Shane Bieber pitched effectively into the sixth inning, Alejandro Kirk slugged his fourth home run and the visiting Toronto Blue Jays snapped the Houston Astros’ six-game winning streak with a 3-1 victory on Monday.
After completing six trades over the past two days in the runup to the trade deadline on Monday, the Blue Jays rode a resilient effort from Bieber (3-2) to their fifth victory in seven games.
Bieber allowed one run on nine hits, issued two walks and struck out six over 5 2/3 innings as Toronto won for the fourth time in five games.
Bieber struck out Christian Walker with Yordan Alvarez and new acquisition Daulton Varsho on base to close the bottom of the first. He recorded a strikeout of Jeremy Pena with Jose Altuve and Cam Smith on the corners to cap the second, and with Isaac Paredes and Walker on the corners in the third, Bieber induced Altuve to fly out to center fielder Myles Straw to snuff that threat.
The Astros managed at least one baserunner in every inning Bieber was on the mound. Bieber did surrender an RBI single to Pena that plated Yainer Diaz with two outs in the sixth, with Pena taking second base as the throw to third failed to beat Smith to the bag. Braydon FIsher replaced Bieber, issued an intentional walk to Alvarez that loaded the bases, then induced a foul popup from Paredes that preserved the Blue Jays’ two-run lead.
Tyler Rogers worked a perfect ninth for his third save.
Kirk spotted the Blue Jays a 1-0 lead with his leadoff homer to left-center in the second off Astros right-hander Cristian Javier (1-2). Kazuma Okamoto and George Springer stroked back-to-back singles to open the fourth, and both scored in succession when Ernie Clement followed an RBI single by Jesus Sanchez with a sacrifice fly to left for a 3-0 lead.
Javier gave up three runs on seven hits with two strikeouts over six innings.
After stranding 11 baserunners against the Texas Rangers on Saturday and starting Sunday’s series finale 1-for-14 with runners in scoring position before a late rally yielded a series sweep, the Astros stranded 13 baserunners on Monday.
–Field Level Media
