Nolan Gorman clubbed a three-run home run in the top of the seventh inning to give the St. Louis Cardinals plenty of breathing room as they claimed a 9-4 win in the opener of a three-game interleague series against the Astros in Houston on Friday.
Gorman smacked his third homer of the season 353 feet to right field to break open a nip-and-tuck affair. He plated Alec Burleson and Jordan Walker by turning on an inside fastball from scuffling Astros reliever Bryan Abreu while countering the three solo homers the Astros hit to climb back into contention.
Cardinals right-hander Kyle Leahy (2-2) surrendered all three homers but was otherwise effective. He allowed five hits and did not issue a walk while recording six strikeouts across five innings. Leahy stranded Yordan Alvarez in the bottom of the first and left the bases loaded in the fourth when he struck out Christian Vazquez and pinch-hitter Isaac Paredes in succession.
The Cardinals spotted Leahy a 3-0 lead before the Astros rallied.
JJ Wetherholt, Burleson and Walker all singled in the first off Houston right-hander Peter Lambert (0-1), the fourth consecutive pitcher making his first start for the Astros’ injury-marred rotation. Walker plated Wetherholt with his single to center for a 1-0 lead, an advantage the Cardinals upped in the third when Masyn Winn roped a two-run single that plated Wetherholt and Ivan Herrera.
Lambert loaded the bases with no outs in the third before nearly escaping unscathed. He struck out Walker and Gorman and had two strikes against Winn, but could not hold the deficit to one. Lambert allowed four runs on seven hits and one walk with eight strikeouts over five innings, with Herrera delivering an RBI single in the fourth that scored Pedro Pages for a 4-2 lead.
Vazquez and Alvarez smacked homers off Leahy in the third, with Vazquez leading off that frame with his second home run of the season before Alvarez added his eighth three batters later. Jose Altuve led off the fifth with his third homer to shave the deficit to 4-3.
But after Gorman provided the Cardinals some cushion, Herrera socked a two-run homer that scored Wetherholt in the eighth. Wetherhold scored three runs; Gorman and Herrera had three RBIs apiece.
