Tatsuya Imai allowed one run over six innings, Isaac Paredes clubbed a three-run homer and the Houston Astros sent the reeling Miami Marlins to their eighth straight loss with a 5-3 victory on Tuesday.
Imai (6-4) produced his fifth quality start of the season and first since he tossed six shutout innings against the Detroit Tigers on June 25. He retired the side in order only once — in the second — but stranded four baserunners in scoring position across six innings.
The Astros were quick to provide Imai a working margin. Jeremy Pena opened the bottom of the first with his seventh career leadoff home run and eighth homer this season, a 405-foot line drive to left-center off Marlins right-hander Tyler Phillips (2-5). An inning later, LaMonte Wade Jr. reached via a leadoff walk and later scored when Lucas Spence roped a double to right.
Phillips then struck out Christian Vazquez and Pena to strand two runners in scoring position and breezed through the third and fourth. Phillips departed when Vazquez reached on an error by Marlins third baseman Javier Sanoja, and the game pivoted immediately thereafter.
Tyler Zuber replaced Phillips with one out in the fifth and Miami trailing 2-1. He induced Pena to hit into a fielder’s choice and followed with a strikeout of Alvarez that should have ended the frame. But a wild pitch enabled Alvarez to reach first base, and Paredes socked the first pitch of 388 feet to left for a three-run home run and a 5-1 lead.
Paredes’ 13th home run followed a two-out rally by the Marlins in the top of the fifth, with Kyle Stowers following an Otto Lopez walk with a run-scoring double to left-center. Imai recovered with a strikeout of Heriberto Hernandez that closed the fifth and struck out two in the sixth. Imai allowed four hits and three walks and recorded eight strikeouts.
Joe Mack shaved the Marlins’ deficit to 5-3 with a two-run homer off AJ Blubaugh in the seventh, his ninth home run of the season and second of the series. Astros closer Josh Hader notched his 11th save with a scoreless ninth, working around a leadoff double.
