Hunter Brown extended his consecutive scoreless inning streak and the visiting Houston Astros blanked the St. Louis Cardinals 2-0 on Tuesday to knot this three-game interleague series.
Brown (2-1) worked six shutout innings for a second consecutive start to extend his scoreless streak to 17 innings. He labored through a 27-pitch first inning and stranded a pair of runners in scoring position before finding a groove in the second.
Brown relied on the ground ball to mitigate damage. He walked Nolan Gorman with one out in the second but induced an inning-ending double-play grounder from Pedro Pages to escape unscathed. An inning later, Michael Siani reached with a leadoff walk before Brown got Lars Nootbaar to roll into a double play. Willson Contreras lofted a fly ball to left to cap that frame.
With two runners in scoring position in the bottom of the fourth, Brown picked the optimal time to record his first strikeout. Gorman punched out to end that threat, and Brown returned for the fifth and struck out the side. Brown retired the side in order in the sixth and closed his outing with four strikeouts against four hits and two walks.
The Astros left the bases loaded in the second and fourth innings against Cardinals right-hander Erick Fedde (1-2), who recorded fly-ball outs from Mauricio Dubon and Jose Altuve to snuff those respective rallies. With a pair of strikeouts in the fifth, Fedde bumped his total to five for the game and matched his season total entering Tuesday.
The Astros broke through in the sixth. Jeremy Pena stroked a leadoff double and scored two batters later when Jake Meyers, who recorded three hits, dropped a single to right field that Jordan Walker trapped with a diving attempt. Pena ran through a stop sign at third and charged home, just beating the throw from Walker to give Houston a 1-0 lead.
Fedde allowed one run on six hits and three walks with five strikeouts over six innings.
Yordan Alvarez doubled the Houston lead with a 419-foot blast to straightaway center field off Cardinals reliever Kyle Leahy leading off the eighth. Astros relievers Bryan King, Bryan Abreu and Josh Hader completed the combined six-hit shutout. Hader earned his fourth save with a perfect ninth inning.
