Yordan Alvarez launched two home runs off of Carlos Carrasco, who sustained an injury and left his start early, as the Houston Astros defeated the New York Mets (45-26) for a second straight game, 5-3 on Wednesday afternoon at Minute Maid Park.
The Houston slugger had his way with the Mets, who entered the quick two-game set having won three of four from the Miami Marlins, hitting three round-trippers in the series.
It was the first time this season that New York was swept and just the fourth time they lost a series this season.
Carrasco barely got out of the first inning as the overarching issues of early-game struggles resurfaced. Entering Wednesday afternoon with a 4.38 career ERA in the first inning, the Mets starter was torched for four runs as Michael Brantley doubled home one before Alvarez and Alex Bregman home runs gave Houston a comfortable advantage.
Alvarez picked up his second of the day in his next at-bat in the third inning when he mashed a liner into the second deck of the left-field seats.
Just two batters later, Carrasco was out of the game after suffering an injury in the middle of an at-bat against Yuli Gurriel which was later described by the team as lower back tightness.
A bullpen combination of Yoan Lopez, Tommy Hunter, Joely Rodriguez, and Edwin Diaz pitched a scoreless 5.2 innings to see things out and keep the visitors close, though they missed out on some golden opportunities to pull off another comeback.
Brandon Nimmo had a direct hand in New York’s first two runs of the afternoon, first bringing home Dominic Smith on a sacrifice fly in the third before coming around to score on Starling Marte’s double in the fifth.
Pete Alonso’s sacrifice fly to bring home Marte later in the inning cut New York’s hole to just two. It was Alonso’s 66th RBI of the season to extend his MLB lead.
The Mets proceeded to load the bases in the fifth with one out, chasing Astros starter Luis Garcia from the game. But Ryne Stanek got Eduardo Escobar to pop out before striking out Smith to keep Houston’s lead intact.
