Cleveland Indians (77-73) at Houston Astros (67-84), 8:10 p.m. (ET)
(SportsNetwork.com) - The math is not in their favor, but the Cleveland Indians are nonetheless not quite ready to surrender.
The Indians will try to keep hope alive on Wednesday night at Minute Maid Park, where they'll meet the Houston Astros in the third test of a four-game series.
Cleveland is five games behind Kansas City in pursuit of the second and final American League playoff berth with 11 games to play. The Indians ended a four- game skid with a win in Tuesday's game in Houston, and gained a game on the Royals when they lost to the Chicago White Sox.
"Tonight was nice, but it won't do us any good tomorrow," Indians pitcher Corey Kluber said. "Until we're mathematically eliminated, we have a chance."
Cleveland will meet the Royals three-plus times between now and the end of the season. They lead by two runs in a suspended game from Aug. 31 that will be completed alongside a three-game series that begins Monday.
"We're trying to finish the year strong these last two weeks," manager Terry Francona said. "We're showing up every day to win and meet our goals, period."
Cleveland starts Carlos Carrasco for the seventh time since he rejoined the rotation. He was 4-0 with a sub-1.00 earned run average in the initial six outings before dropping a 7-2 decision in Detroit on Friday.
He got a no-decision in his lone meeting with the Astros on Aug. 22, while giving up one run in six innings.
Houston's Jose Altuve had two hits on Tuesday to break a franchise record for single-season hits held by Craig Biggio.
"When I was a kid growing up watching Craig Biggio and hundreds of players more, you know Biggio is second base," Altuve said. "He got the record. He got 3,000 hits. He's going to be in the Hall of Fame sooner than later. For me to break the record is very important. I would like to have a career of at least 80 percent of the success that Biggio did."
Brett Oberholtzer starts for the Astros in the midst of a slump. He's not reached five innings in two of his last three starts and has a 7.00 ERA across his last five outings.
Most recently, he was touched for six runs in 4 1/3 innings of an 11-3 loss to the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim on Friday.
"I thought it was going to be a special night for me," Oberholtzer said. "I was throwing the ball well, and I thought I had my better stuff early on. I felt I made some good pitches all night. You've got to keep battling and maintain focus throughout the game."
He's 0-2 with a 3.07 ERA in three career meetings with Cleveland.
On Tuesday, Corey Kluber struck out a career-high 14 batters over seven one- run innings as Cleveland defeated the Astros, 4-2.
Kluber (16-9) scattered seven hits and walked two for the Indians.
Yan Gomes smacked a two-run homer among his two hits in the win.
Cody Allen tossed 1 1/3 shutout innings to notch his 21st save of the year.
Nick Tropeano (1-1) surrendered two runs -- one earned -- on four hits and two walks over five frames for Houston.