George Springer hammered two home runs and Framber Valdez won the battle of the lefties as the Houston Astros moved to within one win of reaching their fourth straight AL Championship Series with a 5-2 victory over the Oakland A's. Left handed starter Valdez gave up two runs on five hits over seven innings and fanned four batters for the Astros, who will try to sweep the best of five series on Wednesday at the neutral Dodger Stadium site in Los Angeles. Houston grabbed a 4-2 lead in the fifth inning on Martin Maldonado's home run that knocked Oakland lefty Sean Manaea from the contest. Springer then smacked the first pitch from Oakland relief pitcher Yusmeiro Petit over the left field wall. Manaea surrendered four runs on five hits over 4 1/3 innings with one walk and two strikeouts. The Astros belted three homers Tuesday, one day after hitting three in a game one victory at the same southern California ballpark. Khris Davis and Chad Pinder hit home runs for Oakland, who now need to win three straight games in order to advance to the ALCS starting Sunday at San Diego. Springer's two-homer performance followed a multi-homer game from teammate Carlos Correa on Monday. The Astros and A's have combined for 11 home runs in both games. Springer has six hits in the series. Combined with his brilliant performance in the 2017 World Series, the 31-year-old American is 13-for-26 with five home runs and nine RBIs in six career postseason contests at Dodger Stadium. Elsewhere, Travis d'Arnaud broke a seventh-inning tie with a home run as the Atlanta Braves exploded for six runs in the seventh en route to a 9-5 victory over the Miami Marlins in game one of their NL series in Texas. Dansby Swanson also hit a homer in the seventh. Ronald Acuna led off the first with a home run and Marcell Ozuna drove in two runs with a single and a double for the second-seeded Braves, who won for the third straight time in the playoffs after sweeping the Cincinnati Reds in the first round. gph/jh