ARLINGTON, Texas — Yordan Alvarez had another moonshot for his AL-leading 31st home run , LaMonte Wade Jr. hit his first career grand slam and the Houston Astros beat the Texas Rangers 9-3 on Saturday night.
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The Astros led for good after Alvarez, also the AL leader with 70 RBIs, hit a two-run homer 425 feet to straightaway center in the first inning, a night after a towering 455-foot blast pulled to right in the series opener . The American League All-Star starting designated hitter is one behind National League All-Star DH Kyle Schwarber for the major league lead in homers.
Peter Lambert (8-5) pitched three-hit ball over six innings while striking out seven and walking one. The right-hander, who didn’t make the Astros roster out of spring training, is 6-1 with a 2.84 ERA over his last nine starts.
Ezequiel Durán homered twice for the AL West-leading Rangers (48-47). He had a solo shot off Lambert in the fourth, and added a two-run homer in the ninth.
Wade’s slam in the second was his 57th career homer and his second in nine games with the Astros (47-50). Christian Vázquez went deep leading off the third to make it 7-0, when they already had eight of their 10 hits.
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All three Houston homers came off Texas starter Kumar Rocker (2-8), who struck out six, but walked two and also hit a batter over 5 2/3 innings.
Alvarez, now with 201 career homers, also had a double and walked twice. He has hit .455 (10 of 22) with seven homers and 11 RBIs in six games this season at Globe Life Field.
Houston’s Cristian Javier (0-1, 10.22 ERA), who missed nearly three months because of a right shoulder strain, makes his first start since April 8 in the series finale Sunday going into the All-Star break. The Rangers go with MacKenzie Gore (5-8, 4.72), who pitched five innings Wednesday in a loss to the Angels, in place of Jacob deGrom (left glute strain).
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