Astros, with ‘no other option,’ get needed road win
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Alden Gonzalez, ESPN Staff Writer
ARLINGTON, Texas — If the Houston Astros are going to do the unprecedented, and add another thrilling chapter to their distinguished legacy, it’s going to take practically everybody. It’s going to take more nights like Wednesday, when timely hits and big catches and clutch pitching performances throughout their roster sparked a desperately needed 8-5 road win over the Texas Rangers in Game 3 of the American League Championship Series.
“There was no other option,” Astros designated hitter Yordan Alvarez said in Spanish. “The only mentality was to go out and win. I’ve said it before — there’s no panic here. We showed that.”
No team throughout history — aside from the 2020 postseason, staged mostly in a bubble amid the COVID-19 pandemic — lost two home games to begin a league championship series and went on to advance. Few teams, however, are built like these Astros, who have reached their seventh consecutive ALCS and have overcome enough adversity in that time to fill a memoir. In their minds, they’ve faced bigger challenges than winning four out of five playoff games.
“We’ve been punched in the mouth a lot during the postseason over the last seven years,” Astros third baseman Alex Bregman said. “We just try to continue to show up and try to continue to work.”
Max Scherzer returned from a teres major strain to make his first start in a little over five weeks and didn’t pitch past the fourth inning. The Astros strung together three runs in the second, scoring on a couple of wild pitches and a two-run single from No. 9-hitting catcher Martin Maldonado. Jose Altuve added a home run to lead off the third and Mauricio Dubon cranked a run-scoring single with one out in the fourth, his second of three hits, giving the Astros a 5-0 lead before the midway part of the game.
The Rangers, blitzing through this postseason with seven consecutive victories, showed life in what was only their second home game all month. Rookie third baseman Josh Jung homered twice, knocking in a combined four runs in the fifth and seventh innings. And Leody Taveras leaped up against the center-field fence to take away what would have been Alvarez’s seventh home run in seven playoff games.
But the biggest catch was turned in a half-inning later.
With one on and two outs and the Astros clinging to a three-run lead, 36-year-old left fielder Michael Brantley — the same Michael Brantley who spent 14 months recovering from a torn labrum in his shoulder, suffering two setbacks in the process — ran 82 feet into Globe Life Field’s spacious left-center-field gap and made an outstretched, stumbling catch near the warning track, robbing Adolis Garcia of extra bases.
Maldonado called it “a game-changer.”
“That guy,” he said, “it seems like every game he does something different.”
“It’s the strangest thing I’ve ever seen. Because usually you want to be .500 on the road and way over .500 at home. I asked the team in spring training to be the best road team. Maybe I should’ve asked them to be the best road and home team. They usually give me what I ask for.”
Astros manager Dusty Baker
The Rangers stunned the baseball world by taking the first two games from Houston’s Minute Maid Park, but the Astros hardly seemed bothered by it. They lost both contests by a combined three runs, pitching sensationally in Game 1 and recovering admirably after Framber Valdez‘s nightmare first inning in Game 2. They trusted the remarkable calmness of Cristian Javier, who wound up allowing only two runs through the first five innings of Game 3, and they believed at some point their decorated lineup would produce around the hot-hitting Alvarez.
There was also this unavoidable fact: the 2023 Astros are, for some reason, almost unbeatable on the road.
They went just 39-42 at home but 51-30 away from it during the regular season. They won three consecutive games in Arlington, Texas, in early September, outscoring the Rangers by a combined 29 runs in the process. And they’ve now won three consecutive road games this postseason, needing at least one more to send this series back to Houston.
Alvarez suggested the Astros wear their gray uniforms if they get back there.
“It’s the strangest thing I’ve ever seen,” Astros manager Dusty Baker said. “Because usually you want to be .500 on the road and way over .500 at home. I asked the team in spring training to be the best road team. Maybe I should’ve asked them to be the best road and home team. They usually give me what I ask for.”
