The Houston Astros defeated the Miami Marlins 8-2 on Monday night inside loanDepot Park. The win gets Houston back to 13 games over .500 and marks their first win of this road trip.
HOW IT HAPPENED:
The Marlins (55-56) started with Sandy Alcantara on the mound, who was rumored to be a possible trade target for the Astros at the deadline but ultimately stayed put. He started off strong, retiring the Astros in order.
The Astros (63-50) went with Jason Alexander, who entered play with an ERA of 7.36. He also navigated a clean first, working around an error to post a zero.
Alcantara held the Astros scoreless through three, but that was with plenty of hard hit balls that found fielders. In the fourth, Houston got on the board via an RBI double from former Marlin Jesus Sanchez. After Carlos Correa, Christian Walker, and Yainer Diaz all added RBIs, it was 5-0 Astros.
Alexander was able to navigate six scoreless for his best outing of the season. Miami did load the bases in the sixth, but a groundout ended the threat.
The Marlins got on the board in the seventh on back-to-back solo home runs from Javier Sanoja and Derek Hill. However, Houston answered with two more runs to extend the lead to 8-2.
That lead was good enough, and the Astros closed the door on the victory.
BIG NUMBER: 8
The Astros scored eight, marking three more than they did in the entire three-game series in Boston over the weekend.
PLAYER OF THE GAME: Jason Alexander
The Astros got a surprisingly effective outing from Alexander, who had struggled all season. That allowed Houston to grab their first win of the road trip.
UP NEXT: The Astros and Marlins will meet again tomorrow night at 5:40 PM. You can listen to the game on ESPN 103.7 Lafayette 104.1 Lake Charles.