On Tuesday, Houston took a 2-1 lead in the AL Division Series over the Minnesota Twins after a 9-1 rout fueled by a three-run homer from José Abreu in a four-run first inning against Sonny Gray and a two-run homer from Abreu in the ninth.

The reigning World Series winners, led by Yordan Alvarez’s fourth home run in three games and Alex Bregman’s home run and RBI single, dominated from the first at-bat and are now one win away from a seventh consecutive participation in the AL Championship Series.

Starter Cristian Javier for the Astros did the rest of the job, allowing no runs in five innings while striking out nine batters.

On Wednesday, Game 4 will be played at Target Field.

Friday would be Game 5 if the Twins managed to force it.

This year has been Javier’s poorest of his four in the majors, with an ERA of 4.56. Five out of his previous 11 starts resulted in him not reaching the fifth inning.

Manager Dusty Baker has been vocal about his faith in the 26-year-old from the beginning of the series, attributing his optimism to his many years of witnessing Javier at his best.

With six hitless innings against Philadelphia in Game 4 of the World Series last year, the right-hander dropped his career postseason ERA to 1.91 over 37 2/3 innings.

The Twins’ late-afternооn answer tо the Astrоs’ early explоsiоn was a shambles as they swung and missed at Javier’s slider 13 times in 16 attempts.

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Javier then reacted by striking out Royce Lewis and Carlos Correa back-to-back.

Javier gave the Twins plenty of chances to catch up by walking five and hitting another batter.

In the fifth inning, they were able to load the bases on walks, but Kepler and Lewis were able to get out of the situation by striking out.

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Willi Castro’s one-out single in the sixth inning allowed Correa, who has reached base safely in all five playoff games, to score. Correa is 9-for-19 in the postseason with four RBIs.

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Former Yankee Gray was greeted by a single from Jose Altuve, and with one out, a bouncer down the first-base line went uncaught by Alex Kirilloff for a two-base error.

With a single, Kyle Tucker got the Astros on the board.

The game was quieted down when Abreu blasted a 2-1 sweeper into the second deck for a 4-0 advantage.

When the Twins played the Blue Jays in the deciding game of the Wild Card Series last week, the enthusiasm from the crowd was so high that manager Rocco Baldelli declared the fans “took over the game.”

After splitting the first two games in Houston, the Twins were able to sell out Target Field three days before the series even started.

Twins legends Johan Santana and Joe Mauer were on hand for the ceremonial first pitch.

After López, a young Venezuelan who looked up to Santana, brought the ball to the mound, Santana took off his jacket to show a Pablo López shirt.

The Astros wouldn’t be rattled by the surroundings.

They finished with a 51-30 road record, good for third in MLB, and have made regular appearances in October games since their streak began in 2017.

Alvarez has gone 6-for-12 in the series and has driven in six runs. This is Bregman’s 16th home run in the playoffs.

For the first time in his two years with the Twins, Gray allowed two home runs in a game.

The last time Cincinnati faced him in a multi-homer game was on September 24, 2021.

Gray allowed the fewest home runs per nine innings this season (0.391), making him just the fifth major league pitcher since 2000 to do it.

In four and a half innings, he allowed eight hits, a walk, and five runs (one of which was unearned) while striking out six.