Altuve, Singleton and Peña fuel a 4-run 7th inning as the Astros beat the Red Sox 8-4

BOSTON (AP) — Jose Altuve hit two-run homer and Jon Singleton and Jeremy Peña added RBI singles in a four-run seventh inning as the AL West-leading Houston Astros beat the Boston Red Sox 8-4 on Friday night.

Yainer Diaz added a two-run homer for the Astros, who pounded Boston’s bullpen on the way to their third straight win. Alex Bregman and Peña finished with three hits apiece.

Altuve’s homer off reliever Lucas Sims that tied the game in the seventh inning was the 224th of his career. That moved him into fourth place on the team’s all-time list.

“That’s huge,” Peña said of Altuve’s homer that tied the game at 3. “Whenever Josey hits a homer, that’s like a team battery.”

David Hamilton had a two-run double for the Red Sox, who had won three of four and were coming off a 4-2 road trip. Boston’s bullpen gave up seven runs and 12 hits in the last three innings.

Starter Tanner Houck held the Astros to one run and four hits over six innings before Altuve hit a hanging sweeper from Sims (1-5) that caromed off a billboard above the Green Monster.

“Obviously, trying to get a run in, we were down by two,” Altuve said. “Basically, just put a ball in play. ... I’ve been working on trying to drive the ball again and (have) been getting on base, hitting for power.”

Bregman and Yordan Alvarez followed Altuve’s shot with singles before Diaz hit a single off Zack Kelly, loading the bases. Singleton and Peña each lined a hit to center before Zach Dezenzo bounced into an inning-ending double play.

“They’re very aggressive, and today we didn’t do the job,” Red Sox manager Alex Cora said.

Reliever Tayler Scott struck out Boston star Rafael Devers swinging with the bases loaded in the seventh.

“That was a pretty big one,’' Scott said, breaking into a smile, when informed it was his 100th career strikeout. ”I had no idea that was my 100th. That was the kind of the exclamation mark on the 100th. That was pretty cool.”

Diaz hit his shot, his 11th of the season, through a light rain and over the Monster in the ninth.

Former Red Sox reliever Kaleb Ort (1-0) got four outs and earned the victory.

Cora elected to walk Alvarez with runners on the corners and two outs in the fifth. Houck got the next hitter, Diaz, to bounce to short.

“I was able to kind of bounce back, make pitches when I needed to,” said Houck, who struggled in his last two starts, giving up 10 runs over 11 innings.

Trailing 1-0, Hamilton lined his two-run shot into the left-center gap off Ronel Blanco.

Blanco bounced a pickoff attempt past first, allowing Nick Sogard to score from third, making it 3-1 Boston in the fourth.

Blanco gave up three runs, two earned, in four innings in his first career start against the Red Sox.

TRAINER’S ROOM

Astros: RHP Justin Verlander is slated to make a rehab start for Triple-A Sugar Land on Saturday. Manager Joe Espada said the plan was for him to go three innings or 50 pitches, “and then we’ll see where we go from there.”

Red Sox: Placed RHP Brayan Bello on the paternity list, but Cora said he’ll make his scheduled start Monday. However, Saturday’s scheduled starter, Cooper Criswell, was placed on the COVID-19 injured list.

Astros rookie RHP Spencer Arrighetti (4-10, 5.33 ERA) hopes to build off his best start of the season in Saturday’s second of a three-game series. He struck out 12 and allowed a run in six innings Sunday against Tampa Bay. Cora said after the game that RHP Josh Winckowski (2-1, 3.52) would start.

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