Urquidy has another quality start

HOUSTON — Exactly three years after his major-league debut, José Urquidy is demonstrating his value to the Astros in a big way.

Perhaps his career is too young to consider this a renaissance, but Urquidy’s recent terrific run of form, sparked by a decision to shelve his cutter, is certainly verging on a rediscovery of his best stuff.

Saturday, Urquidy painted the strike zone and produced his fourth consecutive quality start to help deliver the Astros a 9-1 win over the Angels, guaranteeing a three-game series victory at Minute Maid Park ahead of Sunday’s finale.

Urquidy pitched six innings and struck out eight batters, two strikeouts shy of his careerhigh, including striking out Mike Trout three times on nine pitches. He allowed one run and three walks on 104 pitches, matching a career-high set two starts ago against the Mets.

Urquidy has thrown at least 100 pitches in three consecutive starts. In that span, he has combined to allow three runs across 19 innings against the Yankees, Mets and Angels.

Urquidy entered Saturday carrying the top run support average (7.39) among major leaguers with a minimum of seven innings pitched. The Astros again backed him admirably and wasted no time opening up a sizable lead for the second day in a row against the Angels.

Houston smacked five home runs, falling one short of a season-high. Leadoff man Jose Altuve hit 3-for-4 with a home run and two doubles. At the bottom of the lineup, catcher Martín Maldonado homered twice against two different Anaheim pitchers.

Through two innings, the Astros hit 6-for-12 with two walks while scoring five runs against Angels starter Patrick Sandoval.

Altuve hit a leadoff double to left field and eventually came around to score on Kyle Tucker’s RBI double. With Tucker on and Alex Bregman aboard via a fielder’s choice grounder, Yuli Gurriel drew a walk to load the bases. Jake Meyers sliced a tworun single into left field, giving

him a second consecutive multiRBI game against the Angels.

In the second inning, Maldonado led off with a first-pitch home run mashed 407 feet onto the train tracks, his sixth dinger of the season. Two pitches later, Altuve deposited a slider onto the warning track for his second double of the game. He then stole third base, putting him in position to trot nonchalantly home on Bregman’s two-out RBI single for a 5-0 lead.

One out into the third inning, Urquidy hung a 2-2 changeup over the plate to Taylor Ward, who homered into the Crawford Boxes. It was the lone run Urquidy would allow.

With one out in the fifth inning, Meyers tried to barehand Brandon Marsh’s line drive to center field off the hop, but he couldn’t grab it cleanly and Marsh became the first Anaheim runner to reach second base. Urquidy sandwiched two strikeouts around a walk to escape and strand two runners.

Even after Urquidy had thrown his last pitch in the sixth inning and exited with a fourrun lead, the Astros continued to add insurance runs. Maldonado and Altuve hit back-toback home runs off Angels reliever Andrew Wantz in the bottom of the sixth inning, escalating the game to a rout.

After seeing the warm welcome his teammates gave Wantz, Tucker extended the same courtesy to Angels lefty Aaron Loup in the following inning by hitting a leadoff home run. Two outs later, Chas McCormick lifted a 1-2 sinker over the right-field wall for Houston’s fifth long ball of the game.

By the eighth inning, Astros manager Dusty Baker felt secure enough to pull a trio of his starters — Altuve, Maldonado and Tucker — and trust the rest of his team with an eight-run lead.

Karen Warren/Staff photographer Astros righthander José Urquidy had his fourth consecutive quality start, allowing one run on two hits with eight strikeouts and three walks in six innings. Urquidy impoved to 7-3.