ARLINGTON, Texas (Interstat) — Yordan Alvarez homered twice for the second consecutive game, including a tiebreaking solo shot in the eighth inning that lifted the Houston Astros to a 4-3 victory over the Texas Rangers on Wednesday night.

Alvarez’s 20th home run of the season, a solo drive to center field off Rangers reliever Tyler Alexander, broke a 2-2 deadlock. He later added a sacrifice bunt that led to an insurance run on a throwing error by Alexander. Alvarez finished 3 for 4 with two home runs and two RBIs.

The Astros won for the second time in three games of the series and evened the season series at three wins apiece. Houston improved to 25-32, while Texas dropped to 25-30.

Joc Pederson homered twice for the Rangers, giving him six on the year, and finished 3 for 4 with two RBIs and three runs scored.

Mike Burrows earned the win for Houston, allowing two earned runs on five hits over seven innings while striking out six. The right-hander improved to 3-6. Enyel De Los Santos recorded his fourth save, working 1 2/3 scoreless innings with three strikeouts.

Rangers starter Jacob deGrom matched Burrows for six innings, surrendering two earned runs on four hits with six strikeouts. Tyler Alexander took the loss, falling to 1-1 after allowing an earned run on one hit in one-third of an inning.

The game was played in 2 hours, 39 minutes before a crowd of 27,073 at Globe Life Field.

Texas struck first in the bottom of the first inning. Brandon Nimmo’s two-out single to right field scored Pederson, who had singled and advanced to third on an Alejandro Osuna lineout. The Rangers held a 1-0 lead.

Houston tied the game in the second. Taylor Trammell led off with a double, moved to third on a flyout by Cam Smith and scored on a sacrifice fly by Braden Shewmake.

Pederson restored the Rangers’ lead in the third with a solo homer to right-center field, his fifth of the season, making it 2-1.

Alvarez answered in the top of the fourth, launching a solo homer to center field off deGrom to knot the score at 2. The blast was Alvarez’s 19th of the season.

The game remained tied through the middle innings as both starters settled in. Burrows retired seven straight batters from the fourth through the sixth innings before allowing a two-out single to Danny Jansen in the seventh. De Los Santos entered to replace Burrows with two outs in the seventh and retired Nicky Lopez to end the threat.

In the eighth, Alvarez led off against Alexander and crushed his 20th homer, a no-doubt shot to center. After a Christian Walker walk, Trammell laid down a sacrifice bunt. Alexander threw the ball past first baseman Jake Burger, allowing Walker to score from first and making it 4-2.

Pederson answered in the bottom of the eighth with his second homer of the night, a line-drive shot to right-center off Bryan King, cutting the deficit to 4-3. King recorded only one out after replacing Burrows. De Los Santos entered with two outs in the eighth and struck out Jake Burger to end the inning.

De Los Santos worked a perfect ninth, striking out Evan Carter and Danny Jansen around a groundout by Justin Foscue, to seal the win.

Houston left fielder Taylor Trammell went 2 for 3 with a double, a run and an RBI. Jeremy Peña had a single in the ninth and scored a run earlier. Brice Matthews and Christian Vázquez each singled. The Astros finished with eight hits.

For Texas, Josh Jung had two hits, while Nimmo added a single and an RBI. The Rangers managed six hits.

The Rangers had won the series opener 10-7 on Tuesday, while Houston took the first game Monday 9-0. The teams conclude the three-game set Thursday night at Globe Life Field.

Houston heads home to host the Milwaukee Brewers for a three-game series beginning Friday. Texas opens a home series against the Kansas City Royals on Friday.

Interstat’s game simulator had projected a final score of Houston 7, Texas 2. Interstat’s ELO system had projected Texas with a 53.60 percent probability to win. Texas had been installed as a pregame favorite with a spread of minus 1.5. The total score of 7 went over the over/under line of 7.5.