HOUSTON -- Yordan Alvarez homered and Kai-Wei Teng threw six strong innings to lead the Astros to their third series win in a row, all over American League Central teams, with a 2-1 victory over the Guardians on Sunday afternoon at Daikin Park.
The Astros (37-42) improved to 17-11 since May 21 as they continue to make a push in the standings in the American League West, where no team was over .500 entering Sunday.
Alvarez connected on his 25th home run of the year in the first inning, keeping him on pace to become the first Astros player to hit 50 homers in a season. Isaac Paredes’ RBI single in the fourth inning -- he went 3-for-4 -- pushed the Astros’ lead to 2-0, but Petey Halpin tripled and scored in the fifth to get Cleveland within a run.
Teng, who was 0-3 with an 8.83 ERA in his previous four starts, rebounded by holding the Guardians to one run, four hits and one walk while striking out four batters. He lowered his ERA to 4.03 in 60 1/3 innings this year. Josh Hader worked the ninth for his fifth save this month.