HOUSTON – Yordan Alvarez homered and drove four runs in the Houston Astros’ early attack off Yusei Kikuchi to crush the Seattle Mariners 12-3 on Friday night.
Cuban Alvarez and Jake Meyers hit two-run homers off Kikuchi (7-7), who tied for the highest number of runs allowed in his life, with seven after just 2 2/3 innings.
Puerto Rican Martín Maldonado and Cuban Yuli Gurriel also homered. Another Puerto Rican, Carlos Correa, had a triple, as did Jose Altuve, to help Houston win its second game in a row after falling in all four of its previous games.
Lance McCullers Jr. (10-4) allowed five hits and two runs with eight strikeouts to score the win after losing his most recent two starts.
Kyle Seager and Ty France hit solo homers for the Mariners, who saw a three-game winning streak come to an end.
With one out in the first, Correa hit his first triple of the season and made it 1-0. Álvarez followed him with a groove with which the Puerto Rican scored.
Chas McCormick walked with one out in the second before Meyers’ home run.
Correa opened the third with a single, Álvarez bounced it through center field and the score was already 6-0. The Astros blew it away in back-to-back turns. Gurriel disappeared the ball between left and center.
Aledmys Diaz doubled and Kikuchi walked Maldonado with two outs to end his work.
For the Mariners the Venezuelan Luis Torrens 4-0.
For the Astros, the Cubans Yordan Álvarez 5-2 with two runs scored and four produced, Yuli Gurriel 5-3 with 1 scored and two RBIs, Aledmys Díaz 5-2; Puerto Ricans Carlos Correa 3-2 with 3 runs scored and 1 RBI and Martín Maldonado 2-2 with 1 scored and one RBI; and the Venezuelan José Altuve 4-1 with one scored.
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