during each of his at-bats. However, he followed Isaac Paredes’ leadoff homer in the first with a double off the wall. He took Casparius deep for a two-run home run on a curveball in the third. He added an exclamation point with a three-run homer in the Astros’ 10-run sixth — the most runs the Dodgers (56-33) had allowed in one inning since Fernando Tatis’ historic two-grand-slam inning in April 1999 with the St. Louis Cardinals.
Walker was every bit as dangerous.
A 34-year-old slugger who dominated the Dodgers (and, most confoundingly, Clayton Kershaw in particular) during an eight-year career with the Arizona Diamondbacks, Walker was already emerging from an early-season slump in his first year with the Astros (53-35) entering this weekend’s series.
Then, back in the friendly confines of Dodger Stadium, he orchestrated a monster performance of his own from the five-spot of the Houston order.
In his first at-bat, Walker plated Altuve with a single the other way. Then, two batters after Altuve’s big fly in the third, Casparius left a fastball down the middle that Walker whacked for his 28th career home run against the Dodgers — and 20th at Dodger Stadium.
Only nine other players have hit that many home runs as visitors at the ballpark during their careers, a list that includes Hall of Famers Hank Aaron, Mike Schmidt and Willie Stargell, as well as Barry Bonds.
Walker also made a contribution in the sixth-inning onslaught.
After Davis gave up one run on two singles and two walks, the recently called-up right-hander plunked Walker with the bases loaded to force in another score, losing his grip on an 0-and-2 sweeper that left him visibly rattled on the mound.
Sensing Davis’ frustration, Roberts came to the bump for a motivational pep talk; eliciting memories of the mid-game hug he delivered to journeyman reliever Yohan Ramirez last season in Cincinnati.
This time, however, the mound visit had little effect. In the next at-bat, Davis threw a hanging sweeper that Victor Caratini belted for a grand slam. What was already a laugher became a full-fledged Fourth of July disaster.
Mauricio Dubón scored the winning run on a wild pitch in the 10th inning, Jeremy Peña and Isaac Paredes opened the game with home runs, and the Houston Astros beat the Angels3-2 on Friday night.
Peña led off the 10th with a single that advanced automatic runner Dubón to third. Dubón scored when Hunter Strickland, who hadn’t allowed a run in 14⅔ innings of his first 13 appearances with the Angels, threw a pitch behind the back of Paredes.
Houston closer Josh Hader (5-1) retired the side in order in the ninth and Bennett Sousa retired three straight batters in the 10th for his second save.
Angels starter Yusei Kikuchi gave up home runs to Pena and Paredes for a 2-0 Astros lead in the held the Astros to four hits, striking out nine and walking none, for the rest of his seven-inning start.
Jo Adell trimmed Houston’s lead to 2-1 in the fourth with a 426-foot homer off Astros starter Hunter Brown. Angels rookie Christian Moore, a first-round pick out of Tennessee in 2024, tied it 2-2 with his first major league homer to open the seventh.
Tempers flared in the third when Brown hit Angels shortstop Zach Neto in the elbow with a 95-mph sinker. Both benches and bullpens emptied, but no punches were thrown, and order was quickly restored.
Key moment: Astros center fielder Jake Meyers raced to the gap in left-center to make a spectacular, full-extension diving catch of Adell’s drive with a runner on first base and one out in the bottom of the eighth to preserve a 2-2 tie.
Key stat: The home runs by Peña and Paredes marked the first time in three years the Astros have opened a game with two homers. Jose Altuve and Peña last accomplished the feat on July 24, 2022, at Seattle.
Up next: Astros LHP Brandon Walter (0-0, 1.53 ERA) opposes Angels RHP José Soriano (4-5, 3.54) on Saturday night.
