Altuve drives in 2 as Astros down White Sox, 6-1

HOUSTON — Jose Altuve drove in a pair of runs, Yainer Diaz registered his team-leading 68th RBI, Hunter Brown struck out six and the Houston Astros defeated the Chicago White Sox 6-1 on Saturday night.

Brown registered his ninth-straight quality start as he allowed one run over seven innings.

“He knows that he’s a guy we’re going to rely on, and he’s a guy that we want to go deep into games,” Astros manager Joe Espada said. “He knows he’s got ‘A’ stuff.”

Brown has registered 13 straight starts where he has gone six or more innings for Houston. It is only the second time this season he has gone seven innings.

This marks his 11th win of the year, tying a career high, and Brown is 10-2 with a 2.33 ERA in his 14 starts since June 1. His 10 winning decisions in that span is a major league best.

“When you’re having success, it feels good,” Brown said.

Trailing 1-0, the Astros (66-56) broke through with a three-run inning against White Sox starter Chris Flexen in the third. Flexen had set down the first seven batters he faced before rookie Shay Whitcomb doubled for his first major league hit.

“I was pretty relaxed, honestly,” Whitcomb said. “That was a good one.”

Whitcomb finished 2 for 3 with a double, walk and a run scored in his major league debut. He is the 53rd player in Astros history to record a hit in their first career plate appearance.

Whitcomb and Mauricio Dubón came in to score on Altuve’s two-run single to center field. Houston tacked on another run as Yordan Alvarez drove in Altuve for his 66th RBI with a single to left field.

Houston extended its lead in the fourth on Dubón’s sacrifice fly, making it 4-1.

Flexen (2-12) gave up four runs on seven hits, walked one and struck out one in four innings. He is 0-9 over his last 18 starts for the White Sox (30-94), of which they have won none.

“It’s frustrating especially not being able to go deep in the games,” Flexen said. “You continue to battle and try to put together solid outings and you don’t. That’s the most frustrating part.”

TWINS 5, RANGERS 2

ARLINGTON, Texas — Willi Castro drove in two runs with a bases-loaded single and another Minnesota run scored on the play due to a throwing error as the Twins rallied to beat the slumping Texas Rangers 5-2 on Saturday night.

Trailing 2-1 heading into the eighth, the Twins got singles from Edouard Julien and Christian Vázquez on 0-2 pitches by Nathan Eovaldi (8-7). Austin Martin loaded the bases by beating out a sacrifice bunt that was initially ruled an out before being overturned following a Twins challenge. Castro’s single up the middle off David Robertson against a defense playing him to pull scored Julien and Vázquez. A throw by Texas center fielder Leody Taveras to third base bounced past Josh Jung, allowing Martin to score and giving the Twins a 4-2 lead.

“I think it’s a confidence everybody has,” Castro said. “We never give up. We got some good AB’s out there. We’re going to keep playing like this.”

Trevor Larnach hit his career-best 12th homer of the season and the Twins added a run in the ninth on Kyle Farmer’s sacrifice fly that scored Carlos Santana, who drew the game’s only walk.

Ronny Henriquez (1-0) pitched two scoreless innings in relief of David Festa and earned his first big-league victory. With closer Jhoan Duran having pitched the previous three days, Cole Sands worked a perfect ninth inning for his fourth save in seven chances.

The playoff-contending Twins have won three games of the four-game series that concludes Sunday and moved a season-best 17 games over .500 at 70-53. Minnesota is two games behind AL Central-leading Cleveland.

Carson Kelly drove in both runs for Texas with a single in the second inning and a double in the fourth.

The defending World Series champion Rangers are a season-worst 12 games under .500 at 56-68 and have lost 16 of 21 since a five-game winning streak in late July. It was Texas’ fourth loss in 48 games when leading after seven innings.

“Just a couple balls that were left up I guess with two strikes,” Rangers manager Bruce Bochy said. “You have to give them credit. They did a good piece of hitting. And then we broke down defensively there. That didn’t help matters.”

Eovaldi limited Minnesota to three hits, including Larnach’s home run leading off the fourth, and had retired 12 consecutive batters going into the eighth. He left his Aug. 10 start against the New York Yankees after three innings and 81 pitches because of right side tightness.