Austin Wells socked a leadoff home run to ignite a three-run seventh inning as the New York Yankees claimed a three-game series against the host Houston Astros with an 8-3 win on Saturday.
Wells’ second homer was the third of the game for the Yankees, who improved to 5-0 on their current nine-game road trip and have won eight straight overall. The Yankees were locked in a pitcher’s duel before Wells snapped a 2-2 tie by driving an inside fastball from Astros reliever Kai-Wei Teng (1-1) out to right field.
Teng faced only three batters before ceding the mound to left-hander Bennett Sousa, who was reinstated from the 15-day injured list and made his season debut. The Yankees made it a forgettable appearance for Sousa, who issued four walks, including two with the bases loaded.
Sousa walked Trent Grisham, Aaron Judge, Cody Bellinger and Jazz Chisholm Jr., with Bellinger and Chisholm forcing home Grisham and Ben Rice (who had singled) in succession to up the lead to 5-2.
Rice delivered a sacrifice fly with the bases loaded in the eighth that plated Ryan McMahon. Rice and Jose Caballero recorded three-hit games for the Yankees, with Caballero extending the lead to 2-1 in the fifth with his third homer, a solo shot to left off Astros starter Mike Burrows.
Burrows matched his career high of eight strikeouts while working five innings. He allowed five hits and issued three walks. Burrows surrendered a solo home run to Grisham, his fourth on the season, with one out in the third inning that enabled the Yankees to erase a 1-0 deficit.
The Astros grabbed that lead in the bottom of the first. Carlos Correa roped a leadoff double to left-center and scored when Isaac Paredes added an RBI single to left two batters later. Yankees starter Ryan Weathers immediately settled down and retired 11 consecutive batters after Paredes’ run-scoring hit.
Yainer Diaz opened the fifth with a single, but Weathers didn’t allow another run until Correa led off the sixth with his second homer, a 391-foot blast to left-center that tied the game at 2-2.
Weathers surrendered two runs on six hits with no walks and four strikeouts over 5 1/3 innings. Right-hander Fernando Cruz (2-0) earned the win in relief for the Yankees.
