Jose Altuve led off the bottom of the first inning with a solo homerun, and the Boston Red Sox were held to just five hits for the second straight night as the Houston Astros made it two in a row to start the series with a 5-1 win at Minute Maid Park on Tuesday night.
Altuve hit his eighth homer of the season and opened the scoring to left center field on a 2-1 pitch off Boston starter Garrett Richards as the first batter for Houston. Chase McCormick helped extend the lead to a pair with a sacrifice fly in the fourth to make it 2-0. The Sox got their only run of the night on a RBI groundout by Marwin Gonzalez in the fifth. A throwing error by Gonzalez in the seventh allowed Kyle Tucker to score, and the Astros finished the scoring in the same inning on a bases loaded walk to Carlos Correa and an RBI single by Yordan Alvarez.
Richards (4-4) took the loss allowing two runs on four hits with four walks and five strikeouts in 6.0 innings. Alex Verdugo was the only batter for Boston with multiple hits with two, as their record falls to 32-22. After being shut down by a young arm on Monday night, the Sox were up against it again Tuesday as Luis Garcia (4-3) earned the win allowing just one run on five hits with one walk and six strikeouts in 7.0 innings. Tucker had three hits and Alvarez had two, as Houston goes to 30-24 with their third straight win. Boston looks to turn the tide in game three of the four game set on Wednesday night at 8:10. RHP Nick Pivetta (6-0, 3.86 ERA) is set to take to the bump, against LHP Framber Valdez (0-0, 2.25) for the Astros.
