Gurriel homers twice as Astros top Rockies

Yuli Gurriel homered twice while Michael Brantley and Carlos Correa both recorded multi-hit and multi-RBI games as the host Houston Astros overpowered the Colorado Rockies 11-6 Tuesday in the opener of a two-game interleague series. Gurriel drilled a two-out solo home run in the fourth inning off Rockies starter German Marquez to extend the Houston lead to 4-2.

His two-run shot in the seventh, also to left field, came against Colorado reliever Bryan Shaw and followed a two-run double from Correa that pushed the Astros to a 9-6 lead. Correa homered in his previous at-bat, leading off the sixth with an opposite-field blast to right that snapped a 5-5 tie and put the Astros ahead to stay. Correa smacked his 15th home run of the season off Rockies right-hander Chi Chi Gonzalez (0-4). Gurriel ran his total to 22 homers and finished 2-for-3 with three RBIs and three runs. Correa added three RBIs while Brantley drove in two runs. Yordan Alvarez also hit a two-run homer for Houston, which won its fifth game in a row and eighth in the past nine.

The offensive onslaught left the struggles of right-hander Zack Greinke an afterthought. Greinke (11-4) scuffled in his Astros debut, allowing five runs on six hits and two walks with two strikeouts over six innings. He carried a 3-0 lead into the fourth but surrendered a sacrifice fly to Nolan Arenado and a run-scoring double to Ryan McMahon after allowing infield single by Trevor Story and a four-pitch walk by Daniel Murphy to open that frame.

Houston reclaimed its three-run lead by the close of the fifth, but Greinke returned in the sixth and allowed Colorado to pull even. Rockies center fielder Raimel Tapia erased the deficit with his eighth home run, a three-run shot to right that scored McMahon and Ian Desmond with two outs. Tapia yanked the first-pitch curveball 371 feet to subdue the crowd of 43,243, the largest of the season at Minute Maid Park.

The Astros saddled Marquez with five runs on eight hits over five innings, including Alvarez's 14th home run into the upper deck in right in the bottom of the second. Houston has won 15 of 18 games after losing four of the first six following the All-Star break. Colorado has dropped six of the past nine.

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