Jeremy Peña (left) and Yordan Alvarez hit back-to-back homers during a six-run second inning, with the former’s a grand slam as the Astros beat the Marlins to end a four-game losing streak.
Karen Warren/AP Photo
Houston Astros’ Yordan Alvarez celebrates after his home run off Miami Marlins relief pitcher Lake Bachar during the fifth inning of a baseball game, Monday, July 20, 2026, in Houston. (AP Photo/Karen Warren)
Karen Warren/AP Photo
Houston Astros starting pitcher Ronel Blanco delivers to Miami Marlins’ Kyle Stowers during the first inning of a baseball game, Monday, July 20, 2026, in Houston. (AP Photo/Karen Warren)
Karen Warren/AP Photo
Houston Astros’ Jeremy Pena warms up during batting practice before a baseball game against the Miami Marlins, Monday, July 20, 2026, in Houston. (AP Photo/Karen Warren)
Karen Warren/AP Photo
Houston Astros starting pitcher Ronel Blanco winds up to deliver to Miami Marlins’ Kyle Stowers during the first inning of a baseball game, Monday, July 20, 2026, in Houston. (AP Photo/Karen Warren)
Karen Warren/AP Photo
Houston Astros starting pitcher Ronel Blanco reacts after striking out Miami Marlins’ Graham Pauley during the second inning of a baseball game, Monday, July 20, 2026, in Houston. (AP Photo/Karen Warren)
Karen Warren/AP Photo
Houston Astros starting pitcher Ronel Blanco delivers to Miami Marlins’ Kyle Stowers during the first inning of a baseball game, Monday, July 20, 2026, in Houston. (AP Photo/Karen Warren)
Karen Warren/AP Photo
Houston Astros’ Jeremy Pena celebrates with teammates after his grand slam off Miami Marlins starting pitcher Janson Junk during the second inning of a baseball game, Monday, July 20, 2026, in Houston. (AP Photo/Karen Warren)
Karen Warren/AP Photo
Houston Astros’ Jeremy Pena, left, and Yordan Alvarez, right, celebrate after their back-to-back home runs off Miami Marlins starting pitcher Janson Junk during the second inning of a baseball game, Monday, July 20, 2026, in Houston. (AP Photo/Karen Warren)
Karen Warren/AP Photo
Houston Astros’ Yordan Alvarez runs up the line on his home run off Miami Marlins starting pitcher Janson Junk during the second inning of a baseball game, Monday, July 20, 2026, in Houston. (AP Photo/Karen Warren)
Karen Warren/AP Photo
Houston Astros’ Jeremy Pena watches his grand slam off Miami Marlins starting pitcher Janson Junk during the second inning of a baseball game, Monday, July 20, 2026, in Houston. (AP Photo/Karen Warren)
Karen Warren/AP Photo
Power for Jeremy Peña skews mostly to his pull side. Just two of the Houston Astros shortstop’s 32 home runs over the last two seasons went to the opposite field. None of his first six this year did.
In the second inning Monday, Peña swung at a 95.8 mph fastball from Marlins right-hander Janson Junk and arced it toward right field. Griffin Conine tracked the baseball to the wall and jumped. It eluded his outstretched glove and opened up a game.
Peña’s grand slam keyed a six-running inning that propelled the Astros, whose offense had languished all weekend against the Orioles, to an 8-5 win to open a three-game series against Miami at Daikin Park.
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Yordan Alvarez followed Peña with a solo homer, the first of the slugger’s two on the night, as Houston’s offense backed right-hander Ronel Blanco in his return from elbow surgery. Blanco worked 4 ⅔ innings and allowed four runs but exited with a lead.
Four relievers protected it, with Enyel De Los Santos getting four outs and Steven Okert and Bryan Abreu each stranding two runners in the seventh and eighth innings, respectively. Closer Josh Hader threw the ninth with a four-run lead, a sign of urgency.
The Astros are six games under .500 with 11 games to play until the Aug. 3 trade deadline. They entered Monday four games out of first place in the AL West and 4 ½ games out of a wild-card spot.
