Yordan Alvarez homered twice and finished with three hits, Kyle Tucker also went deep and the Houston Astros routed the Colorado Rockies 12-4 in the first game of the Mexico City Series on Saturday night.
Yainer Diaz had three hits and three runs and Tucker, Mauricio Dubon and Jose Abreu each finished with two hits in the win. Ronel Blanco (3-0) allowed two runs on five hits and two walks, striking out eight, in 5 2/3 innings for Houston, which snapped a five-game skid.
Ryan McMahon homered and Nolan Jones had two hits for Colorado.
The teams play in Mexico City again on Sunday.
The Rockies opened the scoring in the bottom of the first inning on McMahon’s fourth homer of the season — a 459-foot, two-run shot.
Houston cut the lead in half in the second on an RBI double by Trey Cabbage and took the lead in the third. Alvarez hit a two-run homer off Rockies starter Cal Quantrill and Tucker followed with his sixth of the season to make it 4-2.
Houston extended its lead in the sixth and chased Quantrill. Tucker singled, Jeremy Pena walked and Diaz singled to load the bases with no outs.
Jalen Beeks replaced Quantrill and gave up an RBI single to Dubon, and Pena scored on a double play.
Quantrill (0-3) allowed six runs on six hits and two walks in five-plus innings. He struck out two.
The Rockies appeared to cut the deficit to a run in the fifth when Brenton Doyle came home on a single, but he failed to touch the base rounding third and was out on a force.
Colorado loaded the bases with two outs in the bottom of the sixth but reliever Seth Martinez struck out Ezequiel Tovar to end the inning.
The Astros tacked on two more runs in the eighth. Diaz singled and Pena scored on an error by right fielder Hunter Goodman. Abreu hit an RBI single, and the Astros blew it open in the ninth.
Alvarez led off with his seventh home run of the season, Dubon drove in another run with a double and Abreu and Chas McCormick had RBI singles. The Rockies got two back in the bottom of the inning when Charlie Blackmon drove in Doyle with a single and scored on Elehuris Montero’s single.
–Field Level Media
