HOUSTON (AP) — Yordan Alvarez hit his 15th homer and the Houston Astros matched a season high with four longballs in a 4-1 win over the Rangers on Saturday night that left Texas’ Jacob deGrom stuck at 99 career wins.
Jose Altuve sent deGrom’s third pitch of the game into the Crawford Boxes in left field for the 42nd leadoff homer of his career. Alvarez also went deep in the first.
Altuve left the game in the ninth inning with soreness on his left side. He took an awkward swing and didn’t run after hitting a grounder to third base in the eighth.
Christian Walker opened the third inning with his 11th homer, and with two outs, Zach Cole homered to make it 4-0.
DeGrom (3-3) allowed four homers for just the second time in 257 career starts. The first time was on April 22, 2017, against the St. Louis Cardinals. He surrendered just one other hit over six innings and did not walk a batter.
Kai-Wei Teng (2-3) struck out seven over five scoreless innings. It was the third time in Teng’s career he’s completed five innings, and his 76 pitches were a career high.
After Steven Okert retired the side in order in the sixth, Joc Pederson drove in a run with a single against Enyel De Los Santos, but Bryan King got pinch hitter Andrew McCutchen to fly out to center with the bases loaded to end the threat.
Bryan Abreu stranded two runners in the eighth inning, and then got Ezequiel Duran to ground into a fielder’s choice with two on in the ninth for his second save.
The Rangers were 1 for 10 with runners in scoring position and left 13 men on base.
Up next
Astros RHP Peter Lambert (2-3, 2.76 ERA) faces Rangers RHP Nathan Eovaldi (4-4, 4.15) on Sunday as Houston seeks a three-game sweep of its in-state rival.
___
AP MLB: https://apnews.com/hub/mlb