Christian Vazquez homered, Jose Altuve hit an RBI double during a two-run fourth inning, and a strong bullpen performance helped carry the Houston Astros to a 3-2 victory over the visiting Los Angeles Angels on Wednesday.
Vazquez snapped a scoreless tie with his seventh home run, a two-out solo shot off Angels starter Walbert Urena in the third inning. Urena (8-9) retired the first eight batters he faced before Vazquez drilled a first-pitch sinker 383 feet out to left field.
After the Angels erased the Astros’ 1-0 lead by scoring twice in the top of the fourth, Houston reclaimed its advantage in the bottom of the frame.
Yordan Alvarez and Isaac Paredes opened the fourth with a single and a walk, respectively, before Altuve plated Alvarez with a double to left, knotting the score. Two batters later, Cam Smith lifted a sacrifice fly to center, plating Paredes with the go-ahead run.
Five Houston relievers combined for 5 1/3 scoreless innings. Bennett Sousa (1-1) tossed 1 1/3 frames. Bryan Abreu worked a perfect eighth inning before closer Josh Hader stranded pinch runner Adam Frazier at third base in the ninth for his 18th save.
Houston snapped a three-game losing streak. Los Angeles has alternated wins and losses for six games.
Astros starter Ethan Pecko made his major league debut and pitched into the fourth.
Pecko stranded at least one baserunner in each of the first three innings.
The Angels rallied from a one-run deficit in the fourth when Vaughn Grissom (walk) and Josh Lowe (single) reached with one out. Denzer Guzman followed with a deep drive to left that a fan reached into the field of play to snag.
Guzman was awarded second base on the subsequent interference call, with both Grissom and Lowe scoring following an umpire conference. Pecko struck out Oswald Peraza for the second out of the frame and was lifted in favor of Sousa, who retired Wade Meckler on a grounder to escape the jam.
Pecko allowed two runs on three hits and three walks with four strikeouts across 3 2/3 innings. He threw 89 pitches.
Astros shortstop Jeremy Pena departed early due to a right hand contusion. He was hit by a first-inning pitch but was called out when it was ruled that he swung at the delivery for strike three. Pena remained in the game before exiting for a pinch hitter in the third inning.
