Jake Meyers is sent to Triple-A<\/a><\/p>\nThe second came on a 1-2 fastball from right-hander Casey Legumina, which Alvarez struck 424 feet to straightaway center field. It followed a walk drawn by Jose Altuve, which likely forced the Rays to pitch to Alvarez rather than walk him and put the potential winning run on base with nobody out.<\/p>\n
Alvarez made such strategics moot. Houston improved to 44-47 by staging a comeback at Daikin Park.<\/p>\n
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Down 7-2 by the fourth inning, the Astros came back to forge a tie in the seventh. They trailed 8-5 after the top half. A rally began at the bottom of their order. Taylor Trammell singled against Rays right-hander Cole Sulser. Nick Allen pulled a double up the third-base line, turning the lineup over.<\/p>\n
Sulser built an 0-2 count on Altuve but lost him. The walk loaded the bases and left nowhere to put Alvarez. Left-hander Garrett Cleavinger entered to face him. Alvarez, who earlier had hit his 28th\u00a0home run, got under a two-strike sweeper. It worked for a sacrifice fly, with Trammell racing home.<\/p>\n
Isaac Paredes lined a single to score Allen. After a strikeout of Christian Walker, the Astros pulled back LaMonte Wade Jr. and sent Zach Dezenzo, just recalled from Triple-A, for a platoon matchup. The Rays countered with Craig Kimbrel, the veteran right-hander who ranks fifth on the career saves list.<\/p>\n
Dezenzo delivered, lining a fastball to right field for a single. Altuve scampered home to tie the game. It stayed that way into the ninth.<\/p>\n
Facing the reigning American League pitcher of the month, the Astros\u2019 lineup proved a formidable foil early. Rays starter Drew Rasmussen allowed more runs in five innings Saturday (five) than in five starts during June (three). Alvarez and Yainer Diaz both struck two-run home runs against him.<\/p>\n
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Houston\u2019s ace could not make the support stand up.<\/p>\n
Hunter Brown struggled, allowing seven runs across four innings in his fourth start back from a shoulder strain. Not since 2024 had the right-hander surrendered that many earned runs in a start. He, too, gave up two home runs among his six hits allowed. He needed 82 pitches to record 12 outs.<\/p>\n
Junior Caminero delivered the first blow against Brown with a solo home run in the first inning, the 11th\u00a0homer in as many games for the Rays third baseman, who was named an All-Star earlier in the evening. It was the 26th\u00a0home run of the season for Camerino, second-most in the American League.<\/p>\n
Alvarez answered in the next half-inning. His two-run homer off Rasmussen gave Houston a short-lived lead and ignited a back-and-forth that lasted until the end.<\/p>\n
Struggle for Hunter Brown<\/p>\n
In his first five starts this season, Brown allowed a total of five earned runs in 25\u2153 innings. Tampa Bay scored seven in four innings against him, matching the second-most earned runs Brown has allowed in a major-league start. Damage came in a variety of forms.<\/p>\n
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Caminero crushed a full-count slider for a solo home run in the first inning. Brown issued a leadoff walk to Victor Mesa Jr. in the second inning, then centered a 1-1 changeup to Richie Palacios, who planted it in the right-field seats. Two homers matched Brown\u2019s total allowed in his first five outings.<\/p>\n
Brown\u2019s command wavered uncharacteristically. After Jonathan Aranda singled to open the third, Brown issued back-to-back walks to load the bases. All three runners scored. Mesa struck a sacrifice fly. A single by Jonny DeLuca drove in another.<\/p>\n
With DeLuca stealing, Diaz threw down to second and sailed the throw, allowing Cedric Mullins to score from third base. Nate Pearson started warming before the inning ended. Brown returned for the fourth, allowing a single and a walk before a run scored on an error by the shortstop Allen.<\/p>\n
Brown faced 22 batters, 10 of whom reached base. He generated just six whiffs on 30 swings and a 16% chase rate. His ERA more than doubled from 1.78 to 3.68.<\/p>\n
Astros get to Rasmussen<\/p>\n
Rasmussen allowed three earned runs in 33 innings in five starts last month. The Astros surpassed that total in five innings while equaling the number of extra-base hits he allowed \u2013 four \u2013 in June.<\/p>\n
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Altuve led off the first with a triple on a drive that glanced off Mullins\u2019 glove in center field. Alvarez then hit a 2-2 sinker to left-center field for his AL-leading 28th home run. Astros hitters put five balls in play in the first, four with an exit velocity of 99.8 mph or higher, establishing a theme for Rasmussen\u2019s outing.<\/p>\n
Their 18 batted balls against Rasmussen averaged a 92.7 mph exit velocity. Eight left bats above 95 mph, the Statcast hard-hit threshold. Six fell for hits. Rasmussen retired eight in a row after a Walker single in the first inning, but the Astros continued to chip away against him.<\/p>\n
Walker wore a pitch off his left wrist to open the fourth inning. With two outs, Diaz went with a fastball up and away at 95.7 mph, taking it 394 feet to right field for just his fourth home run of the season. The Astros threatened again in the fifth. But Rasmussen averted a meltdown.<\/p>\n
Allen drew a leadoff walk. Altuve pulled a double into the left-field corner. Alvarez shot a single into left, paring the score to 7-5 and putting Altuve at third base. He remained there. Rasmussen retired Paredes on a lineout and induced an inning-ending double play from Walker.<\/p>\n
Five earned runs matched the most allowed this season by Rasmussen, who was named to the All-Star team Saturday. He owns a 2.78 ERA through 97 innings.<\/p>\n
Christian Javier appears<\/p>\n
Activated from the injured list Friday and placed in the bullpen, Cristian Javier made his first relief outing for the Astros since Aug. 26, 2022. A solo home run from DeLuca was the lone blemish on his otherwise encouraging two innings.<\/p>\n
Javier struck out four of the first five batters he faced. His fastball averaged 93.9 mph, compared to 92.8 in his first three starts this season before going on the injured list. His sweeper velocity was up 2.5 mph. Javier induced seven whiffs on 18 swings, four on 12 swings against his four-seamer.<\/p>\n
Three of four batted balls against him, meanwhile, were hard-hit. DeLuca lined a sweeper into the front rows of the Crawford Boxes with one out in the seventh. Palacios, the next batter, singled. Javier did not allow him to advance, inducing two groundouts to stem the inning.<\/p>\n
Triple-A pitching moves<\/p>\n
The Astros made two transactions at the Triple-A level involving pitchers with major-league experience.<\/p>\n
Houston traded left-hander Tom Cosgrove to the Nationals in exchange for cash considerations, per the team. Cosgrove, who has a 3.86 ERA in 74 career major-league outings, was a non-roster camp invite of the Astros this spring and had a 4.30 ERA in 29 relief appearances at Sugar Land.<\/p>\n
Reliever Christian Roa also signed with the Astros on a minor-league deal and was assigned to Triple-A. Roa, also a non-roster camp invite, made Houston\u2019s opening day bullpen and posted a 5.19 ERA in seven outings before being DFA\u2019d and claimed off waivers by the Twins in April.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Yordan Alvarez hits a two-run home run in the first inning against the Tampa Bay Rays at Daikin…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":361548,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[56,58,57],"class_list":["post-361547","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-houston","tag-houston","tag-houston-headlines","tag-houston-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/361547","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=361547"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/361547\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/361548"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=361547"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=361547"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=361547"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}