Astros pound out 13 hits, hammer Pirates 8-2

Yordan Alvarez had three of Houston's 13 hits and the Astros pounded the Pittsburgh Pirates, 8-2 on Monday night.

Framber Valdez (1-1) had the Pirates off-balance for seven innings, allowing two runs on three hits with five walks and five strikeouts and Maruicio Dubón singled three times, extending his hitting streak to six games in the opener of a three-game series in Pittsburgh.

Roansy Contreras (1-1) allowed seven runs, matching a career-high, on nine hits with four walks and the Pirates went to the bullpen after just 3 1/3 innings.

Alvarez drove in two runs to boost his MLB-leading RBI total to 16, plating a pair in the second inning with a single. Kyle Tucker made it a 7-1 game in the fourth inning with a two-run chopper for a single to right field. Tucker also had an RBI single in the first inning.

Ji Man Choi connected for his first home run of the season to pull Pittsburgh closer at 4-1 in the bottom of the second. Pittsburgh cut it to 7-2 in the bottom of the fourth. Carlos Santana doubled off the wall in left. Two strikeouts later, Rodolfo Castro singled in Santana.

Martin Maldonado and Alex Bergman each added an RBI single for the Astros, who have won two straight. Bergman singled in Chas McCormick, who had doubled, to get the score to 8-2 in the seventh inning.

The Pirates played without shortstop Oneil Cruz, who had surgery Sunday night after getting a broken left ankle that day in a collision at the plate. He is expected to miss four months.