HOUSTON -- Christian Walker and Braden Shewmake hit the first home runs of the season off Dodgers starter Shohei Ohtani, who was outdueled by Peter Lambert’s seven scoreless innings in the Astros’ 2-1 win over the two-time defending World Series champions Tuesday night at Daikin Park.
Lambert, who pitched last season with the Tokyo Yakult Swallows in Japan and was signed by the Astros to a Minor League deal in the winter, allowed three hits, four walks and struck out four batters. The seven innings tied his career high and he set a career high with 104 pitches, which was also the most by a Houston pitcher this season.
Lefty reliever Bryan King worked the eighth for the Astros and gave up a run on an RBI single by Kyle Tucker, cutting the Houston lead to 2-1.
Walker led off the second inning by ambushing an Ohtani fastball and sending it a Statcast-estimated 395 feet onto the train tracks above left field. Ohtani hadn’t given up a homer against the first 122 batters he had faced this season before Walker cranked his 30th career homer against the Dodgers.
Shewmake, who was added to the lineup about an hour before the game when shortstop Carlos Correa was scratched with an ankle injury, hit an opposite-field homer into the first row of the Crawford Boxes in left field in the third. That was only Shewmake’s third career homer, including his second this year for the Astros.
Ohtani worked seven innings and allowed two singles in addition to the two homers. The singles came with two outs in the fifth by Nick Allen and Shewmake before Jose Altuve struck out for the second time to end the inning.