Abreu-led Astros hang on to beat Twins, advance to 7th straight ALCS

Jose Abreu homered for the third time in two games, a two-run rocket in the fourth inning that launched the Houston Astros to their seventh straight AL Championship Series appearance with a 3-2 win that eliminated the Minnesota Twins in Game 4 of their AL Division Series on Wednesday night.

Jose Urquidy gave the playoff-tested Astros another solid postseason start, withstanding home runs by Royce Lewis in the first and Edouard Julien in the sixth to hand the ball to the bullpen.

Hector Neris and Bryan Abreu combined for five strikeouts over 2 1/3 hitless innings. Ryan Pressly — who pitched five-plus years for the Twins before being traded to Houston in 2018 — struck out the side in the ninth.

Pressly froze Max Kepler with a full-count fastball to end it, leaving former Astros star Carlos Correa on deck.

Houston will host in-state rival Texas in Game 1 of the ALCS on Sunday, with three-time AL Cy Young Award winner Justin Verlander likely on the mound for the Astros in his 36th career postseason start.

The Astros, who are 56-34 in the playoffs since 2017, hit 10 homers in the series. Abreu had eight RBIs.

Michael Brantley got the Astros started with a solo shot in the second against Twins starter Joe Ryan, who was pulled after that inning in manager Rocco Baldelli's all-out attempt to extend the series.

The rest of the relievers gave the Twins some energy back from the crowd, particularly when Chris Paddack pitched 2 1/3 hitless innings with four strikeouts. But the home team just didn't have enough hits to overcome all those swings and misses.

Lewis gave the Twins another big-moment home run, a line smash into the left-field seats with a similar trajectory to the one he hit in his first postseason at-bat in Game 1 of the Wild Card Series sweep over Toronto.

Bad luck cost them a critical extra run. Julien led off the game with a double, but Jorge Polanco followed with a line drive straight at Jeremy Pena that was sharp enough to give the shortstop time to make a diving tag on Julien for the double play.

Urquidy, much like Game 3 starter Cristian Javier, had an October track record to rely on after a forgettable regular season. The right-hander, who has logged 42 postseason innings and made his seventh start in the playoffs, missed three months with shoulder trouble this year.

Phillies 10, Atlanta 2

Bryce Harper answered Orlando Arcia's mockery with a mammoth three-run homer and a solo shot, glaring at the shortstop on each trot around the bases, and the Philadelphia Phillies beat Atlanta 10-2 in Game 3 of their NL Division Series on Wednesday night.

Nick Castellanos homered twice as Philadelphia rebounded from its disappointing loss at Atlanta on Monday night. Trea Turner and Brandon Marsh also went deep.

Aaron Nola (2-0) and four relievers combined to push the 104-win Atlanta to the brink of elimination. The Phillies can advance to the NL Championship Series for the second straight season with a win at home Thursday.

Harper continues to make teams pay for any perceived slight, and his eighth and ninth postseason homers in the last two seasons added to his growing October lore.

Not that he needs any incentive to go deep, but Harper tried to atone for a Game 2 base-running blunder that capped an astonishing collapse. Harper had rounded second base on a deep flyout and was doubled up at first to end the game, the final meltdown in a series of late-inning plays that melted a 4-0 lead into a 5-4 loss.

Harper added a solo shot to centre in front of 45,798 frenzied Phillies fans in the fifth off Brad Hand — well out of reach for Michael Harris II, who saved the Game 2 win with a great leaping catch — and delivered one more death stare to Arcia as he rounded second base.

Nola, eligible for free agency after the World Series, tipped his cap in appreciation of a roaring standing ovation after 5 2/3 innings. He struck out nine and allowed Ozzie Albies' RBI single in the third.

Diamondbacks 4, Dodgers 2

The hard-hitting Arizona Diamondbacks rode a record-setting barrage of solo homers in the third inning to a 4-2 win in Game 3 of the NL Division Series, sweeping the 100-win Los Angeles Dodgers out of the playoffs.

The D-backs return to the NL Championship Series for the first time since 2007, where they'll face either the Phillies or Braves.

Arizona — the No. 6 seed after squeezing into the NL playoff bracket with an 84-78 record — has won all five of its games during the postseason, sweeping aside both the Brewers in a best-of-three series and the Dodgers in a best-of-five.

The wild-card Diamondbacks won with brawn in this one, slugging a postseason-record four homers in the third off veteran righty Lance Lynn, all solo shots from Geraldo Perdomo, Ketel Marte, Christian Walker and Gabriel Moreno.

That gave Arizona a 4-0 lead it wouldn't relinquish.

The NL West champion Dodgers rallied for two runs in the seventh on two-out RBI singles from Chris Taylor and Kike Hernandez off side-armer Ryan Thompson, but lefty Andrew Saalfrank entered and retired Austin Barnes on a groundout.

Will Smith had a one-out single in the ninth off closer Paul Sewald, but Chris Taylor hit a flyout to deep center in front of the 413-foot sign Hernandez flied out to left to end it.

Lynn cruised through the first two innings of a scoreless game — giving no indication what was about to come.

Perdomo started the scoring with a leadoff homer, his first long ball since Aug. 13. One out later, Marte hit a 428-foot drive to right on a 1-0 cutter. With two outs, Walker pulled a 3-1 cutter to left for a 3-0 lead, drawing another roar from the Chase Field crowd.

Then came No. 4: Moreno sliced a 2-1 fastball down the line to the opposite field that right field umpire Gabe Morales called fair. But the umpires huddled and crew chief Todd Tichenor reversed the call to foul, a decision upheld by a video review.

Moreno then drove Lynn's very next pitch — a hanging slider — 420 feet over the left-field wall, flipping his bat high in the air as he started his trot.

A few moments later, a dejected Lynn handed the ball to manager Dave Roberts and trudged toward the dugout.

Lynn gave up 44 homers in the regular season, the most in the majors. The previous mark of three homers in a postseason inning had been accomplished 12 times, most recently by the Dodgers against Atlanta in 2020.

D-backs rookie right-hander Brandon Pfaadt threw 4 1/3 scoreless innings, giving up two hits and striking out two.

While the D-backs thrived, the Dodgers had no answers for a third straight game. A stacked lineup with a pair of former MVPs — Mookie Betts and Freddie Freeman — couldn't make much of an impact throughout the series.

Both All-Stars struck out in the eighth against Kevin Ginkel with a runner on first. Betts finished the series 0 for 11 while Freeman was 1 for 10.