Have you ever seen one of those horror movies with an unstoppable villain? They might get knocked down. A truck might run them over. They might fall out of a plane, or off a bridge, or into a bottomless pit. But then the camera cuts just so, and there’s that silhouette, lurching back into view, pursuing our protagonist despite the fact that they should have been down for the count.

I’m not making any fandom or value judgments here, but if you’re rooting against the Astros, they can feel like a movie monster. The Rangers did the baseball equivalent of knocking them over the head with a club in ALCS Game 2. They came out swinging against Justin Verlander last night to some success, but they really hit the accelerator against Framber Valdez in the first inning on Monday.

Marcus Semien smacked a first-pitch sinker past Jeremy Peña. Corey Seager blooped a first-pitch sinker into left. A batter later, Adolis García lined a first-pitch sinker into right for an RBI single. Mitch Garver never saw a sinker, but he did muscle the first in-zone pitch he saw to left, a sinking liner that brought home another run. Sprinkle in a bit of bad Houston luck — Valdez fumbled a comebacker for an error, Nathaniel Lowe hit a seeing-eye single on the kind of weak grounder that Valdez usually feasts on — and suddenly it was 4–0 Rangers.

The Rangers have done this to a lot of teams this year; they did it to the Orioles in the ALDS. This time, though, it wasn’t over. The Astros feel inevitable sometimes. They grab a run here or a run there. They pile on a three-spot when it seems like the opposition is cruising. They attack the weak points in bullpens. If you’ve watched the playoffs in recent years, you can surely picture Jose Altuve or Alex Bregman or Kyle Tucker celebrating as they round first after another back-breaking extra-base hit.

The Rangers had the perfect person on the mound against that kind of inexorable pressure. Nathan Eovaldi has been sharp all October, and his career postseason resume is downright sparkling. His best skill is his absolute refusal to walk opposing hitters, but he’s far more than just a command artist; he gets a ton of soft contact, ramps up his strikeout stuff in big spots, and generally makes life miserable for opposing hitters. In general, the opposing hitters aren’t the Astros. But Eovaldi was on top of his game. His splitter was devastating. When the Astros weren’t busy taking his curveball for a strike, they were swinging fruitlessly at it. He struck out nine over six innings and walked only one.

Against a lesser opponent, he might have gone even longer. But it’s the Astros, so Yordan Alvarez homered, a frozen rope that vanished to right impossibly fast. And it’s the Astros, so Bregman homered, a looping fly ball that nicked the left field foul pole — a homer in 13 of 30 parks, but certainly one in Houston. And it’s the Astros, so Michael Brantley hit a line drive, pure as the driven snow, that drove Alvarez home after Eovaldi’s lone walk of the night. Clonk ‘em over the head with a shovel, push them into the basement and lock the door behind them — they keep on coming, a run at a time.

Eovaldi had his own magic working. Before that Brantley double, Houston had a chance to even things up. Brantley started the top of the fifth with a single. Chas McCormick followed with one of his own. Peña reached on an error that easily could have been ruled a hit; Josh Jung ended up on the “die” side of a do or die attempt at a chopped grounder. Bases loaded, nobody out, Freddy Krueger stunned but recovering — this could get ugly quickly.

But it didn’t. Eovaldi bamboozled pinch-hitter Yainer Diaz with a disappearing curveball for a crucial strikeout. He tumbled a splitter past Altuve for another one. Bregman grounded out softly to third, and just like that, the worst was over. The Astros have spent most of the past decade turning those spots into crooked numbers; flip one over the infield, or bop one into the Crawford Boxes, and this game might have turned out quite differently.

That jam managed, you might expect the Rangers to smoothly sail through the balance of the game. But again, it’s the Astros. They tacked on the aforementioned sixth-inning run. Eovaldi was done for the night after that inning, and Texas couldn’t have asked much more of him.

Meanwhile, Houston’s pitching snapped back in a big way. The Rangers feasted on Valdez in the first inning and generally made life miserable for him. His sinker hasn’t been sinking recently, and the baserunners piled up. Two reached in a scoreless second. Jonah Heim led off the third with a solo shot. The Astros weren’t about to let Valdez face the Texas lineup a third time; he was done after only 2.2 innings.

But that’s all Texas got. A parade of relievers came in and turned out the lights. Rafael Montero was perfect. J.P. France wriggled out of a sixth-inning jam thanks to a nice defensive play by Bregman. Phil Maton didn’t give up a baserunner. Bryan Abreu and Ryan Pressly did their usual thing, which is shutting down the opposition. The monster wasn’t defeated; maybe that early assault had only made it stronger.

You can see where this is going. Aroldis Chapman came in for the eighth inning. He quickly recorded two outs. Then Alvarez happened:

That is just ludicrous. A slider low and away, perfectly placed? No biggie, Alvarez just pulled it 110 mph for a no doubt home run. Texas’ plan yesterday was all about jamming him in or bouncing pitches, and this homer shows why. That’s not even a missed location, as far as I can tell; sometimes, the other guy is just better than your best.

That brought José Leclerc into the game, and here came those Astros. Abreu walked. Brantley walked. You can’t keep them down! They’re still charging! But Leclerc knocked them down again anyway, coaxing a grounder to third that Jung juuuuuuust about booted. The ball popped off the heel of his glove and hung tantalizingly in the air before he snatched it and stepped on third to end the threat.

Up to now, the game followed what I’d consider a classic Hollywood arc. But it could have been a classic Hollywood arc regardless of what happened in the ninth. I’ve set the Astros up as the unstoppable villain, but what if they were the indefatigable hero? Counted out right from the beginning, down 4–0 before they even got to bat, they clawed back. They dealt with adversity: leaving the bases loaded in the fifth, a near-miss in the eighth. Their relief pitching showed the character of a winner — scoreless inning after scoreless inning with no room for error. Wait, were the Rangers the baddies all along?

Following classic Hollywood morality, the winners are the good guys, so in the end I suppose the Rangers were the heroes of this story. Leclerc wobbled in the eighth, but he was back to his recent untouchable form in the ninth. Peña flied out to right. Diaz grounded out softly. Altuve was Houston’s last hope, and he lofted a lazy fly ball to the biggest part of the park. Leclerc breathed a sigh of relief, and just like that, it was over.

Truthfully, these two teams played to a rough standstill. The Rangers pounced on a shaky starter. The Astros clawed and scratched their way to four runs, one at a time, and bopped their way, too; Alvarez’s two titanic blasts were both solo shots. On a different day, with a different result when runners were in scoring position, this one might have ended differently. But on Monday, Eovaldi and the Rangers won the day. I’m excited to see what happens in the sequel.