Hunter Brown allowed one run and struck out eight in six innings to help the Houston Astros stretch their winning streak to four games by beating the visiting Boston Red Sox 9-2 Tuesday night in the second game of a three-game series.
The only hit Brown (1-0) allowed was a Connor Wong double that drove in Marcelo Mayer in the fifth. Cody Bolton struck out five over the final three innings to earn his first save.
Yordan Alvarez and Cam Smith each hit solo home runs for the Astros. Alvarez, Christian Walker and Carlos Correa each had two hits and two RBIs in the win. Smith also collected two hits.
Boston got a solo home run from Ceddanne Rafaela for its only other run. The Red Sox struck out 13 times in the loss.
Boston starter Brayan Bello (0-1) was pulled with two outs in the fifth and Houston leading 6-1. He gave up six runs (five earned), eight hits, walked three and struck out two.
The Astros struck first when Jeremy Pena singled and scored on an Alvarez double to give Houston a 1-0 lead in the first.
Houston extended its lead to 3-0 in the third. After Jose Altuve drew a two-out walk, Correa doubled to put runners on second and third and Walker followed with a two-run single.
After Wong’s RBI double in the top of the fifth, the Astros regained a three-run lead when Alvarez homered in the bottom half of the inning to increase Houston’s advantage to 4-1. Later in the fifth a Joey Loperfido single drove in Correa to make it 5-1, and then Walker scored from third on Wong’s throwing error to push the lead to 6-1.
Correa’s two-run single off Ryan Watson drove in Alvarez and Jake Meyers to make it 8-1 in the sixth.
Following Smith’s homer in the seventh, Rafaela hit one of his own in the eighth to cut Houston’s lead to 9-2.
It was Boston’s fourth straight loss.
