Astros’ Morton dominates Mariners

Charlie Morton pitched seven innings of three-hit ball, Jose Altuve hit a three-run double and the Houston Astros beat the Seattle Mariners 9-2 on Thursday.

After losing the series opener, the Astros won their third straight behind another impressive pitching perfor- mance. Morton allowed sin- gles to Robinson Cano, Mitch Haniger and Nelson Cruz, and otherwise baffled Seat- tle’s lineup. In the four-game series, Houston’s starters dominated with none of the four allowing more than two earned runs.

Morton (3-0) was the best of the four. Mixing a fastball that was still in the mid-90s in the seventh inning with a good curveball, Morton struck out eight and walked none. He retired 15 straight between Haniger’s one-out single in the second inning and Cruz’s broken bat hit in the seventh. Morton didn’t allow a runner to reach second base.

Altuve’s two-out double in the fifth capped an inning in which defense didn’t help starter Marco Gonzales. Kyle Seager’s error on Alex Bregman’s grounder to third started the inning, and Marwin Gonzalez followed with a line drive single off Seager’s glove. Josh Reddick drove in one run on a shallow pop up that fell in the outfield, but rather than let Gonzales (1-2) finish the inning, Seattle manager Scott Servais went to reliever Dan Altavilla to face the top of Houston’s order.

Altavilla walked George Springer, and Altuve followed with a shot to right-center for a 4-0 lead. Altuve also had an RBI ground-rule double in the ninth. Reddick and Max Stassi added solo homers.

Seattle got a pair of runs in the eighth inning off Hous- ton’s bullpen on RBI doubles from David Freitas and Jean Segura.

Astros 4, Mariners 1, late Tuesday: Lance McCullers Jr. matched his career high with 11 strikeouts over seven innings of one-hit ball, Brian McCann hit a tiebreaking two-run home run and the Houston Astros beat the Seat- tle Mariners.

McCullers was outstanding in a bounce-back effort after allowing a career-high eight earned runs in his last start against Minnesota. His only mistake was a 0-2 curveball that Robinson Cano hit for a solo homer in the first inning. Otherwise, the Mariners were left guessing at McCullers’ mix of breaking pitches and a good fast- ball. McCullers also had 11 strikeouts in a 2015 game against Baltimore.