Kyle Tucker produced a two-run double as part of a five-run fifth inning and the Houston Astros snapped a six-game home losing skid with a 7-5 win over the San Diego Padres on Saturday.
The Astros (81-62) extended their lead in the American League West to 1 1/2 games over the Seattle Mariners by sending 10 batters to the plate while recording eight hits in the fifth.
Houston chased Padres starter Seth Lugo in the process and added another run off reliever Nick Martinez when four consecutive batters recorded singles to flip a two-run deficit to a 7-4 lead.
Jose Altuve and Jeremy Pena started the uprising with back-to-back singles before Yordan Alvarez produced a run-scoring double that plated Altuve and pulled Houston to within 4-3.
Padres third baseman Matthew Batten temporarily stopped the bleeding with a smothering stop of an Alex Bregman grounder, but Tucker followed with a double to right that pushed the Astros to the lead. Martin Maldonado capped the scoring with his single driving home Jose Abreu.
The Astros grabbed a 1-0 lead when Alvarez clubbed his 26th home run with two outs in the third.
Lugo (6-7) stranded two runners in scoring position in the bottom of the first and worked around a two-out walk to Mauricio Dubon in the second. But when Houston cut into the Padres’ 4-1 lead in the fourth courtesy of a fielder’s choice grounder from Dubon, it forecast what was to come.
Lugo allowed six runs on seven hits and three walks with two strikeouts over 4 1/3 innings.
The Padres (67-76) rocked Astros right-hander Cristian Javier with a two-out rally in the fourth, with Luis Campusano (RBI single), Jurickson Profar (two-run homer), Batten (walk) and Trent Grisham (RBI double) all reaching base in succession that provided a 4-1 lead.
Javier departed after four innings, leaving the Houston bullpen to cover the five frames with a piecemeal effort capped by Ryan Pressly, who notched his 30th save by striking out the side while stranding two in the ninth.
–Field Level Media
