HOUSTON -- It wasn’t like Hunter Brown needed much help offensively Tuesday night, but the Astros made sure their ace had more than enough to work with.
Brown held the Red Sox to one run and one hit and struck out eight batters in six innings, and the Astros’ red-hot offense scored at least eight runs for the fourth game in a row to send Houston to its fourth consecutive win, 9-2, at Daikin Park.
Brown, who threw 102 pitches in 4 2/3 innings on Opening Day against the Angels, needed only 78 pitches to finish six innings against Boston for his first win of the season. He retired 14 of the first 15 batters he faced, including six by strikeout, and didn’t allow a hit until two outs in the fifth inning.
That two-out double by Boston’s Connor Wong cut the Astros’ lead to 3-1, but Houston scored three times in the fifth, including a solo homer to right field by Yordan Alvarez. Carlos Correa had a two-run single in the sixth and Cam Smith clubbed a leadoff homer to right field in the seventh to push the lead to 9-1.
After getting shut out on Opening Day and scoring just twice Friday, the Astros have scored 37 runs in their past four games.
Brown, relying mostly on his four-seam fastball up in the zone and his sinker he threw inside to right-handers, had only 49 pitches through four innings before a 21-pitch fifth got his pitch count elevated. He was yanked after a 1-2-3 sixth, with the Astros leading, 6-1, and with a 0.84 ERA and 17 strikeouts in 10 2/3 innings to begin the season.