DETROIT (AP) - The surging Houston Astros were too much for Matthew Boyd.
Aledmys Diaz, Robinson Chirinos, Jake Marisnick and Alex Bregman homered for Houston, and the Astros beat the Detroit Tigers 8-1 on Monday night, extending their winning streak to six games. Two of those homers came off Boyd, the Detroit lefty who is off to a fine start this season but lasted only four innings in his shortest start of the year.
“We made him really work,” Houston manager AJ Hinch said. “I looked up there in the third inning, he had 70 pitches. He got up into the upper 90s after four. We can do that to some pitching when we lock in the strike zone. We had a lot of foul balls.”
Brad Peacock (4-2) allowed a run and three hits in five innings for Houston, which has won nine of its last 10 games. Boyd (4-3) yielded three runs and five hits and threw 96 pitches.
“My stuff was working, but they have a really good approach,” said Boyd, who entered with a 2.86 ERA. “They are patient and they don’t chase, so you have to be in the zone against them.”
Houston got homers from its No. 6, 8 and 9 hitters before Bregman added his 13th of the year. The Astros scored three runs in a three-batter span in the second inning, then added two more in the seventh and three in the ninth.
“It’s nice to see production top to bottom,” leadoff hitter George Springer said. “They pick up the top of the lineup when the top of the lineup doesn’t do its job.”
Diaz hit a two-out solo shot to open the scoring in the second, and after a walk by Tyler White, Chirinos hit a two-run homer . Grayson Greiner hit a sacrifice fly in the fourth for the Tigers to make it 3-1.
Marisnick’s two-run homer in the seventh gave Houston a four-run lead.
Ryan Pressly pitched the eighth for the Astros, extending his franchise-record scoreless streak to 36 innings.
Springer hit an RBI single in the ninth for Houston. Bregman followed with a two-run shot to left.
RETURN
Justin Verlander, the star pitcher who was traded from the Tigers to the Astros in 2017, was back at Comerica Park and is slated to pitch Wednesday. He talked before the game about Detroit’s World Series defeats in 2006 and 2012, when the Tigers won the AL Championship Series with ease and then faced long layoffs before the World Series.
“It comes down to the hottest team at the right time,” Verlander said. “I think we were that team twice, and just, we got cooled off by the week layoff before the World Series, both times.”
BLOOPER
Detroit shortstop Ronny Rodriguez fielded two straight grounders to start the sixth. After making a nice play on the second one, he took off for the dugout, apparently thinking that was the third out. It was only the second, and he returned to his position.
TRAINER’S ROOM
Astros: Marisnick was hit around the left elbow with a pitch in the ninth inning but stayed in the game.
Tigers: Detroit put RHP Tyson Ross on the 10-day injured list, retroactive to Saturday, with right ulnar nerve neuritis. The Tigers also reinstated INF Josh Harrison from the injured list, optioned INF Harold Castro to Triple-A Toledo and recalled RHP Zac Reininger from Toledo. Harrison, who had been out with a left shoulder injury, started at 2B and had a single and a double.
UP NEXT
Astros: Houston LHP Wade Miley (3-2) starts the middle game of this series Tuesday night.
Tigers: LHP Ryan Carpenter (0-1) takes the mound. He allowed six runs in five innings in his only start of the season so far.
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Follow Noah Trister at www.Twitter.com/noahtrister
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