<\/p>\n
Bulk reliever Cristian Javier kept the Astros in the game until the Mets got to him through their second turn through the lineup Saturday.<\/p>\n
Noah K. Murray\/Associated Press<\/p>\n
NEW YORK\u00a0\u2014 Jeremy Pe\u00f1a strode to the plate and staged an ambush. Nolan McLean started Saturday\u2019s game at Citi Field with a four-seam fastball. Pe\u00f1a lined it into the left-field corner and sprinted to third base when the carom kicked past Brett Baty.<\/p>\n
One pitch produced the\u00a0Houston Astros<\/a>\u2019 first hit against the Mets\u2019 right-hander. McLean faced his next 18 hitters without allowing another. A day after their ace\u00a0delivered a dominant outing<\/a>, the Astros were subjected to one.<\/p>\n McLean spun seven innings of one-run ball against Houston, which could not recover in a 6-2 loss. Its lineup totaled four hits. The Mets struck 11 against the four pitchers they deployed in bullpen game, building a lead against bulk reliever Cristian Javier.<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n The Astros fell back to .500, at 68-68, with their division lead at 1 \u00bd games pending the Rangers\u2019 result. McLean handed a 4-1 lead to his bullpen. Yordan Alvarez, who had two of the Astros\u2019 hits, pared it with his 37th home run of the season in the eighth inning.<\/p>\n Francisco Alvarez countered with a two-run double off Kai-Wei Teng in the bottom of the inning. Mets center fielder A.J. Ewing robbed Christian Walker of potential extra bases with a catch against the wall with a runner on second in the ninth. The Astros totaled three at-bats with a man in scoring position.<\/p>\n Houston Totals Pe\u00f1a dh Y.Alvarez lf Paredes 3b Altuve 2b Varsho cf Walker 1b Trammell rf Allen ss V\u00e1zquez c a-Wade ph Diaz c New York Totals Lindor ss Soto dh Bichette 3b Benge rf Young 1b Semien 2b Ewing cf Baty lf 1-Pache pr-lf b-Robert ph-lf F.Alvarez c Houston New York a-struck out for V\u00e1zquez in the 8th. b-popped out for Pache in the 8th.<\/p>\n 1-ran for Baty in the 6th.<\/p>\n E_Baty (8). LOB_Houston 5, New York 7. 2B_Pe\u00f1a (16), Altuve (18), Lindor (9), Baty (17), F.Alvarez (12). 3B_Young (3). HR_Y.Alvarez (37), off Duarte. RBIs_Y.Alvarez 2 (93), Young 3 (35), Soto (53), F.Alvarez 2 (33). SB_Semien (10). SF_Y.Alvarez. S_Ewing.<\/p>\n Runners left in scoring position_Houston 1 (Trammell); New York 5 (Baty, Lindor 2, Semien 2). RISP_Houston 0 for 3; New York 4 for 12.<\/p>\n Runners moved up_Walker, F.Alvarez.<\/p>\n IP<\/p>\n H 1 4<\/p>\n 6 2<\/p>\n 1 1<\/p>\n 3 IP<\/p>\n H 7<\/p>\n 2 1<\/p>\n 1 1<\/p>\n 1 Inherited runners-scored_Javier 2-0.<\/p>\n ABS Challenge_Sousa (Ball-Overturned to Strike); Varsho (Strike-Overturned to Ball).<\/p>\n Pitch timer violations_Javier (pitcher).<\/p>\n Umpires_Home, Carlos Torres; First, Nate Tomlinson; Second, Mark Wegner; Third, Jacob Metz.<\/p>\n T_2:36. A_29,183 (42,136).<\/p>\n Nolan McLean hushes Houston lineup<\/p>\n McLean matched his longest outing of a season in which he owns a 3.06 ERA in 27 starts. He entered ranked 11th among qualified major-league starters in strikeout percentage and seventh in opponents\u2019 batting average. He notched four strikeouts in his seven innings but yielded just two hits.<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n Pe\u00f1a\u2019s set up a sacrifice fly from Alvarez, the run unearned given Baty\u2019s error. A sixth-inning single by Alvarez was the only other hit against McLean, who walked three but did not allow a Houston runner into scoring position after Pe\u00f1a in the first.<\/p>\n \u201cHe\u2019s tough,\u201d Astros manager Joe Espada said. \u201cSinker, cutter, kept us off-balance. Outside of that first inning we just couldn\u2019t do much against him. But I thought our at-bats continued to be competitive.\u201d<\/p>\n McLean led with three types of fastballs. He induced just six whiffs on 40 swings, but Houston hitters averaged only an 87.6 mph exit velocity against him. They did not hit a ball that reached an outfielder over a four-inning stretch before the sixth.<\/p>\n McLean barely needed to throw the curveball that has been arguably his best pitch, generating a .109 average and a 40.4% whiff rate before Saturday. He totaled seven curveballs on 93 pitches. Seventy-six were sinkers, cutters or four-seam fastballs. The Astros could not solve any of them.