CHICAGO -- The Astros will head into Memorial Day with some momentum. Finally.
Jake Meyers, Nick Allen and Christian Walker each homered, with Walker’s three-run shot in the fifth inning off Shota Imanaga -- his third homer in two days -- breaking open a close game to send the Astros to an 8-5 win and three-game sweep of the reeling Cubs.
The Astros posted their first sweep at Wrigley Field since 2011, when they were in the National League, and only their second sweep of the season. They swept the Red Sox in the first week of the season, which came during a five-game winning streak that was their longest until they hit Chicago. Houston is 23-31 through 54 games, about one-third of the way through its schedule.
For all their struggles and injuries, the Astros finished the series only 4 games out of first place in the American League West, which was led by the .500 A’s.
The Cubs batted around against Astros starter Peter Lambert in the second inning to take a 3-1 lead, but Lambert righted the ship and didn’t allow a hit in his final three innings of work. He allowed three runs, five hits and four walks while striking out five batters to improve to 3-4.
The only baserunners the Astros had against Imanaga through three innings were solo homers by Meyers in the second and Allen in the third. Cam Smith’s leadoff double in the fifth sparked a five-run outburst, with the Astros taking a 4-3 lead on a bloop two-run single by Jeremy Peña and Walker following him with a three-run homer -- his 14th of the season -- to make it 7-3.