José Altuve went on a wild home run streak on Tuesday night.
The Houston Astros star, after hitting a home run in his final at bat on Monday night, rattled off three homers to kick off the Astros’ 14-1 win over the Texas Rangers on Tuesday. That gave Altuve four straight home runs, and five in his last 12 innings.
Altuve is now just the fourth player in Major League Baseball history to hit three home runs in the first three innings of a game. Manny Machado was the last player to do it in 2016 when he was with the Baltimore Orioles. Mike Cameron did so in 2002 with the Seattle Mariners, and Carl Reynolds was the first player to accomplish the feat in 1930 with the Chicago White Sox.
Altuve got the night started with a solo shot in the first inning to left field off Rangers starter Nathan Eovaldi, who lasted less than two innings on the mound.
José Abreu and Alex Bregman each hit RBI singles in the first to put the Astros up 3-0 right away.
Altuve then hit a solo home run in the second inning to nearly the exact same spot as the first.
Martín Maldonado hit a two-run home run in the third, which gave the Astros an eight-run lead. Altuve followed suit with his third and final home run of the night with a 426-foot shot to center field.
That marked his fourth straight home run, and fifth in the last two days.
Altuve hit a home run in the sixth and ninth inning of the Astros’ 13-6 win over the Rangers on Monday night. His home runs in that game followed home runs from Mauricio Dubón both times, who was batting last in their lineup.
Dubón hit an RBI double in the seventh for Houston on Tuesday night, and then both Maldonado and Yordan Álvarez each hit two-run home runs to close the inning and put the Astros up 14-1. They finished the night with 18 hits as a team and have had 11 home runs in two days. Framber Valdez had four strikeouts and allowed six hits in his seven innings on the mound for Houston.
Altuve entered the night batting .316 with 36 RBI. He now has 15 home runs this season, his 13th in Houston.
The Astros have now won seven of their last 10 games, with the only losses coming in a three-game sweep by the New York Yankees. They hold a 79-61 record, which moved them ahead of the Seattle Mariners and gave them their first lead of the season in the AL West. The Rangers entered Tuesday night just a game back from the Astros in the division.