HOUSTON — Yordan Alvarez tied his career high with four hits and the Astros pushed four runs across in the eighth inning off reliever Devin Williams to record an 8-7 comeback win over the Yankees on Wednesday night at Daikin Park.
The Astros (77-63) padded their lead in the American League West division to four games over the second-place Mariners.
Williams allowed a leadoff double in the eighth to Carlos Correa and walked the bases loaded. With two outs, Taylor Trammell took a 3-1 pitch for ball four, scoring Correa to put Houston ahead, 5-4. Jeremy Peña added an RBI single, and two more runs scored on a balk and wild pitch by Camilo Doval, who replaced Williams on the mound.
Alvarez (4-for-5) scalded the ball all four times at the plate with singles in the first (111.2 mph exit velocity) and fourth (114.4 mph), a double in the sixth (105.4 mph) and a game-tying single in the seventh (103.5 mph). Alvarez is 10-for-23 with eight walks in 32 plate appearances since coming off the injured list a week ago.
The Yankees, who lead the Major Leagues with 239 home runs, took a 3-0 lead on a solo homer by Giancarlo Stanton in the second and a two-run homer by Austin Wells in the fourth. Those were the only runs allowed by Astros starter Jason Alexander in five innings of work.
The Astros trailed, 4-1, when Peña led off the sixth with a homer to chase starter Will Warren. Alvarez greeted reliever Fernando Cruz with a double and scored on a Jose Altuve grounder to make it 4-3. Alvarez tied the game in the seventh with a two-out RBI single off Luke Weaver to score pinch-runner Jacob Melton from second base.
Bryan Abreu made things interesting in the ninth when he served up a three-run homer to the Yankees’ Cody Bellinger with two outs to make it 8-7, but he hung on from there.
