Blanco K's 8 in return as Alvarez, Peña spark offense for Astros

HOUSTON -- The Astros’ best hitters, Yordan Alvarez and Jeremy Peña, carried the weight offensively Monday night, and starting pitcher Ronel Blanco provided a glimpse of how he can help the club moving forward in his return to the mound for the first time in 429 days.

Alvarez smashed his 32nd and 33rd homers of the season to keep up his American League Triple Crown pace, Peña hit a grand slam and Blanco struck out eight batters in 4 2/3 innings to lead the Astros to an 8-5 win over the Marlins at Daikin Park, snapping a four-game losing streak. Houston scored two more runs Monday than it did in getting swept in three games by the Orioles over the weekend.

“It was a tough series that we just played,” Peña said. “We flushed that and we showed up today to win a game and we’ll keep going with the momentum and show up tomorrow and try to win another game. Hopefully this snowballs and we keep going.”

Here are three key storylines from the win:

Alvarez ties Schwarber

Alvarez scorched the ball, with three of the four highest exit velocities of the game. After hitting a first-inning single that was 114.2 mph off the bat, he followed Peña’s slam with a homer in the second that was 113.8 mph and traveled a Statcast-estimated 428 feet. He led off the fifth with a 419-foot homer that was 108.5 mph off the bat.

“Just locked in,” Astros manager Joe Espada said. “What he’s doing right now, he’s in a different league.”

He’s now tied with Philadelphia's Kyle Schwarber for the Major League home run lead and is one behind St. Louis’ Jordan Walker for the RBI lead with 75. Alvarez is slashing .324/.432/.651 in 100 games played this season, including .407/.471/.881 since June 30. That’s a 1.352 OPS over 15 games.

“He covers a lot of pitches, and he hits both sides extremely well,” Marlins manager Clayton McCullough said. “He can hit velocity. He can hit spin. There’s not a whole lot of places where you can consistently go, so you’re just trying to keep him off balance as best as you can. He’s going to have nights like this because he’s a really special hitter.”

Alvarez’s 33 homers through the team’s first 102 games are the second most in franchise history behind Jeff Bagwell’s 34 homers in 1994 -- his MVP season.

Blanco on the attack

Blanco, pitching in a Major League game for the first time since May 17, 2025, and for the first time since undergoing Tommy John surgery, allowed only two hits, both of which were homers that followed walks. He threw 58 of 86 pitches for strikes and had 18 whiffs, including eight on his changeup.

Blanco said he was “very emotional” and had a lot of adrenaline early in the outing.

“Just focused on throwing a lot of strikes and attacking the zone because they’re a team that doesn’t go out of the zone too often,” he said. “So that was really the main focus today.”

He threw nine straight strikes in a 1-2-3 first inning, but ran his pitch count up with a 29-pitch second inning that included a two-run homer by Miami’s Joe Mack. Marlins designated hitter Liam Hicks clubbed a two-run homer off Blanco in the fourth, but he retired 14 of the 19 batters he faced.

“A ton of strikes from the very beginning,” Espada said. “He comes in the game, he’s throwing strikes, he’s attacking a pretty good lineup, and that’s what we’re asking from our starters. Go attack and give us a chance, give our bullpen an opportunity to pick you up and close games out.”

Peña breaks it open

After missing Sunday’s game while nursing a hamstring cramp, Peña returned to the lineup Monday and swung the game in the Astros’ favor with a second-inning grand slam to right field that put them ahead, 5-2. It’s the second grand slam of his career.

“Peña, that was the big swing of the game for us,” Espada said. “It really changed things.”

The Astros are a much better offensive team when Peña plays than when he doesn’t. They’re 28-26 with him in the lineup and 20-28 when he sits. He’s been on the injured list twice this season and was able to avoid missing extended time after coming out of Saturday’s game against Baltimore.