Thrust into starting role, Alexander rewards Astros with 6 shutout innings

MINNEAPOLIS -- Spot starter Jason Alexander made the most of his surprise opportunity, pitching six shutout innings while Isaac Paredes hit a two-run homer on Tuesday as the Astros beat the Twins, 2-1, at Target Field.

Alexander (1-0) was called up to join the 26-man roster on Tuesday when RHP Lance McCullers was scratched from his start. He found out at noon that he was going to be on the mound just over six hours later, but he was unfazed. allowed just four hits with one walk and four strikeouts in his first Major League start since last September.

“Jason Alexander, right?” an impressed manager Joe Espada said after the game. “Walks in here today, we tell him, ‘Hey, you want to start the game?’ And he goes out there and he pitches like the Jason Alexander we saw last year. Changing speeds, he's throwing a ton of strikes, keeping our defense engaged.”

It was quite a statement from Alexander, who was one of the Astros’ most effective starters down the stretch last season. Over nine starts between July 29 and September 15, Alexander was 3-0 with a 2.32 ERA in 50 1/3 innings – and the Astros won all nine of those games.

But his hopes of breaking camp with the Astros this spring were dashed when the team assigned him to Triple-A Sugar Land, where he went 1-2 with a 5.03 ERA in seven starts. And in two relief appearances with the Astros earlier this season, Alexander gave up 10 earned runs in 6 1/3 innings pitched.

That’s hardly the profile of a pitcher expected to shut out a Major League team for six innings at a moment’s notice. But Alexander was dominant on Tuesday. The Twins never had more than one runner on base in an inning against him, and only two runners reached scoring position.

“Just trying to put together quality innings, one batter at a time, one pitch at a time,” Alexander said. “[Catcher Christian] Vázquez had a good game plan going. … A lot of it just did entail trusting the changeup, but there's parts of it where you had to set hitters up and make sure that you're keeping them off balance. So, it was great working with Vázquez, and the defense was amazing.”

The Astros jumped ahead early when Jeremy Peña singled to lead off the game and scored on Paredes’ blast off the facing of the second deck in left field. It was Paredes’ second home run in four games.

In the second inning, Jake Meyers hit a one-out single in his first plate appearance since April 7. He was activated earlier in the day, and was immediately slotted into the starting lineup, playing center field and batting seventh.

The Astros’ bullpen was just as effective in relief of Alexander, starting with former Twin Steven Okert striking out the side in the seventh inning. Enyel De Los Santos gave up a run on a bad-hop single in the eighth, and Bryan King got the last four outs for his fifth save.

“We are pitching better,” Espada said. “Starts with our starting rotation taking us deep in the game, and then you can kind of settle some roles in the bullpen. Getting big outs from Okert, he continues to do that, and King, and Abreu just looks like he's turning that corner, continues to get confidence and continues to get big outs for us.”

As for Alexander, Espada indicated that he’s planning on giving him the ball again the next time his turn in the rotation comes around.

“Anytime you do that, and we're about to go into a little road trip here after the next off-day,” Espada said, “he puts himself in that spot where he can get the ball. We feel good about [the fact] that he's going to keep us in the game.”