NEW YORK -- Yainer Diaz's second homer of the game and Yordan Alvarez’s RBI triple highlighted a three-run eighth inning that sent the Astros to a 9-7 come-from-behind win over the Yankees in the series opener at Yankee Stadium.
The win moved the Astros back to the .500 mark (66-66), a day after the team announced it was parting ways with general manager Dana Brown.
Diaz slammed his second homer of the game, this one to right field, to tie the game at 6 in the eighth. Jeremy Peña followed with a single and scored the go-ahead run when Alvarez rocketed a triple into right-center. Isaac Paredes’ single scored Alvarez for an 8-6 lead that proved to be an important run.
Spencer Jones led off the eighth with a double off Bryan Abreu and scored. Astros manager Joe Espada summoned closer Josh Hader with two outs in the eighth inning to get a four-out save.
In his second Major League start, which came on his 24th birthday, Astros No. 9 prospect Ethan Pecko gave up five earned runs, five hits and four walks in 4 1/3 innings. He gave up a three-run homer to Cody Bellinger in the third inning that put the Yankees ahead, 3-2, and a two-run homer to Luis Garcia Jr. in the fifth that broke a 3-3 tie.
The Astros, who got a solo homer to left from Diaz in the first inning and RBI singles from Daulton Varsho in the third and fifth, tied the game in the sixth on a two-run homer by Peña off reliever Fernando Cruz.