JUPITER, Fla. — Isaac Paredes and Jose Altuve hit back-to-back home runs in the fifth inning Wednesday as the Houston Astros defeated the Miami Marlins 4-1 at Roger Dean Chevrolet Stadium. Tatsuya Imai delivered another spotless outing to lead the way.
Imai was perfect through three innings, retiring all nine batters he faced while striking out four without allowing a hit or a walk. The Japanese right-hander has yet to allow a run this spring.
Paredes opened the scoring in the third inning, pulling a Max Meyer pitch over the left-field wall for his second home run of the spring. The Astros added on in the fifth when Zach Cole led off the inning with a homer off Bradley Blalock. One batter later, Altuve followed with his first home run of the spring, quickly stretching Houston’s lead to 3-0.
Steven Okert worked a clean fourth before Spencer Arrighetti took over, tossing three innings while allowing just one run on one hit and striking out six. Miami’s only run came on a Heriberto Hernández solo homer in the seventh inning off Arrighetti.
Christian Roa and Anthony Maldonado each added a scoreless inning to close out the victory.
Caden Powell pushed the lead to four in the seventh with an RBI single. Brice Matthews drew a walk and came around to score as the Astros capitalized on three Miami errors.
Houston finished with just two hits but made the most of them. The Astros struck out 12 times but stranded only one runner all afternoon, an efficient offensive showing despite the lopsided strikeout total.