Jose Altuve and Jeremy Peña hit home runs as the Houston Astros extended their perfect record to 7-0 in games started by Yusei Kikuchi with an 11-5 win over the struggling Arizona Diamondbacks on Saturday.
Altuve had three hits and scored three runs. Peña’s 15th homer was a three-run blast that finished off a five-run sixth inning, which began with the Astros holding a slim one-run lead.
“It’s great to put runs on the board,” Peña said. “That’s what we try to do. I feel like whenever we’ve got a lead, our pitching staff does a great job of closing out the game, so that’s what we try to do — get some runs on the board and let our pitching staff do their thing.”
Houston extended its lead in the AL West to 5 1/2 games ahead of Seattle.
Arizona, which has lost three straight and seven of its last 10 games, holds a half-game lead over the New York Mets for the second National League wild card spot.
Kikuchi (8-9) gave up four runs and seven hits over six innings but struck out six, setting a career-high 183 strikeouts for the season.
Eduardo Rodriguez pitches in the 2nd inning“I got hit around a little bit today,” Kikuchi said through a translator. “But I didn’t give up a walk and kept the team in the game, so I’m happy about that.”
Since joining the Astros in a trade from the Toronto Blue Jays on July 29, Kikuchi has a 3.07 ERA and a 32.1% strikeout rate.
Kevin Newman homered off Kikuchi in the fourth to give Arizona a 3-1 lead, but Houston responded with four runs against Eduardo Rodriguez in the bottom of the fourth inning.
Rodriguez (2-2) faced 10 batters and used 47 pitches to get through the inning. Houston loaded the bases without a hit. Chas McCormick tied the game with a two-run single, and Yordan Alvarez’s two-out RBI single put the Astros ahead. An error and a bases-loaded walk by Alex Bregman capped the scoring for Houston.
