Having started in two of the four games since he was activated, Trey Mancini continues to prove he should be starting every day. In Friday's win over the Cleveland Guardians, the Houston Astros new designated hitter slapped two home runs. All three of his hits for his new club have been long balls.
Mancini kickstarted the offense with a solo homer in the second inning off Hunter Gaddis — who was making his MLB debut. And after tying the game on his first home run of the night, Mancini fueled a monstrous inning in the third.
Yordan Álvarez slapped a single to score Martín Maldonado before Mancini stepped to the plate with the bases loaded two batters later. Belting a grand slam to left field, it marked the first in Mancini's major league career.
With a five-run lead, José Altuve drove home Chas McCormick on a double to center field. The hit advanced Maldonado to third base who scored on a Yuli Gurriel groundout three pitches later.
Maldonado drove in an insurance run in the eighth frame, hitting a sacrifice fly to score McCormick.
Behind another strong offensive showing was Framber Valdez's league-leading 19th quality start.
Valdez tossed 6 1/3 innings on 91 pitches en route to his 18th straight quality start. After surrendering a first-inning home run to Amed Rosario, the lefty didn't run into trouble again until the seventh.
Valdez yielded seven hits and three walks while recording three strikeouts. Three of those hits and two of those walks came in his final inning, as Luke Maile singled home a run and Myles Straw doubled home another.
Seth Martinez cleaned up a bases-loaded jam in the seventh, inducing a pop out to Rosario and striking out Nolan Jones. Martinez threw a scoreless eighth inning, and Bryan Abreu struck out the side in the ninth.
The Astros reached 70 wins Friday, also preventing a possible series lost. The club returns to action at 5:10 p.m. Saturday with Luis García and Cal Quantrill taking the hill. Christian Vázquez will make his second start at catcher for Houston.
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