Jose Altuve, Jeremy Peña power the Astros past the Guardians, 9-3

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HOUSTON (AP) — Jose Altuve hit a three-run home run, Jeremy Peña had two solo shots and the Houston Astros beat the Cleveland Guardians 9-3 on Friday night.

Altuve’s eighth home run of the season came on the first pitch of the night from Guardians reliever Matt Festa. It landed in the first row of the left- field Crawford Boxes.

Peña’s first home run of the night came in the third inning to cut Cleveland’s lead to a run, and then he led off the seventh with his sixth home run of the season and third multi-homer game of his career. He finished the night 3 for 5 with three RBIs.

Altuve added an RBI double later in the inning for a season-high four RBIs.

After failing to complete the first inning in his previous start, Tatsuya Imai (4-3) struck out a career-high 11 batters while allowing three runs on six hits over six innings without issuing a walk. He retired the final 11 he faced after giving up a two-run homer to Rhys Hoskins in the third inning.

The 11 strikeouts were a season high by an Astros pitcher, and it’s the first time they’ve had a pitcher strike out at least 11 without walking a batter since Yusei Kikuchi on Aug. 31, 2024.

Houston's Yordan Alvarez was 1 for 4 with a walk to extend his on-base streak to 25 games.

Tanner Bibee (2-8) was charged with four runs, three earned, over 5 1/3 innings.

Erik Sabrowski allowed two runs over 1/3 of an inning for Cleveland after being reinstated from the injured list before the game.

Astros RHP Spencer Arrighetti (7-2, 2.57 ERA) was set to face LHP Joey Cantillo (5-3, 4.38 ERA) on Saturday.

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