Astros complete three-game sweep of Marlins, win ninth in a row at home

Yainer Diaz, Trey Cabbage and Jake Meyers ignited early offense with extra-base hits, and a quartet of pitchers effectively worked with traffic on the basepaths as the Houston Astros capped a three-game sweep of the Miami Marlins with a 6-3 victory on Thursday.

The Astros rode a balanced offensive attack to their 16th win in 20 games and their ninth consecutive home victory. Diaz, Cabbage and Meyers recorded doubles as Houston maximized its five hits off Miami starter Roddery Munoz.

Houston erased a 1-0 deficit with a pair of runs in the bottom of the first inning, keyed by a Diaz double that pushed Alex Bregman to third base following his one-out walk. Jon Singleton added a sacrifice fly to center field that scored Bregman and Jeremy Pena posted a run-scoring single that pushed home Diaz and lifted the Astros to a 2-1 lead.

After Miami pulled even on a Nick Fortes two-out single that scored Xavier Edwards in the top of the second, Cabbage doubled with one out in the bottom of that frame and scored after advancing to third on a Munoz wild pitch before Cesar Salazar delivered an RBI grounder to the right side of the infield.

Meyers’ double in the fourth scored Joey Loperfido and lifted the Astros to a 4-2 lead. Houston extended that margin to three runs later in the frame when Meyers scored on a Bregman fielder’s choice grounder.

Six different Astros drove in a run, with Loperfido joining the fray with his sacrifice fly in the fifth that plated Singleton after he reached on an error and advanced two bases on a wild pitch and balk. Munoz (1-4) allowed six runs (four earned) and two walks with two strikeouts over 6 2/3 innings.

Astros rookie right-hander Jake Bloss allowed two runs on four hits and one walk with four strikeouts over four innings in his first start since his big league debut on June 21 against Baltimore. He surrendered a one-out homer to Bryan De La Cruz, his 16th, in the first, but stranded runners in scoring position in the first and third.

Astros reliever Shawn Dubin allowed a leadoff home run to Jazz Chisholm Jr., his 12th, in the fifth, but induced a double-play grounder from Josh Bell to elude further damage. Tayler Scott (6-2) relieved Dubin with two runners in scoring position and one out in the sixth and notched a strikeout of Vidal Brujan before Fortes grounded out to second.

Bryan Abreu struck out the side in the seventh and stranded Marlins on second and third. Miami finished 1-for-10 with runners in scoring position.