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Hader allowed three consecutive one-out singles, with Heriberto Hernández’s sharp grounder off Peña’s glove driving in a run. But a lineout by Xavier Edwards and a pop-out by Liam Hicks, that descended into Peña’s hands, ended a bounce-back for Houston from a lost weekend.
Second-inning outburst
After totaling six runs in three games while being swept by Baltimore, the Astros matched that output in Monday’s second inning.
LaMonte Wade Jr. led off with a six-pitch walk. Yainer Diaz sliced a sinker to right field for a single. Astros hitters went 4-for-27 with men in scoring position against the Orioles. Taking their first such at-bat of this series, Taylor Trammell pulled a single into right. Wade scored on an aggressive send by third-base coach Tony Perezchica when first baseman Kyle Stowers cut off the throw.
Zach Dezenzo beat the relay on a potential double-play grounder and Lucas Spence, playing in his fourth major-league game, worked a walk to load the bases. Peña, in a 1-2 count, punched a 95.8 mph fastball the opposite way. It carried 340 feet, just over the right-field wall and Conine’s outstretched glove, for Peña’s second career grand slam and Houston’s sixth this season.
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Alvarez then annihilated an 0-2 slider to the second deck in right-center, his 32nd home run of the season leaving his bat at 113.8 mph and traveling 428 feet. Back-to-back blasts capped a six-run inning.
Blanco returns
Four hundred twenty-eight days removed from his last major-league start, Blanco made his return to the Astros from an elbow surgery that included both a repair of his ulnar collateral ligament with an internal brace and a repair of his flexor tendon.
Blanco had thrown 68 pitches in his last minor-league rehab outing, suggesting a limit Monday. Manager Joe Espada said pregame the Astros would “keep a close eye” on the right-hander. Blanco navigated his 4 ⅔ innings on 86 pitches, allowing four runs but departing with a lead.
Aspects of Blanco’s outing were encouraging. His fastball averaged 94 mph, compared to a 93.2 mph last season pre-surgery. He struck out eight of 19 hitters faced and generated 18 whiffs, including eight on 16 swings against his changeup, against a lineup with seven left-handed hitters.
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Eight balls put into play against him did average a 94.8 mph exit velocity. Just two were hits, but both of those cleared the wall. Joe Mack hit a full-count fastball halfway up the second deck in right field for his two-run homer in the second inning. Liam Hicks crushed a 1-2 curveball for a two-run shot in the fourth.
Both swings followed walks that compounded the damage. Blanco threw 29 pitches in the second inning, not a comfortable sight with a pitcher just back from surgery, but nine-pitch innings buffered it on either side. A 23-pitch fourth all but ensured the fifth would be Blanco’s last.
He retired its first two batters. But a walk to leadoff man Stowers brought Espada out of the dugout. Blanco handed a two-run lead to his bullpen, having completed his road back.
Two-strike damage
Alvarez struck each of his first two hits Monday in two-strike counts — a single on a 2-2 fastball from Junk and his home run on an 0-2 slider — continuing a remarkable element of his season.
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Alvarez struck out in his final at-bat. Still, he finished the night batting .292 with 15 homers in two-strike counts. Entering Monday, the league-wide batting average in two-strike counts was .168.
Alvarez entered Monday leading the majors in home runs in two-strike counts, with Hunter Goodman of the Rockies one behind him. Alvarez also had the second-highest batting average of any hitter with 50 or more plate appearances that reached two strikes, after Arizona’s Gabriel Moreno.
Before this season, Alvarez owned a career .194 batting average in two-strike counts. His highest mark in a season was a .237 average in 2023.
Triple Crown watch
Alvarez entered the day leading the American League in all three Triple Crown metrics — batting average, home runs and RBIs — and then raised them all.
A 3-for-4 night improved Alvarez’s average to .324, second-highest among qualified major-league hitters after the Marlins’ Otto Lopez, who is batting .335. Lopez was absent from Miami’s lineup for the second straight game Monday due to finger inflammation.
This was Alvarez’s 12th game of the season with three-plus hits, tied for most in the majors with Lopez. It was also Alvarez’s fifth multi-home run game this season. He finished the night tied with the Phillies’ Kyle Schwarber for the MLB home run lead at 33. His 75 RBIs trail only St. Louis’ Jordan Walker, who has 76.