Reynaldo Lopez produced his second consecutive scoreless start, Orlando Arcia provided early run support and the Atlanta Braves claimed a 6-2 interleague victory over the host Houston Astros on Tuesday.
Lopez (2-0) retired the final seven batters he faced while twirling six shutout frames. He allowed four hits, issued one walk and recorded a season-high seven strikeouts while tossing 94 pitches, 61 for strikes.
Kyle Tucker worked a two-out walk against Lopez in the bottom of the first but was stranded on first. Lopez surrendered a one-out double to Jeremy Pena in the second and a leadoff double to Jake Meyers in the third, but both were left stranded on third base with Lopez retiring the top of the Astros order — Jose Altuve, Yordan Alvarez and Tucker — to end the third.
Yainer Diaz and Jon Singleton stroked singles off Lopez in the fourth, but Lopez ended that frame with a strikeout of Chas McCormick, the first of his seven consecutive batters retired. Lopez mostly relied on a two-pitch mix of fastballs and sliders, throwing 48 four-seamers and 36 breaking balls. He also mixed in five changeups and five curveballs to keep the Astros at bay.
Astros right-hander Hunter Brown (0-3), who logged a combined 7 2/3 innings over his first three starts, worked six-plus frames before departing with the bases loaded in the seventh against the Braves.
Arcia was responsible for both runs charged to Brown. His solo home run to left-center field with two outs in the second snapped the scoreless deadlock. Arcia was the first batter Astros reliever Shawn Dubin faced when the right-hander replaced Brown in the seventh, and Arcia greeted him with a sacrifice fly to deep center field that scored Austin Riley, who doubled to open that frame.
Brown allowed two runs on five hits and three walks while posting three strikeouts.
As they did in the series opener, the Braves tacked on insurance runs in the ninth, with Luis Guillorme blooping a double down the left field line that scored Marcell Ozuna and Arcia and extended the lead to 4-0. Chadwick Tromp added a two-run double one batter later off Astros right-hander Forrest Whitley, the 17th overall pick in 2016 who was making his major league debut.
Ozuna extended his hitting streak to 15 games with his one-out single off Dubin in the ninth.
Tucker ended the shutout bid with a leadoff homer, his fifth, off Braves reliever Aaron Bummer in the ninth. Bummer surrendered another run in the inning, forcing the Braves to bring in Raisel Iglesias. The Atlanta closer induced a game-ending fielder’s choice for his fourth save.
–Field Level Media
