Christian Vazquez homered, singled and drove in two runs for the visiting Houston Astros in a 4-2 win against the Chicago Cubs in the opener of their three-game series on Friday afternoon.
Houston starter Spencer Arrighetti (6-1) allowed two hits over five shutout innings. He struck out five, walked four and hit two batters.
The Astros had combined for six runs in their previous four games, losing three.
Cubs right-hander Jameson Taillon (2-4) allowed four runs and eight hits in 4 2/3 innings. He struck out five and walked one.
Pete Crow-Armstrong homered for the Cubs, who have lost six in a row and 10 of 12.
After failing to capitalize on lead-off singles in the first two innings, Vazquez led off the third inning by hitting a two-strike sweeper over the fence in left center field for a 1-0 lead.
Houston put its lead-off batter on base for the fourth straight inning when Christian Walker singled to center. With runners on first and second and one out in the inning, Chicago shortstop Dansby Swanson tried to start a double play, but was late to second base and everybody was safe to load the bases.
Walker then came home on a groundout by Zach Cole to make it 2-0, and Vazquez followed with an RBI single to right field to score another run to make it 3-0.
Houston put its first two batters on base with singles in the fifth. Taillon got the next two batters out before being replaced by Hoby Milner, who surrendered a pinch-hit RBI single to Brice Matthews to extend the lead to 4-0.
Steven Okert replaced Arrighetti to start the sixth and gave up a lead-off single to pinch-hitter Miguel Amaya, followed by a one-out, two-run homer to Crow-Armstrong to cut it to 4-2.
The Cubs loaded the bases with no outs in the third on a walk and two hit batters, but Arrighetti bounced back to strike out Ian Happ then got Seiya Suzuki to pop out to short and Michael Conforto to ground out to short.
The Cubs stranded the bases loaded again in the eighth when Bryan King got the final out. He then pitched the ninth for his fifth save.
