HOUSTON -- The chants of “M-V-P!” started echoing from the right-field seats at Minute Maid Park when Astros outfielder Kyle Tucker went out to play defense in the eighth inning. Moments earlier, he hit his second homer of the game -- a Statcast-projected 407-foot blast to tie the game.

“It was cool,” Tucker said. “We have really good fans, and they do a good job out there cheering us on. It was a cool moment. It’s still early, so there’s a long way to go.”

There is a long way to go, but as the season approaches the one-third mark, Tucker has emerged as a legitimate American League Most Valuable Player candidate. He slugged his 16th and 17th home runs Tuesday night to take over the Major League lead.

But it wasn’t until Jeremy Peña slapped a walk-off single to right field with one out in the bottom of the 10th inning to bring home Tucker from third base that the surging Astros were able to celebrate a 6-5 victory over the Angels -- their 10th win in their past 13 games.

“Men on second and third and one out -- just get the ball in the outfield,” Peña said. “Tucker’s plenty of fast to score from third.”

Tucker, who scored three runs, recorded his fourth multihomer game of the season, including his second in a span of three games. He tied a franchise record for most home runs in the team’s first 49 games. It’s the third time it’s happened: George Springer in 2019 and Morgan Ensberg in 2006.

“Every time he comes to the plate, you’re expecting him to do something awesome,” Astros manager Joe Espada said. “And he is doing stuff that only a few players can do. He’s definitely one of the best players in this league, and he’s really picking us up right now.”

The Astros came from behind three times against Angels, thanks to back-to-back homers by Tucker and Yordan Alvarez in the first inning, a two-run homer to center by Jon Singleton in the sixth and Tucker’s seventh-inning homer to right field to tie the game.

Houston’s bullpen covered six innings after starter Cristian Javier, with his velocity down, staggered through four innings. Tayler Scott and Josh Hader threw two innings each, with Hader striking out four of the six batters he faced.

“It’s definitely one of the most resilient wins over the year,” Espada said. “We fought all the way to the end.”

Tucker’s homers couldn’t have been much different. His first-inning homer, which came off a Griffin Canning sinker, traveled only 340 feet and landed in the Crawford Boxes in left field. It was projected as a homer at only one ballpark -- Minute Maid Park. Tucker’s game-tying homer in the seventh off Luis García sailed into the upper deck in right field and would have been a homer in all 30 parks.

In the first nine games of Houston’s season-long 10-game homestand, Tucker has posted a slash line of .400/.550/.933, with four homers and eight RBIs.

“I feel good,” Tucker said. “I just try and put together good at-bats and be pretty selective up there and take my walks and try to do damage when they throw it over the plate. I think I’ve been doing a pretty good job with that, and I think us, as a whole, have been doing a pretty good job with that.”

In winning 10 of their last 13 games, the Astros are slashing .291/.358/.484 as a team averaging 5.5 runs per game. They have hit 20 homers in that span. Although Jose Altuve (0-for-5 on Tuesday) has cooled off, Tucker, Alvarez, Peña, Singleton and Jake Meyers have emerged in a deep and dangerous Houston lineup.

“Their first five hitters are very dangerous,” Angels manager Ron Washington said. “We put ourselves in position to win, but they got it. It’s tough. I think early on [in the season] when they were struggling, it was with their pitching, and now those guys have got it going on with the bats.

“We kept Altuve down tonight, but he's still dangerous when he walks up to the plate. They make the pitchers throw pitches, and then you got to deal with Tucker, Alvarez, [Alex] Bregman. Bregman hasn’t been swinging the bat as well right now, but he’s dangerous when he’s at the plate.”