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AP Photo/Eric Christian Smith Houston Astros starting pitcher Yusei Kikuchi follows through on a pitch against the Arizona Diamondbacks during the first inning of a baseball game, Saturday, Sept. 7, 2024, in Houston.
AP
11:17 JST, September 8, 2024
HOUSTON (AP) — Jose Altuve and Jeremy Peña homered as the Houston Astros improved to 7-0 in games started by Yusei Kikuchi by beating the scuffling Arizona Diamondbacks 11-5 on Saturday.
Altuve had three hits and scored three times. Peña’s 15th homer was a three-run shot, capping a five-run sixth inning that started with the Astros clinging to a one-run lead.
“It’s great to put runs on the board,” Peña said. “That’s what we try to do. I feel like whenever we’ve got a lead our pitching staff does a great job of completing the game, so that’s what we try to do — get some runs on the board and let our pitching staff do their thing.”
Houston entered with a 4 1/2-game lead in the AL West over Seattle.
Arizona, which has dropped three straight and seven of 10, holds a half-game edge for the second National League wild card.
AP Photo/Eric Christian Smith Houston Astros starting pitcher Yusei Kikuchi throws against the Arizona Diamondbacks during the sixth inning of a baseball game Saturday, Sept. 7, 2024, in Houston.
Kikuchi (8-9) allowed four runs and seven hits over six innings. He struck out six, giving him a career-high 183 strikeouts this season.
“I got hit around a little bit today,” Kikuchi said through a translator. “But I didn’t give up a walk and kept the team in the game, so I’m happy about that.”
The left-hander has a 3.07 ERA since joining the Astros in a trade from the Toronto Blue Jays on July 29, with a 32.1% strikeout rate.
Kevin Newman homered off Kikuchi in the fourth to put Arizona up 3-1, but Houston rallied for four runs against Eduardo Rodriguez in the bottom half.
Rodriguez (2-2) faced 10 batters and needed 47 pitches to get through the inning. Houston loaded the bases without a hit, and Chas McCormick tied the game with a two-run single. Yordan Alvarez’s two-out RBI single put the Astros on top and, after an error, Alex Bregman capped the flurry with a bases-loaded walk.
“We didn’t execute in some critical times on the mound,” Diamondbacks manager Torey Lovullo said. “We made some mistakes defensively. There’s just a couple of things we can pinpoint that will show up, as it did today, with big crooked numbers and a big score against a team like this when you don’t play it to the level you’re capable of playing.”
Alvarez finished with three hits and is batting .410 with 13 RBIs over his last 10 games.
Eugenio Suárez hit his 25th homer in the sixth to bring Arizona within a run, but the Astros broke open the game with the help of Peña’s three-run drive into the Houston bullpen in right-center field.
“That was the swing of the game,” Astros manager Joe Espada said. “Driving that ball the opposite way, which is not easy in this ballpark, to go oppo like that, but I thought overall our approach was really, really good today offensively.”
Dylan Floro was charged with all five Houston runs in the sixth.
Rodriguez gave up five runs, four earned, and seven hits over four innings with one strikeout.
