Astros coast past Angels, 6-1

Yordan Alvarez homered and doubled to lead the Houston Astros to a 6-1 victory over the Los Angeles Angels on Saturday night in Anaheim, Calif.

Alvarez ended up finishing with three hits for Houston, which won for the fourth time in its past five games.

The Astros got another strong start on the mound, this time from Hunter Brown, one night after Framber Valdez logged a complete game. Brown (2-5) went six scoreless innings, scattering just two hits and four walks while striking out seven.

Houston took a 2-0 lead in the third inning against Angels starter Tyler Anderson (5-6), who avoided further damage thanks in large part to the defense behind him.

Chas McCormick began the inning with a triple, then scored on a single by Jose Altuve. Altuve stole second, Alex Bregman walked and Alvarez was hit by a pitch, loading the bases with no outs.

However, Anderson responded by striking out Jeremy Pena and Yainer Diaz. Jake Meyers singled to left, scoring Altuve from third. But Bregman, who tried to score from second, was thrown out at the plate by Los Angeles left fielder Taylor Ward, whose perfect throw on one hop made it easy for catcher Matt Thaiss to apply the tag.

Alvarez doubled the Astros' lead in the fifth with a two-run shot, his 13th homer of the season. Anderson kept Houston in check for the rest of his outing, giving up the four runs on seven hits in six innings. He walked one and struck out three.

The Angels got on the board in the seventh once Brown was out of the game. Rafael Montero entered in relief and got two quick outs, but he then served up Nolan Schanuel's solo shot, which got Los Angeles within 4-1.

It looked like the Angels were going to do more damage, as they loaded the bases after Schanuel went deep, but Bryan Abreu got Zach Neto to ground out to end the frame.

Diaz and Mauricio Dubon had RBI singles in the eighth for Houston.

--Field Level Media