A burst of normalcy
Alvarez’s homer highlights mild uprising by slumping offense in needed victory
The Astros entered Monday appearing lifeless over their last six games. Elite pitchers had sent the Houston offense plummeting. In contrast, the visiting Indians were a rising tide, winners of five of their last six games since suffering a four-game sweep at the hands of the Astros.
It turned out such a visit was necessary to restore some equilibrium.
Just as they had three weeks earlier in Cleveland, the Astros lit up Indians starter J.C. Mejia for hard contact and multiple runs and forced him out of the game shy of five innings.
Michael Brantley enjoyed his second multi-hit game against his former team. Yordan Alvarez broke his 0-for-22 slump with his 17th home run of the season. Martín Maldonado struck his second hit
this month for an RBI.
One game is not a cure-all for the Astros’ offensive woes in July. But it certainly didn’t hurt.
The Astros beat the Indians 4-3 on Monday night at Minute Maid Park, victorious despite leaving eight runners on base and despite Carlos Correa’s continuing struggles (0-for-26 streak with 13 strikeouts). Houston scored more than one run for just the third time in the last eight games.
Houston starter Zack Greinke hurled 84 pitches over 5⅓ innings while yielding five hits, two earned runs, one home run, one walk and four strikeouts. Three of his strikeouts were sealed with third-strike changeups down in the zone.
The Astros’ bullpen nearly squandered the lead but persevered to procure the final 11 outs and hand Greinke the winning decision.
Brantley kicked things off in the first inning with a one-out single through the right side. Yuli Gurriel sliced an RBI double to the warning track in front of the Astros’ bullpen, scoring Brantley and advancing to third on the throw home. Alvarez drew a walk to put runners on the corners.
From there, Mejia struck out five Astros in a row. He sent down Correa and Kyle Tucker to strand Gurriel and Alvarez in the first inning, then struck out the side in the second.
Greinke allowed one infield single and retired six consecutive batters through the first three innings.
In the top of the fourth, he allowed a leadoff single before Jose Ramírez grounded into a 3-6-1 double play. Gurriel fielded a ground ball and flipped it to Correa at second base, while Greinke hustled to cover first and stretched off the bag to make the play. Greinke’s defense ended up saving the Astros a run as Franmil Reyes slugged a 1-1 pitch high into the Crawford Boxes for a buzzkilling solo homer, evening the score.
Maldonado snapped an 0-for-7 streak with a two-out RBI single to reclaim Houston’s lead in the fourth.
In the next inning, Brantley hit a leadoff single to right field before Alvarez launched a one-out, two-run homer 111.1 mph off the bat and into the right field stands. The Astros led 4-1 when Correa drew a walk, the nail in the coffin for Mejia.
Cleveland righthander Blake Parker took over and provided immediate relief. Tucker’s soft fly ball to left field was still in the air and on its way into Harold Ramirez’s glove when the Astros right fielder slammed his bat on the ground in frustration. Chas McCormick’s groundout ended the threat.
Greinke gave up back-to-back singles to Cesar Hernandez and Amed Rosario to begin the sixth inning. Jose Ramírez grounded into a forceout at second base, putting runners on the corners as Greinke departed.
Cristian Javier gave up a single and a walk to the first two Indians he faced, including an RBI hit to Reyes which charged another run to Greinke but escaped without further damage. Javier pitched a scoreless seventh inning before handing the ball over to Ryne Stanek.
Stanek snagged a comebacker from Rosario for the first out of the eighth inning, but then sandwiched walks around a strikeout to put two runners aboard for Cleveland. Harold Ramirez knocked in another run with a single to right field to trim the lead to 4-3. With the tying run on third base, Stanek calmly struck out Bradley Zimmer on five pitches.
Closer Ryan Pressly encountered some trouble in the ninth when he issued a leadoff walk to Roberto Pérez, who was replaced by pinch runner Oscar Mercado. With one out, Hernandez sent a ground ball to Correa, who scurried to get the lead runner at second and barely missed the double play on his throw to first base.
Correa’s fabulous play provided enough security for Pressly to send Rosario down swinging for the final out.