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Alvarez homers as Astros down Yankees 7-5 for DH sweep

The Houston Astros opened the second half of the season by sweeping the New York Yankees in a doubleheader Thursday to inch closer in the standings to the team with baseball’s best record.

Yordan Alvarez and Alex Bregman both homered and combined for five RBI as the Astros completed the sweep with a 7-5 victory in Game 2.

Chas McCormick added a two-run home run for the Astros, who won the season series 5-2.

The Yankees are 64-30 and Houston’s two wins Thursday improved the team to 61-32.

“You want to get off to a good start, and I think everybody came in ready to play,” Bregman said. “This is what we expect out of this ball club every single night … and hopefully we can continue that for the second half.”

Yankees manager Aaron Boone seemed bothered by a question equating this season’s results versus the Astros to their struggles against them in the playoffs in recent years.

“I understand it’s a big story,” he said. “I understand the season we’re in. It’s not going to matter unless (it’s) October. If we happen to come back here in October we’re going to show up. We’re going to expect to win. We think we’re really good. They’re really good. Don’t overstate this.”

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Rookie J.J. Matijevic’s pinch-hit RBI single with two outs in the ninth inning lifted the Astros to a 3-2 win in the opener of the day-night doubleheader between the American League’s top teams.

“This is huge for us to start out 2-0, to take our lead back to double digits,” Houston manager Dusty Baker said of his team’s lead over the Mariners in the AL West.

Aaron Judge hit his MLB-leading 34th homer on a three-run shot off Brandon Bielak to the train tracks atop left field to cut the lead to 7-5 with one out in the ninth in Game 2.

Rafael Montero, who pitched an inning in the first game, took over and was greeted with a single by Gleyber Torres. But Matt Carpenter grounded into a double play to end the game and give Montero his seventh save.

Alvarez, who returned from the injured list Thursday, smacked his 27th homer to the seats in left field with two outs in the first to give Houston an early lead.

The Astros went back-to-back when Bregman connected off Domingo Germán (0-1) four pitches later to make it 2-0.

“The guy hasn’t swung a bat against live pitching and hits it out on his first at-bat, he’s pretty awesome,” Baker said. “And Bregman is heating up.”

There were runners on second and third with two outs in the second when Alvarez doubled off the wall in left-center to score two more and extend the lead to 4-0. Bregman singled to left field to send Alvarez home and make it 5-0.

Judge walked with one out in the third before the Yankees cut the lead to three on a home run by Torres.

The doubleheader coming out of the All-Star break was scheduled to help make up a series that was postponed because of the lockout. Houston won the first game of the series on June 30.

Germán allowed six hits and five runs in three innings in his season debut after missing the first half of the season with a shoulder injury.

Houston starter Luis Garcia (8-5) yielded three hits and two runs in five innings for his fifth consecutive win after losing his previous four decisions.

In Game 1, Bregman led off the Houston ninth with a single against Michael King (6-3). Bregman advanced to third on Aledmys Díaz’s double. After Yuli Gurriel struck out, pinch-hitter Alvarez was walked intentionally to load the bases.

King looked as if he might be able to escape the jam after he struck out McCormick, but Matijevic drove in Bregman with an infield single to shortstop.

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