Kyle Tucker punctuated his second career multi-homer game with his second career grand slam as the Houston Astros matched a major league record en route to a 13-4 road victory over the Boston Red Sox on Tuesday.
Tucker hit the second of five second-inning home runs as Houston became the eighth team to club five homers in an inning. The Astros did their damage against Red Sox right-hander Nathan Eovaldi (1-2), the third pitcher to allow five home runs in an inning.
The other pitchers to accomplish the unwanted feat were the Milwaukee Brewers’ Michael Blazek against the Washington Nationals in 2017 and the Toronto Blue Jays’ Chase Anderson in 2020 vs. the New York Yankees.
Yordan Alvarez drilled an opposite-field shot over the Green Monster in left field to lead off the second with his 12th dinger. Yuli Gurriel reached on an error before Tucker went deep to right, giving Houston a 3-1 lead.
The Astros kept pounding away. Jeremy Pena followed the Tucker blast with his seventh homer, clearing the wall in left. Pena had been sidelined since Thursday with knee discomfort.
Michael Brantley added his third home run, a three-run shot, before Gurriel chased Eovaldi with his third homer of the year, driving in Alvarez in the process. The Astros sent 11 batters to the plate in their nine-run second, with Jose Altuve recording his 1,800th career hit just prior to the Brantley blast.
Eovaldi, who had surrendered a league-leading nine homers through seven starts before Tuesday, allowed nine runs (six earned) on eight hits while recording just five outs. He threw 39 pitches, 31 for strikes.
Tucker clubbed his grand slam, his seventh homer, off Boston reliever Tyler Danish in the fourth. Tucker finished 2-for-5 with six RBIs.
Astros right-hander Jose Urquidy (3-1) labored despite the run support. He surrendered a solo home run to Rafael Devers with one out in the first inning and a two-run shot to J.D. Martinez that followed Devers’ leadoff double in the third.
Urquidy allowed four runs on 12 hits while notching one strikeout over five innings, becoming the first Houston pitcher to earn the victory despite allowing at least a dozen hits since right-hander Roy Oswalt did so on June 17, 2007.
–Field Level Media
