Jake Meyers Slugs Astros to 9-7 Win in New York

What if I told you the Astros pitchers would walk 12 Yankees and allow eight hits while the Astros themselves struck out 14 times with only six hits? Would you think our boys would win?

They did, mostly thanks to Jake Meyers and his two, three-run homers (second and sixth innings) with a little help from his friends Yordan Alvarez, with a two-run shot in the third, and Martin Maldonado, with a solo homer right after Meyers’ in the sixth.

It was the Return of Jose Urquidy Day, and his performance was not as bad as the box score shows. He went 3.1 innings and is credited with allowing five runs. But through innings 1-3, he only allowed one run. Then the base-on-balls bug struck in the fourth. Two cheap hits and two walks brought on Phil Maton with one out. Maton hit a batter and walked two more, runs charged to Urquidy, tying the score at five.

J.P. France put out the fire in the fourth and pitched three more innings, allowing only one unearned run thanks to an atrocious bobble by Jeremy Pena. He managed to work around three Yankee hits and three walks and was credited with the win.

The walk-fest continued with Hector Neris in the eighth inning, who gave up two and one run in 2/3rds of an inning. Bryan Abreu got the shaky save with scoreless end-of-eighth and ninth innings, working around a hit and two walks, including a key strikeout of Aaron Judge in the ninth. Judge fanned three times today.

Former ace pitcher now with the Yankees, Carlos Rodon, was the early victim of the first Meyers and Alvarez home runs and left the game after two outs in the third with an apparent leg cramp, down 5-1.

The Astros head to Baltimore for a three-game series with the red-hot, first-place Orioles. Game time is Tuesday, 6:05. Framber Valdez gets the ball for the Stros.

Box score HERE.