George Springer made sure that the fans got a good show in the Astros’ first game back at Minute Maid Park since floods ravaged Houston, hitting his career-best 30th homer to help defeat the New York Mets and Matt Harvey, 12-8, on Saturday.
‘‘The fact that they came out today to support us, it’s crazy,’’ Springer said. ‘‘There’s thousands of people that don’t have homes, they don’t have belongings and they’re rallying around us. It’s our job as the sports team here to do anything we can. The goal is to provide anybody with some sense of relief.’’
A crowd of 30,319 attended the doubleheader opener.
The Astros wore patches on the upper left side of their jerseys with the team logo and the word ‘‘STRONG’’ in block letters as a tribute to those affected by Hurricane Harvey.
As Springer approached home plate after hitting a two-run homer in the second inning, he pounded the patch three times with his right fist and pointed to the fans.
‘‘They wanted to put a patch on for the rest of the year,’’ manager A.J. Hinch said. ‘‘The guys were excited. We were happy. It just represents the city of Houston and the surrounding areas and what we need to do as a community to stay strong and stay together and start the rebuilding process in a lot of areas in our community.’’
Mets manager Terry Collins was glad to be able to help the city take a break from all the problems that have come with the storm.
‘‘If we can bring a distraction to what the town’s going through, certainly we’re up for it. We've been through it before obviously in our city,’’ Collins said, referring to Superstorm Sandy in 2012. ‘‘We know what the feeling is like. Tough atmosphere to play in when you’re a visitor.’’
Harvey was pounded for seven runs and eight hits in a career-low two innings as Houston romped to a 7-0 lead. Harvey had not pitched for the Mets since June 14 because of a stress injury to the scapula bone in his right shoulder.
‘‘I thought his delivery was good,’’ Collins said. ‘‘Have to get his command down. Step one, it’s just nice to see him back out there.’’
Jose Altuve had an RBI single and Marwin Gonzalez hit a two-run single, then scored on Cameron Maybin’s single as Houston built a four-run lead in the 37-pitch first inning.
Maybin was claimed on waivers from the Los Angeles Angels on Thursday.
Springer hit a two-run homer in the second when Harvey threw a run-scoring wild pitch. J.D. Davis added a homer to start the fifth.
Charlie Morton struck out nine in five innings, giving up two runs and six hits.
Dominic Smith hit a two-run homer in the fourth and Wilmer Flores hit his fourth career grand slam, a drive off Will Harris.
Brad Peacock was to start the night game for Houston against the Mets’ Seth Lugo (5-3).
Indians 5, Tigers 2 — Corey Kluber pitched eight strong innings and Cleveland pushed aside host Detroit in winnning its 10th straight.
Blue Jays 7, Orioles 2 — Josh Donaldson hit a pivotal three-run homer and visiting Toronto deftly recovered after starting pitcher Marcus Stroman was struck by a line drive in the second inning, Stroman left the game with an elbow contusion.
Nationals 3, Brewers 2 — Trea Turner's double to the center field wall scored Wilmer Difo from first base in the eighth inning, and visiting Washington rallied to beat Milwaukee.
Cubs 14, Braves 12 — Rene Rivera hit a grand slam, Anthony Rizzo added a three-run triple, and Chicago held off visiting Atlanta in Jon Lester’s return from the disabled list.
Javier Baez and Jason Heyward also homered for the NL Central-leading Cubs, who have won six straight and 12 of 15 overall. Rivera, Rizzo, Baez, and Heyward finished with two hits apiece.
Lester allowed four runs and eight hits in five innings in his first start since Aug. 16. He had been sidelined by tightness in his left lat and general shoulder fatigue.
Freddie Freeman, Matt Kemp and Rio Ruiz homered for Atlanta, which has dropped six of eight. Rookies Ozzie Albies and Dansby Swanson had three hits apiece, and Nick Markakis had two hits and drove in two runs.
The Braves scored three times in the ninth, putting some pressure on the Cubs. Pinch hitter Matt Adams drove in a run with a fielder’s choice and scored on Jace Peterson’s two-out double. Albies singled in Peterson before Wade Davis struck out Freeman to end the game.
Rivera’s first career grand slam on an 0-2 curveball from Lucas Sims made it 4-0 in the second. The Braves responded with three in the third on consecutive homers by Freeman and Kemp.
The Cubs appeared to break it open with five runs in the fourth, highlighted by Rizzo’s bases-clearing triple. The clutch swing gave Rizzo three straight seasons with at least 30 homers and 100 RBIs.
Atlanta scored eight runs in the final three innings, but couldn’t catch sweet-swinging Chicago. The World Series champions led the majors with 191 runs in August.
The Braves finished with 17 hits, compared to 12 for the Cubs.
Sims was charged with six hits and seven runs in three-plus innings. The rookie righthander struck out four and walked four.
Padres 6, Dodgers 5 — Yangervis Solarte homered with one out in the ninth inning to lift host San Diego over Los Angeles in the first game of a split doubleheader, the sixth loss in seven games for the NL West leaders. Solarte’s first career walkoff homer came off Pedro Baez. It was his 15th this season.
It came after Justin Turner’s pinch-hit, two-run homer off All-Star closer Brad Hand (3-4) tied the game at five.
The Dodgers blew leads of 1-0, 2-1 and 3-1, and trailed 5-3 in the top of the ninth. Rob Segedin hit a leadoff double off Hand and Turner hit a one-out, no-doubter into the second deck in left field. It was his 18th of the season and the fifth pinch-hit homer of his career.
Giants 2, Cardinals 1 — Nick Hundley hit a game-ending homer in the 10th inning, and host San Francisco beat St. Louis despite a stellar pitching performance from Lance Lynn. Hundley led off with an opposite-field drive to right on a 1-0 slider from Ryan Sherriff.
