Magical night for Matijevic in Astros’ win

Rookie J.J. Matijevic homered for his first major-league hit and Mauricio Dubón added a tworun shot to power host Houston to a 4-3 victory over the Chicago White Sox late Sunday.

The Astros bounced back from a 7-0 shutout Saturday to get a 2-1 series win. The victory broke a tie between Houston manager Dusty Baker and Chicago manager Tony La Russa, giving the 73-yearold Baker a 106-105 edge against the 77-year-old La Russa in regular-season matchups dating to 1996.

Houston led by three runs when Luis Robert opened the eighth with a broken-bat single. There was one out in the inning when Robert scored on a triple by AJ Pollock. Pollock scored on a groundout by Jake Burger to cut the lead to 4-3, but Héctor Neris struck out Reese McGuire to limit the damage.

Ryan Pressly walked the leadoff batter in the ninth before retiring the next three to get his 13th save.

Matijevic made it 2-0 when he sent a fastball from Michael Kopech (2-3) into the seats in left field for an opposite-field homer with two outs in the fourth inning.

“That was real cool,” Baker said of Matijevic hitting a homer for his first hit, which came in his sixth major-league game.

TROUT ON TEAR

Mike Trout’s five home runs in a five-game weekend series against the Mariners helped lift the Angels out of a deep slump. Before winning four of the games, the Angels had lost 18 of 20 games, including a 14game losing streak.

Trout’s two-run drive in the fourth inning Sunday was his 52nd career homer against Seattle, matching Rafael Palmeiro for the most by any player off the Mariners.

“You go up and throw whatever you want to throw. When he’s lockedin like that, usually in four, five at-bats he’s going to get into one,” Angels manager Phil Nevin said. “What he did this weekend was impressive. Not to mention playing each inning of every game, made some great plays in center field.”

Trout has 21 homers this season, four behind major-league leader Aaron Judge of the Yankees.

ELSEWHERE

Pirates: Pittsburgh promoted 6-7 shortstop Oneil Cruz from Triple-A Indianapolis. Cruz, 23, ranks among the game’s most exciting prospects and made his majorleague debut in September.

Padres: Star third baseman Manny Machado was being evaluated after he sprained his left ankle while taking a tumble running out a grounder.

It is too soon to determine how long Machado might be sidelined. He is hitting .328 with 12 home runs and 46 RBI.