Kevin Gausman struck out 13 in seven sharp innings, George Springer hit a two-run home run and the Toronto Blue Jays defeated the visiting Houston Astros 5-1 Tuesday night.
Daulton Varsho and Bo Bichette added solo homers for the Blue Jays, who gained a split of the opening two games of the four-game series. Toronto earned its fifth victory in six games.
Mauricio Dubon homered for Houston, which had won four of its previous five games.
Gausman (5-2) allowed one run on four hits and no walks while matching his career-high strikeout total.
Houston starter Hunter Brown (5-3) gave up three runs, three hits and two walks while striking out five in six innings.
Dubon led off the first with his second home run of the season on the second pitch of the game.
Kevin Kiermaier opened off the Toronto third with a walk and scored when Springer hit his ninth homer of the season, a one-out drive to left.
Varsho added his 11th home run of the season on a blast to right-center with two outs in the fourth. It was first ruled a triple when the ball bounced back into play, but a video review determined that it was a home run.
Gausman struck out the side in the sixth inning and whiffed the first two batters of the seventh before Corey Julks lined out to shortstop.
Bichette led off the Toronto eighth with his 13th home run of the season, a shot to right-center against Rafael Montero. The Blue Jays added a run in that frame on a walk, an error on a pickoff attempt, another error on a foul ball to right field and Whit Merrifield’s RBI double.
Toronto’s Erik Swanson and Trevor Richards each tossed a scoreless inning to complete a four-hitter.
Houston second baseman Jose Altuve (oblique) missed his fourth straight game.
Toronto optioned right-hander Alek Manoah, who took the loss on Monday when he did not survive the first inning, to its club in the rookie-level Florida Complex League.
Santiago Espinal (hamstring) was reinstated from the injured list and started at third base for the Blue Jays, with Matt Chapman given the day off. Espinal went 0-for-3. Toronto also optioned infielder Ernie Clement to Triple-A Buffalo.
–Field Level Media
