A timely blast from Caratini fuels another Astros win

A timely blast from Caratini fuels another Astros win
The Astros beat the Rockies, 6-5. Photo by Matthew Stockman/Getty Images.

Victor Caratini hit his third career grand slam, Christian Walker went 3 for 4 with an RBI and the Houston Astros beat the Colorado Rockies 6-5 on Tuesday night.

The Astros have won seven of eight and 15 of their last 19 games.

The Rockies have lost nine of 11 following their first four-game winning streak, falling to a major league-worst 19-66. Colorado’s losses are tied for the most by a major league team in the modern era through the first 85 games.

The Rockies are 8-33 at Coors Field, tied with the 2003 Tigers for the worst start through the first 41 home games of a season in the modern era.

Caratini’s homer in the third gave Houston a 6-1 lead.

Houston reliever Bennett Sousa (2-0) kept Colorado scoreless in the sixth and Bryan Abreu struck out the side in the eighth. Josh Hader added two strikeouts in the ninth to improve to 24 for 24 in save chances — the longest perfect streak in club history to open a season.

Colorado rookie Chase Dollander (2-9) allowed six earned runs in 2 2/3 innings, his shortest start of the season.

Hunter Goodman hit solo homers in the first and ninth innings for his fifth career two-homer game.

Colorado's Jordan Beck had his first career five-hit game.

Key moment

Dollander thew the ball into center field on a pickoff attempt with no outs in the third to put runners on first and third. Jake Meyers picked up an RBI on a fielder’s choice to give Houston the lead for good at 2-1.

Key stat

Jose Altuve went 0 for 4 to remain one hit shy of tying Jeff Bagwell (2,314) for second place on the Astros career hits list.

Astros manager Joe Espada caught up with MLB.com's Brian McTaggart after the game.

Up next

Hunter Brown (8-3, 1.74 ERA), who has the fourth-lowest ERA through the first 16 starts of a season in Astros history, faces Austin Gomber (0-1, 6.14) on Wednesday.

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Yordan Alvarez is still having issues with his hand. Composite Getty Image.

Houston Astros slugger Yordan Alvarez has experienced a setback in his recovery from a broken right hand and will see a specialist.

Astros general manager Dana Brown said Alvarez felt pain when he arrived Tuesday at the team's spring training complex in West Palm Beach, Florida, where he had a workout a day earlier. Alvarez also took batting practice Saturday at Daikin Park.

He will be shut down until he's evaluated by the specialist.

“It’s a tough time going through this with Yordan, but I know that he’s still feeling pain and the soreness in his hand,” Brown said before Tuesday night's series opener at Colorado. “We’re not going to try to push it or force him through anything. We're just going to allow him to heal and get a little bit more answers as to what steps we take next.”

Alvarez has been sidelined for nearly two months. The injury was initially diagnosed as a muscle strain, but when Alvarez felt pain again while hitting in late May, imaging revealed a small fracture.

The 28-year-old outfielder, who has hit 31 homers or more in each of the past four seasons, had been eyeing a return as soon as this weekend at the Los Angeles Dodgers. Now it's uncertain when he'll play.

“We felt like he was close because he had felt so good of late,” Brown said, “but this is certainly news that we didn't want.”

You can watch Brown discuss the setback in the video below.

Also Tuesday, the Astros officially placed shortstop Jeremy Peña on the 10-day injured list with a fractured rib and recalled infielder Shay Whitcomb from Triple-A Sugar Land.

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