After fast start, Houston Astros' bats go quiet for long stretch in loss to New York Mets

NEW YORK - Jeremy Peña strode to the plate and staged an ambush. Nolan McLean started Saturday's game at Citi Field with a four-seam fastball. Peña lined it into the left-field corner and sprinted to third base when the carom kicked past Brett Baty.

One pitch produced the Houston Astros ' first hit against the Mets' right-hander. McLean faced his next 18 hitters without allowing another. A day after their ace delivered a dominant outing , the Astros were subjected to one.

McLean spun seven innings of one-run ball against Houston, which could not recover in a 6-2 loss. Its lineup totaled four hits. The Mets struck 11 against the four pitchers they deployed in bullpen game, building a lead against bulk reliever Cristian Javier.

The Astros fell back to .500, at 68-68, with their division lead at 1 ½ games pending the Rangers' result. McLean handed a 4-1 lead to his bullpen. Yordan Alvarez, who had two of the Astros' hits, pared it with his 37th home run of the season in the eighth inning.

Francisco Alvarez countered with a two-run double off Kai-Wei Teng in the bottom of the inning. Mets center fielder A.J. Ewing robbed Christian Walker of potential extra bases with a catch against the wall with a runner on second in the ninth. The Astros totaled three at-bats with a man in scoring position.

a-struck out for Vázquez in the 8th. b-popped out for Pache in the 8th.

E_Baty (8). LOB_Houston 5, New York 7. 2B_Peña (16), Altuve (18), Lindor (9), Baty (17), F.Alvarez (12). 3B_Young (3). HR_Y.Alvarez (37), off Duarte. RBIs_Y.Alvarez 2 (93), Young 3 (35), Soto (53), F.Alvarez 2 (33). SB_Semien (10). SF_Y.Alvarez. S_Ewing.

Runners left in scoring position_Houston 1 (Trammell); New York 5 (Baty, Lindor 2, Semien 2). RISP_Houston 0 for 3; New York 4 for 12.

ABS Challenge_Sousa (Ball-Overturned to Strike); Varsho (Strike-Overturned to Ball).

Pitch timer violations_Javier (pitcher).

Umpires_Home, Carlos Torres; First, Nate Tomlinson; Second, Mark Wegner; Third, Jacob Metz.

McLean matched his longest outing of a season in which he owns a 3.06 ERA in 27 starts. He entered ranked 11th among qualified major-league starters in strikeout percentage and seventh in opponents' batting average. He notched four strikeouts in his seven innings but yielded just two hits.

Peña's set up a sacrifice fly from Alvarez, the run unearned given Baty's error. A sixth-inning single by Alvarez was the only other hit against McLean, who walked three but did not allow a Houston runner into scoring position after Peña in the first.

"He's tough," Astros manager Joe Espada said. "Sinker, cutter, kept us off-balance. Outside of that first inning we just couldn't do much against him. But I thought our at-bats continued to be competitive."

McLean led with three types of fastballs. He induced just six whiffs on 40 swings, but Houston hitters averaged only an 87.6 mph exit velocity against him. They did not hit a ball that reached an outfielder over a four-inning stretch before the sixth.

McLean barely needed to throw the curveball that has been arguably his best pitch, generating a .109 average and a 40.4% whiff rate before Saturday. He totaled seven curveballs on 93 pitches. Seventy-six were sinkers, cutters or four-seam fastballs. The Astros could not solve any of them.

Yordan Alvarez matches career high in HRs

Alvarez started the day leading or tied for the American League lead in all three Triple Crown categories, but his pace has slowed in August. Junior Caminero of the Rays hit his 36th home run Saturday, briefly tying Alvarez for the league lead. Pete Alonso began the day tied with Alvarez at 91 runs batted in.

Alvarez had one home run and nine RBIs in his first 24 games this month, a stretch in which he still had an .874 OPS. A two-hit day Saturday, including his 37th home run of the season, left him sporting a .320 average and 1.048 OPS.

"If the home runs are not there, you've still got to try to find a way to contribute and try to find a way to get on base," Alvarez said, through interpreter Otto Loor. "And that's what I've been trying to do."

With his 37th home run, Alvarez matched the career high he set in 2022. He did so with a laser. Daniel Duarte threw him a 1-1 cutter. Alvarez laced it 436 to right-center field at 113.4 mph off the bat. It was his fourth-longest homer of the season; the three longest were all hit at Globe Life Field.

Houston deployed left-hander Bennett Sousa as an opener with four left-handed or switch-hitters in the first five spots of the Mets order. It marked Sousa's first start in his 99th major-league appearance. Javier warmed as soon as he began the first inning.

Sousa did not complete it. He issued a leadoff walk to Francisco Lindor. Juan Soto and Bo Bichette both flied out. Carson Benge worked an eight-pitch walk. After getting ahead 0-2 on Jared Young with sliders, Sousa tried another. Young lined it softly into right field for an RBI single.

That proved Sousa's final hitter. He retired one of the three left-handed hitters he faced. Lefties owned a .410 batting average and 1.013 OPS in 46 plate appearances against him entering the day. Sousa became the 18th different pitcher to start a game for the Astros this season, a franchise record.

After taking over with two outs in the first inning, Javier retired 11 of 13 batters to begin his outing. He stranded the exceptions, two singles. Javier did not issue a walk and limited hard contact. But the Mets broke through against him in the fifth.

A misplay helped. With one out, Lindor pulled a drive to right field. Taylor Trammell retreated and leapt near the wall, unnecessarily, missing the ball. Lindor was credited with a double.

Soto, just activated from the injured list, fouled the sixth pitch of his at-bat off the inside of his right leg. Play paused as a trainer checked him. Javier threw two practice pitches during the delay. When Soto did step back in, Javier threw a curveball. Soto lined it into right field for a go-ahead single.

"I feel very confident and very positive in the attack plan that we had," Javier said through an interpreter of the Soto at-bat. "The plan was for him not to hit the ball out of the ballpark and to try to get weak contact. So I felt like we executed that, but unfortunately he won the at-bat there."

Javier retired Bichette on a fly out. But Benge lined a fastball for a single, sending Soto to second. And Young looped an 0-2 sweeper to the right-field corner. Both runners, moving on the 0-2 pitch, scored. Javier faced the Mets lineup twice. He allowed six hits in his 4 ⅓ innings.

"When he gets to that 70-80 (pitch) count, we need to get him through that," Espada said of Javier, who owns a 6.45 ERA in 44 2/3 innings. "I think that's the little hump right now. Stuff looks really good. Once he gets there it just looks like the pitches are starting to flatten up and not really have the depth and the finish that we're looking for."

After Javier's outing, Enyel De Los Santos threw two innings and Teng worked one. The rest of Houston's bullpen should be relatively fresh for Sunday's series finale, in which Ethan Pecko will make his third big-league start.