Astros 9, Yankees 1
NEW YORK - Carlos Corporan set career highs Monday night with four hits and four RBIs and the Houston Astros hammered Andy Pettitte in his worst start since returning from retirement in a 9-1 win over the New York Yankees.
Brandon Barnes had three hits and three RBIs for the Astros, who snapped a four-game losing streak and had six players with at least two hits. Lucas Harrell worked out of numerous mini-jams over 6 1/3 innings to improve to 3-2.
The Astros scored their first five runs off Pettitte - three in the first and two in the fourth - with two outs before chasing him during a four-run fifth.
Harrell allowed eight hits and one walk while striking out four, but he induced three double plays and got 14 groundball outs.
Pettitte, who was pitching on the 18th anniversary of his big league debut, gave up seven runs, all earned, on 10 hits and one walk over 4 1/3 innings. Pettitte entered Monday with a 2.69 ERA in 16 starts since rejoining the Yankees last year following a one-season retirement.
The outing was the shortest for Pettitte since last June 27, when he lasted just four innings before being hit by a comebacker and suffering a broken leg. Monday's game represented his briefest stay in a start not cut short by injury since he threw four innings against the Red Sox on Oct. 2, 2010.
Vernon Wells had two hits, including an RBI single, for the Yankees, while Brett Gardner and Robinson Cano also had two singles apiece.
Houston entered Monday with an American League-worst 7-18 record - a 45-win pace over a 162-game season - and fresh off a three-game sweep at the hands of the Red Sox, but the Astros wasted little time in getting to Pettitte.
Pettitte recorded the first two outs of the game on just six pitches, but Brandon Laird, Chris Carter and Carlos Pena all singled, with Laird coming home on Pena's hit, before Ronny Cedeno walked to load the bases. Corporan followed with a two-run double to right to extend the lead to 3-0.
Corporan led off the fourth with a single before consecutive two-out doubles by Jose Altuve and Barnes gave the Astros a 5-0 lead.
In the fifth, Carter singled, Pena struck out and Cedeno doubled to chase Pettitte. Carter scored on a wild pitch by reliever Adam Warren, who then gave up a two-run homer to Corcoran.
NOTES: Yankees third baseman Kevin Youkilis, who has missed eight of the last nine games with a stiff lower back, had an MRI Monday. The results were not available before the game. ... Pettitte came on in relief on April 29, 1995 and gave up two runs on three hits in two-thirds of an inning in the Yankees' 10-3 win over the Royals. He made five relief appearances before his first start May 27. He's made five relief appearances since then - one each in 1996, 1998 and 2006 and two in 2007. ... The Astros entered Monday 1-8 all-time against the Yankees, but the one win was a no-hitter on June 11, 2003, in which six Astros - the most pitchers ever used in a no-hitter - combined on the gem. Starter Roy Oswalt, who got hurt after one inning, was followed by Peter Munro, Kirk Saarloos, winning pitcher Brad Lidge, Octavio Dotel and Billy Wagner in the first no-hitter against the Yankees since 1958. ... Astros starter Brad Peacock was demoted to the bullpen Monday, two days after he gave up five runs in 3 1/3 innings against the Red Sox. Peacock is 1-3 with an 8.44 ERA and hasn't lasted more than five innings in any of his five starts.