<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n Houston Astros’ Daulton Varsho (18) is out at second base as New York Mets’ Marcus Semien throws to first base during the seventh inning of a baseball game, Saturday, Aug. 29, 2026, in New York. (AP Photo\/Noah K. Murray)<\/p>\n Noah K. Murray\/Associated Press New York Mets’ Juan Soto reacts after scoring during the fifth inning of a baseball game against the Houston Astros, Saturday, Aug. 29, 2026, in New York. (AP Photo\/Noah K. Murray)<\/p>\n Noah K. Murray\/Associated Press New York Mets’ Juan Soto runs after hitting an RBI single against the Houston Astros during the fifth inning of a baseball game, Saturday, Aug. 29, 2026, in New York. (AP Photo\/Noah K. Murray)<\/p>\n Noah K. Murray\/Associated Press Houston Astros’ Jose Altuve reacts after being called out at first base during the fourth inning of a baseball game against the New York Mets, Saturday, Aug. 29, 2026, in New York. (AP Photo\/Noah K. Murray)<\/p>\n Noah K. Murray\/Associated Press Houston Astros Cristian Javier delivers a pitch against the New York Mets during the third inning of a baseball game, Saturday, Aug. 29, 2026, in New York. (AP Photo\/Noah K. Murray)<\/p>\n Noah K. Murray\/Associated Press Houston Astros Cristian Javier follows through on a pitch against the New York Mets during the third inning of a baseball game, Saturday, Aug. 29, 2026, in New York. (AP Photo\/Noah K. Murray)<\/p>\n Noah K. Murray\/Associated Press Houston Astros’ Bennett Sousa delivers a pitch against the New York Mets’ during the first inning of a baseball game, Saturday, Aug. 29, 2026, in New York. (AP Photo\/Noah K. Murray)<\/p>\n Noah K. Murray\/Associated Press Houston Astros’ Bennett Sousa delivers a pitch against the New York Mets’ during the first inning of a baseball game, Saturday, Aug. 29, 2026, in New York. (AP Photo\/Noah K. Murray)<\/p>\n Noah K. Murray\/Associated Press Houston Astros shortstop Jeremy Pe\u00f1a (3) is greeted by Isaac Paredes (15) after scoring on a sacrifice fly ball during the first inning of a baseball game against the New York Mets, Saturday, Aug. 29, 2026, in New York. (AP Photo\/Noah K. Murray)<\/p>\n Noah K. Murray\/Associated Press Houston Astros’ Yordan Alvarez hits a sacrifice fly ball against the New York Mets during the first inning of a baseball game, Saturday, Aug. 29, 2026, in New York. (AP Photo\/Noah K. Murray)<\/p>\n Noah K. Murray\/Associated Press Houston Astros’ Jeremy Pe\u00f1a slides into third base against New York Mets’ Bo Bichette (19) during the first inning of a baseball game, Saturday, Aug. 29, 2026, in New York. (AP Photo\/Noah K. Murray)<\/p>\n Noah K. Murray\/Associated Press<\/p>\n Yordan Alvarez matches career high in HRs<\/p>\n Alvarez started the day leading or tied for the American League lead in all three Triple Crown categories, but his pace has slowed in August. Junior\u00a0Caminero of the Rays hit his 36th home run Saturday, briefly tying Alvarez for the league lead. Pete\u00a0Alonso began the day tied with Alvarez at 91 runs batted in.<\/p>\n Alvarez had one home run and nine RBIs in his first 24 games this month, a stretch in which he still had an .874 OPS. A two-hit day Saturday, including his 37th home run of the season, left him sporting a .320 average and 1.048 OPS.<\/p>\n \u201cIf the home runs are not there, you\u2019ve still got to try to find a way to contribute and try to find a way to get on base,\u201d Alvarez said, through interpreter Otto Loor. \u201cAnd that\u2019s what I\u2019ve been trying to do.\u201d<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n With his 37th home run, Alvarez matched the career high he set in 2022. He did so with a laser. Daniel Duarte threw him a 1-1 cutter. Alvarez laced it 436 to right-center field at 113.4 mph off the bat. It was his fourth-longest homer of the season; the three longest were all hit at Globe Life Field.<\/p>\n Bennett Sousa as opener<\/p>\n Houston deployed left-hander Bennett Sousa as an opener with four left-handed or switch-hitters in the first five spots of the Mets order. It marked Sousa\u2019s first start in his 99th major-league appearance. Javier warmed as soon as he began the first inning.<\/p>\n Sousa did not complete it. He issued a leadoff walk to Francisco Lindor. Juan Soto and Bo Bichette both flied out. Carson Benge worked an eight-pitch walk. After getting ahead 0-2 on Jared Young with sliders, Sousa tried another. Young lined it softly into right field for an RBI single.<\/p>\n That proved Sousa\u2019s final hitter. He retired one of the three left-handed hitters he faced. Lefties owned a .410 batting average and 1.013 OPS in 46 plate appearances against him entering the day. Sousa became the 18th different pitcher to start a game for the Astros this season, a franchise record.<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n Cristian Javier falters in fifth<\/p>\n After taking over with two outs in the first inning, Javier retired 11 of 13 batters to begin his outing. He stranded the exceptions, two singles. Javier did not issue a walk and limited hard contact. But the Mets broke through against him in the fifth.<\/p>\n A misplay helped. With one out, Lindor pulled a drive to right field. Taylor Trammell retreated and leapt near the wall, unnecessarily, missing the ball. Lindor was credited with a double.