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Adam Rittenberg
While Dabo Swinney isn’t inflating LSU‘s grade for beating his team in Saturday’s season opener, Brian Kelly is ready to give the Clemson coach an incomplete for his evaluation.
Both coaches weighed in Tuesday on how LSU’s 17-10 win at Clemson should be viewed. After trailing 10-3 at halftime, LSU outscored Clemson 14-0 in the second half and finished with significant edges in both total yards (354-261) and first downs (25-13).
LSU rose six spots to No. 3 in the AP Top 25 poll Tuesday, while Clemson dropped four spots to No. 8.
“It was a helluva game, down to the last play,” Swinney said in his weekly news conference. “Right out of the gate. It’s like getting the final exam [on] Day 1 of class. They made a 65; we made a 58. Neither one of us were great.”
Kelly had not won a season opener at LSU before Saturday, and the victory was his first with the Tigers against an AP top-5 opponent.
“I thought we dominated them in the second half, so he’s really a really good grader for giving himself a 58, or he’s a really hard grader on us,” Kelly said in his news conference when told about Swinney’s comment.
“Or he didn’t see the second half, which, that might be the case. He might not have wanted to see the second half.”
Kelly added that LSU is moving on to this week’s game against Louisiana Tech.
“Clemson is a darn good football team,” Kelly said. “That’s a top-notch team, and they’re going to be a team in the hunt for [the] playoff picture. We hope we are, too. But it was only one game. So I don’t know if he’s a hard grader or an easy grader, but I like the way that we played in the second half.”
Clemson visits LSU to open the 2026 season.
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Eli Lederman
Oklahoma coach Brent Venables said Bryce Underwood “looks to be wise beyond his years” and compared Michigan‘s freshman quarterback to former Clemson national championship QB Trevor Lawrence on Tuesday ahead of the No. 18 Sooners’ Week 2 visit from the No. 15 Wolverines.
Underwood, ESPN’s No. 1 overall recruit in the 2025 class, will make his second career start at Oklahoma on Saturday (7:30 p.m. ET, ABC).
The coveted freshman earned Michigan’s starting job at the end of fall camp, beating out a collection of experienced passers on the depth chart including offseason portal additions Mikey Keene (Fresno State) and Jake Garcia (East Carolina). Underwood delivered a smooth college debut against New Mexico in Week 1, completing 21 of 31 passes for 251 yards and a touchdown in Michigan’s 34-17 win.
At Oklahoma, Underwood is set to face a much stiffer challenge against Venables, who resumed control of the Sooners’ defensive playcalling ahead of the 2024 season, and an experienced defense that held Illinois State to 151 yards of total offense in Week 1.
The former Clemson defensive coordinator compared Underwood to Lawrence, the five-star quarterback prospect who started as a freshman in 2018 and led the Tigers to a national championship win over Alabama.
“He’s a little different,” Venables said of Underwood. “It reminds me a lot of a Trevor Lawrence. Quick. Decisive. Accurate. Poised. Tough. Consistent. There’s a reason he was the No. 1 player in America. And he’s got a maturity and a work ethic and leadership agility to go along with that.”
As Oklahoma seeks to rebound from a 6-7 finish last fall, a new-look Sooners offense will get a test of its own Saturday.
Behind transfer QB John Mateer and first-year offensive coordinator Ben Arbuckle, Oklahoma gained 495 yards of offense in its 35-3, season-opening win over Illinois State. Mateer, who arrived in the offseason from Washington State alongside Arbuckle, passed Baker Mayfield for the most passing yards by an Oklahoma QB in a debut with 392 yards.
On Tuesday, Venables highlighted the Wolverines’ experience on defense, particularly in the front seven, as a defining challenge for the Sooners in an intriguing Week 2 matchup between two of college football’s most storied brands.
“[It’s] a defense that for the last several years has been one of the gold standards of college football when it comes to playing good defense,” Venables said. “It’s going to be a great physical matchup, and for us, a great litmus test to where we’re at.”
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