Tempers flare as Astros gear up for tense AL West race

HOUSTON -- The much-anticipated return of slugger Yordan Alvarez and franchise icon Jose Altuve to the Astros’ lineup on Wednesday turned out to be nothing more than a subplot to a tension-filled night between the two Lone Star State rivals at Minute Maid Park.

With a chance to catch the Rangers atop the American League West behind ace lefty Framber Valdez, the Astros laid an egg. The Rangers walloped four homers, including a grand slam by Adolis García in the fifth inning, to beat the Astros, 13-5, and push their division lead over Houston back to two games.

The Rangers broke the game open by scoring seven runs in the fifth, capped by the García slam that made it 13-3. Benches emptied when Rangers second baseman Marcus Semien, who was on third base, hopped emphatically onto home plate with both feet and had words with catcher Martín Maldonado.

“This is the time of year when tempers are short and you’ve played a lot of games and there’s a lot of emotion out there,” Astros manager Dusty Baker said.

Semien and Maldonado, who had exchanged some words at the plate twice previously in the game, were both ejected. Crew chief Dan Bellino told a pool reporter they were tossed for “instigating a bench-clearing incident."

“When you jaw at a guy, you expect to get something in return,” Baker said. “Maldy wasn’t going to go away like he was some little punk.”

Maldonado didn’t want to give a blow-by-blow rundown of the situation.

"It's something that just happened between the lines,” he said. “I don't think you have to go through every single detail. It's two guys trying to compete, two good teams that are playing for the division.”

The hot blood stemmed from a pair of hit batters earlier in the game -- Alvarez on an 0-2 pitch by Rangers starter Andrew Heaney in the first inning and Semien on a first-pitch sinker by Valdez in the third. Semien said he got hit on purpose; Valdez said he was trying to pitch inside.

“I'm not going to just take that,” Semien said. “So, it definitely fueled us. We got the win when we needed it most, and we'll take it."

When Semien came around to score after the hit-by-pitch on a homer by Nathaniel Lowe in the third that cut the Houston lead to 3-2, he told Maldonado the Rangers were going to come back and win.

“And after I scored on Adolis' grand slam, I told him, 'I told you we're going to win this game,’” Semien said. “And then their bench is out there, and both of us are out of the game. I didn't want to get thrown out of the game. I just was talking to him. We competed for a lot of years. I never want to get thrown out of a game, but it happened."

All seven runs in the Texas fifth were charged to Seth Martinez, but Valdez had perhaps his worst start of 2023. He went a season-low 3 2/3 innings, allowing six runs and eight hits, including homers by Lowe and Semien. He struck out a season-low one batter.

“He just couldn't get his breaking ball over and his fastball was up and away in the zone,” Baker said. “A lot of teams try to hit him the other way and that’s the perfect spot to do it. He just couldn’t get the ball down on a consistent basis.”

Valdez, who led the Majors in ERA at the All-Star break, has posted a 9.00 ERA in three starts since, allowing 21 hits and 15 runs in 15 innings. His season ERA has swelled from 2.51 to 3.29.

“I thought I was falling behind a lot of hitters and I lost a little bit of balance there in the game,” said Valdez, who admitted he lost some focus in the fourth.

The Astros and Rangers have one more series remaining against each other this season. That will take place Sept. 4-6 in Arlington and it figures to loom large in what’s shaping up as a tantalizing race to the finish in the AL West.

“To come away with a series win against a really quality team, it’s great,” said Astros third baseman Alex Bregman, who clubbed a three-run homer in the first. “There’s a lot of baseball left to be played and we know that. Overall, I thought it was a good start to the homestand.”