Altuve, Álvarez Slash Homers for Astros, Complementing Verlander's Quality start

On extended rest, Justin Verlander tossed his 12th quality start of the season Thursday in a 5-2 win against the Kansas City Royals. The Houston Astros righty was given the hook after six innings of work, yielding one earned run on seven hits and two walks.

Verlander fanned eight Royals, generating 11 swing and misses — eight from his two breaking pitches. With an improved 2.00 ERA, the 39-year-old trails only Tampa Bay Rays' Shane McClanahan for the best ERA (1.74) in the American League.

The Astros' defense committed two errors behind Verlander, scoring the second run to cross unearned. Center fielder Jake Meyers was to blame with his first error since his return from the injured list, while shortstop Mauricio Dubón also picked up his first of this season.

Pitching coach Josh Miller said Verlander will make one more start prior to the All-Star Break, per Chandler Rome of the Houston Chronicle. Undoubtedly a selection for the 2022 Mid-Summer Classic, Verlander is in line for his ninth invite, third with Houston.

Verlander secured his 11th win of the season with Phil Maton, Rafael Montero and Ryan Pressly combining for three-scoreless innings in relief. Pressly collected his 18th save in his 21st opportunity.

The Astros pieced together three runs on four hits off starter Kris Bubic, knocking out the lefty in the sixth who tossed five-scoreless innings against them in early June. To get the runs going, Martín Maldonado slashed a one-out double in the fifth inning before Jose Altuve followed with a game-tying home run to left field.

Yordan Álvarez joined the party with his 26th home run of the year with an opposite-field slam into the Crawford Boxes, two batters later. Among Cuban-born players, Álvarez ranks fifth all-time in home runs by Major League Baseball's halfway mark with José Canseco (31), José Abreu (29), Tany Pérez (29) and Rafael Palmeiro (26) leading the way.

Yordan Álvarez: 26 HR en 2022.

Entre cubanos 🇨🇺 solo José Canseco (31), José Abreu (29), Tany Pérez (29) y Rafael Palmeiro (26) han pegado esta cantidad de HR en una primera mitad de MLB.
— Francys Romero (@francysromeroFR) July 7, 2022

Walking 10 times, Houston left 11 runners on, including the bases loaded in the seventh and the eighth innings.

Yuli Gurriel — who was out of the starting lineup a second-straight contest — entered at first base in the top of the eighth inning. Scheduled to bat first in the bottom of the inning, the right-hander struck out on five pitches in his first plate appearance since Tuesday night.

The Astros added two insurance runs in the same inning with Altuve driving Dubón home on a sacrifice fly to left and Aledmys Díaz picking up his first hit of the day with an RBI-double to score Chas McCormick from second.

Taking the series three games to one, the Astros hit the road Thursday night 54-28 before opening a three-game set in Oakland at 8:40 p.m. Friday. José Urquidy is scheduled to start, facing the A's for the first time in 2022.

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