Altuve homers 3 times, Maldonado twice as Astros pummel reeling Rangers 14-1

Jose Altuve homered his first three times up, starting with a pair off All-Star right-hander Nathan Eovaldi in his return from the injured list, and the Houston Astros pummeled the Texas Rangers 14-1 on Tuesday night.

Altuve greeted Eovaldi with a leadoff homer, then ended the pitcher’s first outing since July 18 with another drive into the seats in left field on the 35th pitch with one out in the second.

The third homer — and 15th of the season for Altuve — was to center field off Dane Dunning, a starter who came out of the bullpen so the Rangers could get Eovaldi back on the mound without a rehab appearance coming off a right forearm strain.

Martín Maldonado hit two homers and slugger Yordan Alvarez connected for his 24th as the defending World Series champion Astros set a Globe Life Field record with 

Texas, which hasn’t had a winning season since 2016, has lost 14 of 18 games and is two back in the AL West for the second time since a run of 140 consecutive days atop the division ended in late August.

Altuve homered in four consecutive at-bats going back to Houston’s 13-6 win in the series opener Monday. The run ended with a groundout against Dunning in the fifth. Altuve struck out in the seventh.

Houston’s star second baseman homered twice in the series opener, giving him consecutive multi-homer games for the first time in his career. He was the first Astro to do that since Richard Hidalgo in 2000.

The Astros had back-to-back homers from the No. 9 and leadoff spots twice in the series opener with Mauricio Dubón and Altuve. They did it again in the third inning with Maldonado’s two-run shot and the third solo blast from Altuve, which put Houston up 9-0 and capped a third consecutive three-run inning.

Framber Valdez (11-9) allowed one run on six hits with four walks and four strikeouts in seven innings. The All-Star left-hander ended a three-game losing streak against the Rangers.

Eovaldi (11-4) allowed four runs while getting four outs, with José Abreu and Chas McCormick driving in a run apiece in the first inning. It was expected to be a short outing since Eovaldi hadn’t faced live hitters since Aug. 21.

Eovaldi was leading the AL in ERA and tied for the league lead in wins when he went on the injured list following a victory in a start against Tampa Bay seven weeks ago.