Brice Matthews and Christian Walker homered in back-to-back innings and combined for five RBI to lead the visiting Houston Astros to a 6-3 win over the Boston Red Sox on Saturday.
Matthews’ three-run shot in the fourth helped the Astros build a 5-0 lead they would not relinquish. Spencer Arrighetti (4-0) nabbed the victory, striking out four while working around five walks across five innings of one-run ball.
Walker had a 3-for-4 day with two RBI and two runs while Carlos Correa and Dustin Harris also had multiple hits for Houston, which pounded out 12 in the series-evening victory. However, Walker left the game in the ninth after being hit in the head by a Tyler Samaniego fastball.
Wilyer Abreu went 2-for-3 with an RBI for the Red Sox, who left 10 on base.
Houston took a 1-0 lead while Connelly Early (2-2) labored through a 28-pitch first. The Boston southpaw allowed two walks before Walker lined a one-out RBI single to left, but Jose Altuve’s 6-4-3 double play limited the damage.
Arrighetti pitched a 1-2-3 first before twin killings helped him through the next two frames. In the third, the Red Sox squandered their first of two bases-loaded opportunities as Willson Contreras’ 6-4-3 double-play grounder erased Ceddanne Rafaela’s leadoff single and two walks.
In the next half-inning, the visitors sent eight men to the plate and scored four runs to break the game open.
After Walker singled and Altuve doubled over Rafaela in center, Matthews crushed a three-run homer into the Green Monster seats to make it 4-0. Cam Smith crushed a wall-ball double to deep center and scored on Correa’s bloop single into right two batters later.
Arrighetti squashed a two-on Boston threat in the fourth, then Walker lined a solo shot to left off reliever Ryan Watson in the fifth.
The Red Sox cut into their deficit in the fifth on a Contreras sacrifice fly that scored Connor Wong. The deep drive would have led to more damage if not for Matthews’ leaping catch against the wall.
After Smith and Correa made highlight-reel plays to blank Boston in the sixth, the hosts climbed within 6-3 when Abreu and Trevor Story knocked back-to-back RBI singles in the seventh.
The Red Sox put five straight batters on base with two outs in the seventh, but they left the bases loaded as Kai-Wei Teng struck out Rafaela looking to begin his 1 1/3 scoreless frames.
