LOS ANGELES — George Springer hit two homers and the Houston Astros kept making more noise in the playoffs, beating the Oakland Athletics 5-2 on Tuesday to take a 2-0 lead in their AL Division Series.

Martin Maldonado also went deep for Houston, which needs one win to reach its fourth straight AL Championship Series. Game 3 in the best-of-five series is Wednesday, when Houston is the home team in the neutral site matchup.

Springer put Houston ahead to stay with a two-run, two-out drive in the third on a second straight 90-degree day at Dodger Stadium.

Maldonado's solo shot in the fifth chased loser Sean Manaea in his first appearance of this postseason. Yusmeiro Petit came in and promptly gave up Springer's second homer of the game, extending Houston's lead to 5-2. Maldonado yelled and raised his right arm in celebration from his seat in the dugout.

Springer's 17 postseason homers tied Nelson Cruz and Jim Thome for most through a player's first 54 career postseason games. Five of Springer's postseason homers have come at Dodger Stadium, where the Astros beat the Dodgers in Game 7 of the 2017 World Series.

Houston improved to 7-3 in Dodger Stadium since that World Series. Current A's pitcher Mike Fiers last year told of his old team's sign-stealing scandal used in 2017, a revelation that rocked baseball and drew the still ongoing ire of other players and fans.

HOUSTON — Ronald Acuna Jr. made history with a leadoff home run to start things off for the Atlanta Braves in their NL Division Series opener against Miami.And another hit — once more by the Marlins, this time with Sandy Alcantara's fastball to the left hip — fired up the Braves and fueled their comeback in a 9-5 win Tuesday.“I think it woke us up,” said Travis d'Arnaud, who launched a tiebreaking homer during Atlanta's six-run rally in the seventh inning . “And we took advantage of that momentum.”D'Arnaud also doubled and singled in driving in four runs and Dansby Swanson homered during the big comeback.