Jason Alexander took a no-hit bid into the sixth inning and pitched six scoreless innings as the visiting Houston Astros took an early lead on Max Fried en route to a 7-1 victory over the struggling New York Yankees on Sunday afternoon.

Making his 15th career start and fourth for Houston, Alexander (3-1) did not allow a hit until Ben Rice lined a one-out single. Five pitches after Rice’s hit, Alexander used his sweeper to induce a double play by Aaron Judge.

It was Alexander’s second career scoreless start since debuting in August 2022 for the Milwaukee Brewers. Alexander also tossed six scoreless innings in Monday’s 8-2 win over the host Miami Marlins.

Alexander had a lead before taking the mound as Jose Altuve homered on the first pitch he saw from Fried (12-5). Altuve hammered a fastball into the left-field seats for his 250th career homer.

It was the second home run of the series and 14th in the regular season against the Yankees for Altuve, who has 21 homers on the year.

Altuve started at designated hitter and became the 12th player whose primary position is second base to hit 250 career homers.

Altuve singled in the third and scored Houston’s second run on a double by Christian Walker. Altuve reached base four times by drawing walks in the seventh and ninth.

Rookie Cam Smith added a two-strike, two-run double with two outs in the fifth for a 4-0 lead.

In the ninth inning, Carlos Correa blasted his second homer in nine games since returning to Houston in a trade from the Minnesota Twins. Correa’s homer started a three-run inning off Tim Hill, and the Astros upped their lead on run-scoring singles by pinch-hitter Ramon Urias and Mauricio Dubon.

The Yankees threatened in the seventh against Bennett Sousa and Bryan Abreu. Sousa loaded the bases with one out, and Ryan McMahon hit a sacrifice fly to bring in a run. But after allowing the score, Abreu easily retired Austin Wells.

Abreu pitched a scoreless eighth after allowing a leadoff walk to Trent Grisham. Bryan King struck out the side in the ninth to finish the three-hitter.

Fried labored at times and allowed four runs on eight hits in five innings. Fried struck out three, walked one and took his third loss in four starts.

The Yankees lost for the seventh time in nine games and manager Aaron Boone was ejected in the third inning by plate umpire Derek Thomas for arguing a called strike on McMahon.

–Field Level Media