Yordan Alvarez slugged his American League-leading 25th home run, and Kai-Wei Teng worked six strong innings as the Houston Astros claimed the rubber match of a three-game series against the visiting Cleveland Guardians with a 2-1 victory on Sunday.
The Astros won the fourth of their last five series behind Alvarez and Teng (4-6), who snapped a three-start losing skid. Teng was 0-3 with an 8.83 ERA over his last four starts entering Sunday.
Teng wiggled out of trouble in the top of the first inning after surrendering singles to Travis Bazzana and Brayan Rocchio and pushing both runners into scoring position with a wild pitch.
But Teng rallied with strikeouts of Gabriel Arias and Daniel Schneemann to keep the Guardians off the board and stranded baserunners in the second and third innings before retiring the side in order in the fourth.
Alvarez spotted the Astros a 1-0 lead in the bottom of the first when he drilled a 2-2 cutter from Guardians starter Slade Cecconi (3-6) to right-center field, a 407-foot blast. Cecconi responded by retiring five consecutive batters before working around a leadoff single from Raynel Delgado in the third when Jeremy Pena lined into an inning-ending double play two batters later.
But the Astros doubled their lead an inning later. Alvarez worked a leadoff walk in the fourth and advanced to second when Christian Walker followed with a single. Isaac Paredes added an RBI single that eluded Rocchio at shortstop and reached the outfield to plate Alvarez.
Cecconi limited the damage to a run when Walker was erased at the plate trying to score on a Joey Loperfido grounder to first baseman Kyle Manzardo. Cecconi allowed two runs on six hits and two walks with one strikeout over six innings.
The Guardians tagged Teng for a tally in the fifth when Petey Halpin reached via a one-out triple and scored when Bazana followed with a run-scoring groundout. But Teng retired the final four batters he faced and capped his outing by allowing one run on four hits and one walk with four strikeouts over six innings.
Three Astros relievers, all left-handers, preserved the one-run lead. Closer Josh Hader notched his fifth save with a perfect ninth.
