{"id":330458,"date":"2026-07-06T06:52:15","date_gmt":"2026-07-06T06:52:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/330458\/"},"modified":"2026-07-06T06:52:15","modified_gmt":"2026-07-06T06:52:15","slug":"4-pitchers-combine-for-shutout-as-astros-beat-rays-2-0","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/330458\/","title":{"rendered":"4 pitchers combine for shutout as Astros beat Rays 2-0"},"content":{"rendered":"

HOUSTON (AP) \u2014 Christian Walker and Isaac Paredes hit solo home runs, and four pitchers combined on a four-hit shutout, and the Houston Astros beat the Tampa Bay Rays 2-0 on Sunday.<\/p>\n

Walker led off the fourth inning with his 20th home run of the season, giving him five consecutive 20-homer seasons. Paredes hit his 12th homer to leadoff the sixth.<\/p>\n

Peter Lambert (7-5) struck out six while he allowed three hits and walked one over 5 2\/3 innings. He was removed with a runner on second base, but Steven Okert got pinch-hitter Ryan Vilade to fly out to end the threat.<\/p>\n

Okert pitched a 1-2-3 seventh inning, and Bryan King worked around a leadoff single in the eighth before Josh Hader overcame a leadoff walk in the ninth for his ninth save. Hader has allowed one run and two hits over 15 innings this season.<\/p>\n

Mason Englert (0-2) allowed the two runs and five hits with a career-high nine strikeouts over 5 2\/3 innings after being recalled from Triple-A Durham before the game. Cam Booser and Craig Kimbrel followed and combined to hold the Astros scoreless for 2 1\/3 innings.<\/p>\n

The Rays have lost back-to-back games after winning nine straight.<\/p>\n

Yordan Alvarez was 0 for 4 after hitting two home runs, including a walk-off homer in a 10-8<\/a> win Saturday.<\/p>\n

Up next<\/p>\n

Astros RHP Mike Burrows (4-8, 5.58 ERA) starts against Nationals RHP Miles Mikolas (2-7, 5.44) in the first game of a three-game series Monday night in Washington, D.C.<\/p>\n

Rays RHP Griffin Jax (4-5, 3.45 ERA) starts against Yankees RHP Cam Schlittler (8-5, 2.08) in the first game of a four-game series Monday night in Tampa Bay.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"HOUSTON (AP) \u2014 Christian Walker and Isaac Paredes hit solo home runs, and four pitchers combined on a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":330459,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[2205,28,115,29645,110,135,3815,137,136],"class_list":["post-330458","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tampa","tag-associated-press","tag-florida","tag-news","tag-professional-baseball","tag-sports","tag-tampa","tag-tampa-bay-rays","tag-tampa-headlines","tag-tampa-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/330458","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=330458"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/330458\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/330459"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=330458"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=330458"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=330458"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}