<\/p>\n Soto, just activated from the injured list, fouled the sixth pitch of his at-bat off the inside of his right leg. Play paused as a trainer checked him. Javier threw two practice pitches during the delay. When Soto did step back in, Javier threw a curveball. Soto lined it into right field for a go-ahead single.<\/p>\n \u201cI feel very confident and very positive in the attack plan that we had,\u201d Javier said through an interpreter of the Soto at-bat. \u201cThe plan was for him not to hit the ball out of the ballpark and to try to get weak contact. So I felt like we executed that, but unfortunately he won the at-bat there.\u201d<\/p>\n Javier retired Bichette on a fly out. But Benge lined a fastball for a single, sending Soto to second. And Young looped an 0-2 sweeper to the right-field corner. Both runners, moving on the 0-2 pitch, scored. Javier faced the Mets lineup twice. He allowed six hits in his 4 \u2153 innings.<\/p>\n \u201cWhen he gets to that 70-80 (pitch) count, we need to get him through that,\u201d Espada said of Javier, who owns a 6.45 ERA in 44 2\/3 innings. \u201cI think that\u2019s the little hump right now. Stuff looks really good. Once he gets there it just looks like the pitches are starting to flatten up and not really have the depth and the finish that we\u2019re looking for.\u201d<\/p>\n After Javier\u2019s outing, Enyel De Los Santos threw two innings and Teng worked one. The rest of Houston\u2019s bullpen should be relatively fresh for Sunday\u2019s series finale, in which Ethan Pecko will make his third big-league start.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Bulk reliever Cristian Javier kept the Astros in the game until the Mets got to him through their…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":420658,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[56,58,57],"class_list":["post-420657","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\/420657","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=420657"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/420657\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/420658"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=420657"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=420657"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=420657"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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\nR
\nH
\nBI
\nBB
\nSO
\nAvg.<\/p>\n
\n30
\n2
\n4
\n2
\n3
\n6<\/p>\n
\n4
\n1
\n1
\n0
\n0
\n1
\n.282<\/p>\n
\n3
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\n2
\n0
\n0
\n.320<\/p>\n
\n3
\n0
\n0
\n0
\n1
\n0
\n.259<\/p>\n
\n4
\n0
\n1
\n0
\n0
\n1
\n.246<\/p>\n
\n3
\n0
\n0
\n0
\n1
\n0
\n.232<\/p>\n
\n4
\n0
\n0
\n0
\n0
\n0
\n.229<\/p>\n
\n4
\n0
\n0
\n0
\n0
\n1
\n.203<\/p>\n
\n2
\n0
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\n0
\n1
\n2
\n.260<\/p>\n
\n2
\n0
\n0
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\n.212<\/p>\n
\n1
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\n1
\n.204<\/p>\n
\n0
\n0
\n0
\n0
\n0
\n0
\n.261<\/p>\n
\nAB
\nR
\nH
\nBI
\nBB
\nSO
\nAvg.<\/p>\n
\n34
\n6
\n11
\n6
\n2
\n6<\/p>\n
\n4
\n2
\n1
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\n.234<\/p>\n
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\n.260<\/p>\n
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\n1
\n.279<\/p>\n
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\n.272<\/p>\n
\n4
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\n.219<\/p>\n
\n3
\n0
\n0
\n0
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\n.236<\/p>\n
\n3
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\n1
\n.223<\/p>\n
\n0
\n0
\n0
\n0
\n0
\n0
\n.000<\/p>\n
\n1
\n0
\n0
\n0
\n0
\n0
\n.228<\/p>\n
\n4
\n0
\n1
\n2
\n0
\n2
\n.233<\/p>\n
\n100
\n000
\n010_2
\n4
\n0<\/p>\n
\n100
\n030
\n02x_6
\n11
\n1<\/p>\n
\nR
\nER
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\nERA<\/p>\n
\n1
\n1
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\n6.52<\/p>\n
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\n3
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\n6.45<\/p>\n
\n0
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\n4.52<\/p>\n
\n2
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\n0
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\n19
\n4.42<\/p>\n
\nR
\nER
\nBB
\nSO
\nNP
\nERA<\/p>\n
\n1
\n0
\n3
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\n93
\n3.06<\/p>\n
\n1
\n1
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\n21
\n1.50<\/p>\n
\n0
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\n7.50<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
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<\/p>\n
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<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
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