Pham, Rays chase Verlander early, beat Astros 4-1 to even ALDS

ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. — Willy Adames homered and made a sensational relay throw from shortstop, Tommy Pham also went deep and the Tampa Bay Rays chased Justin Verlander early in beating the Houston Astros 4-1 Tuesday night to even their AL Division Series at two games apiece.

Ryan Yarbrough and five other pitchers combined on a six-hitter for Tampa Bay. Cy Young Award winner Blake Snell came out of the bullpen for his first career relief appearance, holding off Houston in the ninth inning to earn the save.

Verlander, starting on short rest after dominating the wild-card Rays in Game 1, looked uncomfortable on the mound and was pulled in the fourth after giving up four runs.

The best-of-five series shifts back to Houston for a decisive Game 5 on Thursday.

Verlander, whose eight career ALDS victories are a major league record, yielded three runs in the first. Adames homered leading off the fourth to make it 4-0, and the Houston ace didn’t make it through the inning.

The Rays helped themselves by playing stellar defense, especially with the Astros threatening to cut into their three-run deficit. Adames and center fielder Kevin Kiermaier executed a perfect relay to nail Jose Altuve trying to score from first on Yordan Alvarez’s double that Kiermaier handled cleanly off the wall before turning and throwing to cutoff man Adames. He fired home just in time to get the speedy Altuve.

Ji-Man Choi turned two line drives into unassisted double plays at first base.

Rays opener Diego Castillo was followed by Yarbrough, who worked two scoreless innings to get the win. Nick Anderson handed off to Colin Poche, who gave up an eighth-inning homer to Robinson Chirinos.

Emilio Pagan and Snell finished up for the Rays, who have rebounded from losing the first two games of the series on the road to Verlander and Houston’s other headliner, Gerrit Cole.

Altuve drew a one-out walk and Alex Bregman singled to enable the Astros to bring the potential tying run to the plate in the ninth.

Snell, the reigning AL Cy Young Award winner who started Game 2, entered and struck out Alvarez before retiring Yuli Gurriel on a sharp grounder up the middle — exactly where the Rays were playing him — to end the game.

Charlie Morton, who helped Houston win the World Series two years ago, began the Rays’ comeback by beating his former team 10-3 on Monday.

Needing one victory to advance to the AL Championship Series for the third straight year, the Astros opted to start Verlander on just three days of rest in hopes of closing out the Rays, who have won three elimination games in a week to stay in the running for their first trip to the ALCS since 2008.

Manager AJ Hinch said it was an easy decision to go with Verlander, who was 8-0 in 12 ALDS appearances, including 11 starts, before Tuesday night.

Verlander limited the Rays to one hit over seven scoreless innings in Game 1, and it looked as though Tampa Bay might be in for another long night when the Astros ace fanned Austin Meadows to begin the bottom of the first.

What transpired over the next six batters — beginning with Pham’s 408-foot, first-inning shot to left-center that got a yellow flag-waving, boisterous crowd of 32,178 into it — figures to fuel second-guessing of Hinch that’ll extend well beyond the end of the series if Houston doesn’t return home and win Game 5.

Four of the next five Rays also reached base, building the lead to 3-0 with Travis d’Arnaud hitting a sharp grounder through the hole between third base and shortstop for an RBI single and Joey Wendle lining a double into the right-field corner to drive in another run.