Mancini’s memorable night gets Astros’ 70th win as they top Guardians 9-3

It seems that Trey Mancini is on a mission. The newly acquired first baseman had a night for the ages in his second start as an Astro, propelling the team to a 9-3 win against the Guardians to take the second game of the series. Mancini hit two home runs, including a Grand Slam, and drove in five of Houston’s nine runs.

Mancini, who hit fifth for Houston and was the designated hitter, went 2-for-5 and had his two long balls in his first two at-bats of the game. The 30-year-old homered on Wednesday as well.

After starter Framber Valdez allowed a solo shot to Amed Rosario to crack the scoreboard in the first inning, Mancini answered with a solo jack of his own to welcome starter Hunter Gaddis in his MLB debut. It was Trey’s 12th homer of the campaign.

Then, the hitting explosion happened for the Astros in the fifth. Even though Jake Meyers kicked off the inning with a strikeout, Martín Maldonado and José Altuve got consecutive singles and Yordan Álvarez brought in Maldonado on a single. Right after that, Alex Bregman drew a walk and loaded the bases for Mancini’s big stage.

On a 3-1 count, Mancini got a fastball from Gaddis and launched his first career grand slam to make it 6-1 and cap a five-run rally that eventually was enough for the ‘Stros to get their 70th win of the year.

Want a crazy fact? Mancini had three home runs for the Orioles in his last 30 games. Well, he has now the same number in four games as a member of the Astros (two starts).

At the same time, Valdez threw another good game to extend his streak to 18 quality starts, the second-longest in Astros history behind only Mike Scott’s 20 straight QS (1986). The lefty improved his record to 10-4 after going 6 1/3 innings with seven hits allowed and three earned runs. He gave up three free passes and added three punchouts to his count. His ERA lowered to 2.87.

The Guardians tried to come back in the late innings, but Seth Martínez and Bryan Abreu got the final eight outs of the game and combined for five strikeouts.

In addition, the only Astros starter today to not get a hit was Jeremy Peña, who went 0-for-4 and is hitting .143 (5-for-35) in his last nine contests.

On Saturday, the third game of the series presents a pitching duel between Luis García and Cal Quantrill. The game starts at 5:10 pm CDT.

VIDEOS AND BOX SCORE HERE.