HOUSTON (AP) — Yordan Alvarez hit a grand slam for his American League-leading 22nd home run, Tatsuya Imai struck out eight and the Houston Astros defeated the Athletics 13-2 on Saturday.
Alvarez capped the Astros' five-run second inning with the fifth slam of his career when he blasted a changeup from Athletics starter Kade Morris (0-1) into the right field seats. Alvarez tops the AL with 48 RBIs.
LaMonte Wade Jr. and Jose Altuve also homered for the
Astros, who roughed up Morris in his major league debut and scored all of their runs before the sixth inning.
Morris gave up nine runs and nine hits, walked three and struck out four in four innings. The 23-year-old right-hander was drafted in the third round by the New York Mets in 2023 out of the University of Nevada, Reno. He was traded to the Athletics in 2024 for Paul Blackburn.
Wade Jr.’s solo homer led off the second inning for his first hit with the Astros since signing on Thursday. Wade finished 3 for 5 with three RBIs and was a triple shy of hitting for the cycle.
In the third, the Athletics scored their only runs with on Tyler Soderstrom's RBI single and a bases-loaded walk by Zack Gelof — with the help of a successful Athletics ABS challenge. Soderstrom has reached base safely in 16 consecutive games.
Astros starter Tatsuya Imai (3-3) battled back to strike out Jeff McNeil swinging to end the third and leave the bases loaded. Imai gave up two runs and five hits in five innings.
In his second game since coming off the injured list, Altuve hit his fifth homer of the season and gave the Astros a 7-2 lead in the third.
Houston blew it open with its six-run fifth, led by a pair of two-run doubles from Wade and Jeremy Peña.
Isaac Paredes drove in his ninth run in the last four games with a sacrifice fly in the first.
Athletics LHP Gage Jump (1-1, 3.75 ERA) will face Astros RHP Mike Burrows (3-7, 5.66) in the series finale on Sunday.
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