Jose Urquidy allowed two hits over seven shutout innings to lead the Houston Astros to a 6-1 win against the visiting Boston Red Sox on Wednesday afternoon.
Urquidy (10-4) matched his season high with 10 strikeouts and didn’t walk a batter en route to reaching double-digit wins in a season for the first time in his four-year MLB career.
Jose Altuve went 4-for-4, Trey Mancini homered in his second at-bat since being traded to Houston from the Baltimore Orioles on Monday, and Alex Bregman and Kyle Tucker added two hits apiece for the Astros, who avoided getting swept for the second time since the All-Star break.
Red Sox starter Rich Hill (4-5) went just three innings in his first appearance since July 1 because of a left knee sprain. He allowed four runs and six hits, struck out one and didn’t walk a batter.
Xander Bogaerts homered in the ninth to prevent the shutout, and Reese McGuire had two hits in his first game for Boston since he was traded from the Chicago White Sox on Monday.
The Red Sox won the first two games of the series 3-2 and 2-1.
Hill, who came in 3-1 in his career against Houston with a 2.49 ERA, gave up two runs in each of the first two innings.
Altuve singled to start the bottom of the first and Jeremy Pena doubled to put runners on second and third with no outs. A ground out by Yordan Alvarez scored Altuve and a fly ball by Bregman brought home Pena for a 2-0 lead.
Tucker started the second inning with a bunt single before Mancini drilled a two-run homer to left for a 4-0 lead.
Tucker came up with two runners on base in the fifth and doubled both home to stretch the lead to 6-0.
Urquidy retired the first 13 batters in order before Alex Verdugo was hit by a pitch with one out in the fifth. McGuire then broke up the no-hitter with a leadoff single in the sixth, but Urquidy eventually stranded runners on second and third.
–Field Level Media
