(Houston) Yordan Alvarez hit two long balls and tied his career high with four hits, Cristian Javier and four relief pitchers combined to limit their opponents to just one hit, and the Houston Astros defeated the Toronto Blue Jays 8-0 on Wednesday night.
Posted at 6:48 a.m.
Kristie Rieken
Associated Press
Javier (1-0) allowed the only hit and pitched for five innings. Seth Martinez, Rafael Montero, Tayler Scott and Dylan Coleman all took the mound for an inning of work.
It was the second game of the series against the Astros in which the Blue Jays scored no points. On Monday, Ronel Blanco had a scoreless game in a 10-0 win for the Astros.
Alvarez had just three singles in six games before Wednesday’s game. It was his 16th multi-homer game. It was also the sixth time he finished a game with four hits.
“It was just a matter of time,” Astros manager Joe Espada said. Any time he can get out there like that and hit balls with power, it’s a good sign, and that’s what we needed. »
Alvarez hit his first home run against Chris Bassitt (0-2) in the third inning. He then hit a long ball against Tim Mayza in the sixth.
Bassitt (0-2), on the mound for four and a third innings, allowed nine hits and four runs to the Astros.
Jeremy Pena hit a two-run homer and Jose Altuve added a solo slap to make it 8-0 in the seventh inning.
Pena had two hits and drove in three runs. It was his fourth game with more than one hit this season.
Daulton Varsho had the Blue Jays’ only hit, a one-out double in the second inning. The Blue Jays drew seven walks, but generated nothing at the plate.
“We’re not doing a lot of damage with the balls we hit in play at the moment,” said Blue Jays manager John Schneider. That’s a bit of the story of this series. »