Jose Altuve and Chas McCormick hit solo homers, Luis Garcia struck out eight in six innings and the Houston Astros defeated the Toronto Blue Jays 6-3 on Sunday afternoon in Buffalo, N.Y.
Yuli Gurriel had three hits, two walks and one RBI and Kyle Tucker added two hits and two RBIs for Houston in the rubber match of the three-game series.
Garcia (5-3) held the Blue Jays to one run, three hits and two walks. Ryan Pressly pitched around a walk in the ninth to earn his ninth save of the season.
Toronto left-hander Steven Matz (6-3) allowed four runs, eight hits and four walks in 4 1/3 innings.
Altuve led off the first inning with his ninth home run of the season, his fifth leading off a game.
McCormick led off the second inning with his fifth homer of the season.
Toronto scored once in the bottom of the second. Teoscar Hernandez singled, took second when Randal Grichuk walked, moved to third when Joe Panik’s groundout forced Grichuk at second and scored on Lourdes Gurriel Jr.’s sacrifice fly.
Houston scored twice in the third. Alex Bregman doubled, Yordan Alvarez walked, Gurriel loaded the bases with a single and Tucker blooped a two-run single.
Houston added a run in the seventh. Tim Mayza allowed two bloop singles with one out. Carl Edwards Jr. walked McCormick to load the bases. A run scored on an error by first baseman Rowdy Tellez on Martin Maldonado’s two-out grounder.
Brooks Raley entered in the bottom of the seventh and pitched 1 1/3 perfect innings.
Bregman doubled and scored on Gurriel’s single against Joel Payamps in the eighth.
Ryne Stanek entered with one out in the bottom of the eighth and allowed two runs on a fielder’s choice grounder by Hernandez and Grichuk’s single.
Toronto catcher Danny Jansen was replaced by Reese McGuire in the fourth inning. Jansen suffered a strained right hamstring when thrown out at third on a fielder’s choice grounder in the third inning.
Houston’s Aledmys Diaz (fractured left hand) will be out six to eight weeks after being hit by a pitch Saturday.
–Field Level Media