10 IN A ROW AND COUNTING! García, Yordan propel Astros to 5-0 win vs Twins

The Astros have just completed their third consecutive sweep and their 10th straight win with a 5-0 score against the Twins on Thursday afternoon, their fifth shutout throughout the streak. Luis García stayed hot on the mound and Yordan Álvarez kept swinging a hot bat to lead Houston to double digits on the win column in May, an outstanding month for the ‘Stros (10-1).

García was strong enough to go through five innings of five hits and zero runs, along with two walks and nine strikeouts (2.94 ERA). The 25-year-old, whose ERA in his last three starts is at 1.50 (18 IP), got his third win of the campaign and keeps proving his rookie season was not a fluke. In addition, the righty has compiled 18 strikeouts in his last 12 innings.

Yordan was the man in charge of the offense, going 3-for-5 with his second multi-homer effort of the season. Álvarez, who also drove in three runs and scored twice, is now leading the MLB with 10 long balls (tied with Aaron Judge). The Astros’ phenom took deep starter Josh Winder and reliever Cole Sands over the center-field fence in both homers.

Despite being only 24 years old, having missed almost the entire 2020 season, and having played 260 career games, this was Álvarez’s 10th multi-homer game of his career. In fact, according to Baseball-Reference, Álvarez is one of three players to record 10 multi-homer contests within 260 career games since 1901. The other two on the list are Gleyber Torres and Gary Sánchez.

In the middle of the party, the Astros got bad news. In the sixth inning, Jeremy Peña left the game with right knee discomfort, which was the cause for his new day-to-day status. Before departing from the game, Peña had this beautiful play to retire speedster Byron Buxton to end the sixth…

Peña, who finished 3-for-3, was seen in the fourth inning taking a look at his right knee…

Going back to pitching, García was followed by scoreless efforts from Seth Martínez, Blake Taylor, and Rafael Montero. The Astros’ bullpen ERA went down to 2.43 after Thursday’s game, the second-best in all the MLB and only behind the Yankees (2.38 ERA).

On Friday, the Astros will begin a three-game series against the Washington Nationals, who are in the last place of the NL East with an 11-22 record. Framber Valdez will start for Houston tomorrow with Josiah Gray as his counterpart for the Nats.

VIDEOS AND BOX SCORE HERE.