HOUSTON -- Perhaps the Astros’ biggest question mark coming into the season was the state of their middle relief pitching, which lost a ton of experience in the offseason when three arms left in free agency and another was lost for the season with an injury. Two games into the season, those questions loom even larger.

A resurgent Cristian Javier was terrific in throwing six scoreless innings Friday night, but the Astros’ bullpen and defense faltered in the final three innings as the Yankees mounted a late rally to beat Houston for the second night in a row, 7-1, at Minute Maid Park.

The Astros signed five-time All-Star closer Josh Hader in January and added him to Ryan Pressly and Bryan Abreu to form, potentially, one of the most dominant back ends in baseball. But Abreu served the second game of a two-game suspension Friday, and Pressly was unavailable after throwing 27 pitches Thursday. Houston couldn’t piece together the final nine outs.

“It’s challenging, but some of those guys need to get outs,” Astros manager Joe Espada said. “We can’t just pitch those same guys over and over again. At some point, they all need to step up and get big outs for us, and I have confidence they will do that. It’s a long season and they’re getting opportunities, and right now things are not going our way.”

Trailing 1-0 entering the seventh, the Yankees scored twice against Tayler Scott and four times in the eighth against Parker Mushinski, though only two of those runs were earned because shortstop Jeremy Peña and Mushinski both threw a ball away on defense.

Giancarlo Stanton’s long homer in the ninth off Brandon Bielak was his 10th in his past 21 games against Houston. It put an exclamation point on the Yankees’ fifth win in a row over the Astros, dating to last season.

"Look, anytime you come in here and you play that team over there, you know how good they are and what they're capable of,” Yankees manager Aaron Boone said. “So anytime you earn a victory here, it's satisfying. But we're into the 162 now. You try and rack them up as much as you can."

Javier, who lost 15 pounds in the offseason following an up-and-down 2023 campaign, gave the Astros just what they needed after Opening Day starter Framber Valdez walked six batters in 4 2/3 innings Thursday. Javier threw 90 pitches (56 strikes), including a career-high 25 changeups that generated 15 swings (four whiffs).

“When he executes that changeup, the rest of his pitches are that much better,” Espada said. “We all know about how good his fastball is. If that changeup comes out of the hand looking like a fastball and he executes a changeup down in the zone, you’re going to get a lot of ugly swings on that changeup, and he was able to get a lot of ugly swings on that changeup.”

Astros second baseman Jose Altuve, who doubled and scored in the first inning, was pleased to see Javier’s offseason dedication pay off.

“He’s that type of guy,” Altuve said. “What he showed everybody today, not only them but us and everybody, was incredible. Fastball, slider, some good changeups. It was really good. We’re really happy for him. Unfortunately, we lost the game.”

Scott, who parlayed a strong spring into a spot on the Opening Day roster, issued a pair of one-out walks in the seventh, both of which wound up scoring. Anthony Volpe came home with the tying run on a single by red-hot Oswaldo Cabrera, and Rafael Montero walked Juan Soto with the bases loaded to score Austin Wells with the go-ahead run.

The game spun out of control from there. The Astros were 1-for-12 with runners in scoring position, and through two games they have scored just one run after the first inning.

“Cristian threw the ball really well -- changed speeds,” Espada said. “He did everything we asked him to do. So that’s some of the good things that happened in tonight’s game. I think Montero came in and threw the ball really well. We had opportunities to score some runs and expand the lead, and we didn’t do that. That was a big, big part of the game.”