Jose Altuve slugged two home runs and Lance McCullers Jr. carried a shutout bid into the seventh inning of his season debut as the Houston Astros claimed the opener of their three-game series with the visiting Boston Red Sox 8-1 on Monday.
Yordan Alvarez and Brice Matthews added home runs for the Astros, who won their third straight game after dropping the opening two.
Altuve posted his 15th multi-homer game and finished 4-for-4 with a walk and four runs. His solo shot to left field on the first pitch of the bottom of the seventh inning allowed Houston to reclaim its five-run cushion after Boston scratched across a run in the top of that frame against McCullers (1-0).
McCullers needed only 62 pitches to complete five scoreless innings and faced the minimum in the process.
The Red Sox took their third straight loss after their lone win.
Trevor Story ignited Boston’s lone rally with a one-out hustle double to left. McCullers then issued his lone walk to Jarren Duran, and he surrendered an RBI double to Wilyer Abreu (2-for-3) two batters later that cut the Astros’ lead to 5-1. McCullers rallied with a strikeout of pinch hitter Masataka Yoshida.
McCullers allowed one run on four hits and one walk with nine strikeouts over seven innings. He threw 96 pitches, 63 for strikes.
The Astros pounced on left-hander Ranger Suarez (0-1) in his Boston debut.
Altuve singled to lead off the first inning and later scored when Carlos Correa rolled into a bases-loaded double play.
Two innings later, Altuve singled and scored again, this time coming home when Alvarez smacked a towering two-run homer down the right field line and into the second deck. Alvarez spotted the Astros a 3-0 lead with his second homer.
Matthews blasted a 434-foot shot to center leading off the fifth for his first home run.
Suarez surrendered four runs on seven hits and one walk with three strikeouts in 4 1/3 innings.
Altuve homered off Boston reliever Johan Oviedo twice, in the seventh and eighth innings, and wound up with his 42nd career four-hit game. Christian Walker added an RBI double in the seventh.
