Astros 6, Blue Jays 5
HOUSTON -- Chris Carter belted a go-ahead, three-run homer in the sixth inning and the Houston Astros rallied past the Toronto Blue Jays 6-5 for their fourth consecutive win Saturday night at Minute Maid Park.
While Carter crushed his sixth home run of the season the opposite way to right field off Blue Jays right-hander Liam Hendriks, left-handed hitters Preston Tucker and Colby Rasmus initiated the rally against Blue Jays southpaw Jeff Francis (1-2).
Tucker singled to right and Rasmus followed with a double to center field, setting the table for Carter, whose blast pushed the Astros (24-13) to a 5-3 advantage.
Two batters later, shortstop Marwin Gonzalez added a solo homer, his second home run of the season. Including Evan Gattis' two-run homer in the third inning, the Astros have an American League-leading 55 homers this season.
The rally made a winner of right-hander Scott Feldman (3-4), who struggled in the first inning yet recovered to pitch into the seventh. Feldman had a season-high 10 strikeouts and allowed just two hits after the Blue Jays (17-21) jumped out to a 3-0 lead in their first at-bat.
Astros right-hander Luke Gregerson picked up his ninth save despite surrendering a two-run, two-out homer in the ninth inning to pinch-hitter Edwin Encarnacion.
Feldman has had some issues in the first inning this season, problems that continued against Toronto to the tune of three runs on three hits.
The Blue Jays sandwiched two extra-base hits around designated hitter Jose Bautista's walk, with third baseman Josh Donaldson reaching on a double in advance of Bautista and scoring when catcher Russell Martin followed Bautista with a two-run triple to center field.
First baseman Justin Smoak followed with a sharp single to right that scored Martin and built the Toronto lead to 3-0. But Feldman was quick to reverse course by retiring the side in order in the third inning, the start of a stretch where he retired 12 of 13 batters, including striking out the side in the fifth.
Blue Jays right-hander Marco Estrada had his hiccup in the third inning, issuing a leadoff walk to Astros second baseman Jose Altuve and later surrendering a two-run homer to Gattis.
But like Feldman, Estrada was occasionally dominant in his five innings. He walked four batters but also struck out eight, matching Feldman by striking out the side in his final inning.
NOTES: The Blue Jays acquired 1B/DH Luke Scott from Puebla of the Mexican League for cash and assigned him to Triple-A Buffalo. Scott last played for the Tampa Bay Rays in 2013. In his nine-year major league career, Scott hit .258/.340/.481 with 135 home runs and 436 RBIs in 889 games with the Rays, Houston Astros and Baltimore Orioles. ... Astros LF Preston Tucker earned his third consecutive start after becoming the first rookie in club history to post multiple doubles in back-to-back games. Tucker was 5-for-8 with four doubles in the first two games of the Toronto series. ... Blue Jays 1B Edwin Encarnacion was not in the lineup for the first time this season. Starting in his place was Justin Smoak, who entered the game hitting 5-for-11 with two home runs and three walks against Astros RHP Scott Feldman.