Crow-Armstrong’s first hit a homer
Pete Crow-Armstrong hit a tiebreaking, two-run homer for his first big league hit, and the Chicago Cubs swept the Houston Astros with a 3-1 win Thursday.
Chicago won for the fourth time in five games.
Hayden Wesneski (2-0) pitched 21⁄3 perfect innings for the win in relief of Javier Assad. Houston has lost a season-high five straight and eight of nine overall. At 7-19, it is off to its worst 26game start since it was 6-20 in 1969.
Crow-Armstrong, a former standout at HarvardWestlake, was recalled from triple-A Iowa when Cody Bellinger was placed on the 10-day injured list Wednesday because of two fractured ribs. The 22-year-old outfielder Crow-Armstrong, one of the Cubs’ top prospects, made his debut last year and went 0 for 14 in 13 games.
He picked a perfect time for his first hit. Houston had a 1-0 lead before Dansby Swanson came home on a fielder’s-choice grounder by
Miguel Amaya in the sixth.
Rafael Montero (0-1) was replaced with Bryan Abreu, who threw a wild pitch with Crow-Armstrong trying to sacrifice Amaya to second. Crow-Armstrong then drove his next pitch deep to right, delighting the crowd of 29,876 at Wrigley Field.
“It felt good to get it out of the way and it came at a great moment,” Crow-Armstrong said.
Héctor Neris worked the ninth for his third save in four chances.
Houston finished with four hits and went 0 for 6 with runners in scoring position. It scored a total of six
runs in the three-game series. Justin Verlander pitched 41⁄3 scoreless innings in his second start since returning from shoulder inflammation.
Ty France and Luis Urías hit two-run homers, and Seattle beat Texas 4-3 for first place in the American League West . ... Elias Díaz capped Colorado's sixrun eighth inning with a tiebreaking double, and the Rockies beat San Diego 10-9 ... Gary Sánchez hit a pinchhit, two-run home run in the eighth inning to lift Milwaukee to a 7-5 win over Pittsburgh . ... José Ramírez belted his sixth career grand slam and had three hits, and Cleveland beat Boston 6-4 . ... Edouard Julien hit two of Minnesota’s five solo home runs, sending the Chicago White Sox to a seventh straight loss, 6-3 . ... Philadelphia picked up its major league-leading fifth shutout, 5-0 at Cincinnati, one more than the Phillies had last season . ... Mariners shortstop J.P. Crawford (oblique) went on the injured list, as did Oakland second baseman
Zack Gelof (oblique) and Kansas City righthander Alec Marsh (elbow). ... MLB is relaunching Players Weekend with special caps but without the nicknames on jerseys.