Jake Odorizzi carried a shutout into the seventh inning, three relievers finished it off, and Yordan Alvarez and Jeremy Pena slugged home runs as the host Houston Astros defeated the Seattle Mariners 3-0 on Monday.
The Astros ended a two-game losing streak while the Mariners lost for the fifth time in six games in the opener of a three-game series.
Odorizzi (2-2) produced a second consecutive quality start for the Astros, following an appearance against the Texas Rangers where he retired the final 12 batters he faced. On Monday, he logged 6 2/3 innings, his longest outing since joining Houston prior to last season.
Odorizzi allowed faced the minimum in each of his first five frames, inducing inning-ending double plays from Jesse Winker in the first and Julio Rodriguez in the fifth to eliminate baserunners.
Rodriguez also reached on a single with two outs in the second but was erased by catcher Martin Maldonado while attempting to swipe second base.
In the seventh, Odorizzi retired the first two batters before walking Eugenio Suarez. He was lifted at that point, having surrendered four hits and one walk while striking out three. Odorizzi threw 89 pitches, 55 for strikes.
Ryne Stanek came on and walked J.P Crawford before striking out Rodriguez to end the inning.
The Astros mounted a threat against Mariners left-hander Marco Gonzales (1-3) in the first but came away empty. Gonzales struck out Alvarez and got Yuli Gurriel on a grounder with two runners in scoring position to end the first.
But Alvarez got the better of Gonzales leading off the fourth, snapping a scoreless deadlock by bashing his seventh home run 374 feet out to right field.
Gonzales wiggled out of further trouble, however, stranding Yuli Gurriel at second after he followed the home run with a double.
Gonzales’ good fortune ran out in the sixth when Pena followed another leadoff single from Tucker with his fifth home run, a 422-foot blast to left-center field with a 106.2 exit velocity.
In six innings, Gonzales allowed three runs on eight hits and two walks with two strikeouts.
Right-handers Stanek, Hector Neris and Rafael Montero completed the shutout, with Montero earning his second save by getting Suarez to roll into a game-ending double play.
–Field Level Media
