Recent events led to a new urgency for the Houston Astros and a rare bullpen hiccup by the New York Yankees.

The Astros seek another productive showing at the plate Wednesday night when the teams continue their three-game series in New York.

Houston is 6-9 in its past 15 games and opened its six-game visit to New York against the Yankees and Mets by earning a 9-7 victory on Tuesday. The Astros moved back to .500 and back to a half-game over the Texas Rangers in the American League West.

Houston will play its second game after parting ways with general manager Dana Brown after 3 1/2 seasons. After ousting Brown, owner Jim Crane said Joe Espada will be the manager for the rest of the season.

"This is the way we need to come here and play," Espada said following his team's 14-hit performance. "Any other way wasn't going to be acceptable. We needed to come here today and play like a team that needs to go win a division."

Yordan Alvarez will head into Wednesday with a major league-best .323 batting average after highlighting a three-hit game with a tiebreaking RBI triple off Brent Headrick in the eighth inning. Alvarez is batting .333 (14-for-42) in his past 13 games and .581 (18-for-31) in his past seven games versus the Yankees, against whom he is hitting .328 in his career.

Yainer Diaz is hitting .344 in his past 22 games after belting a pair of solo homers among his three hits.

"You got to keep pushing," said Pena, who scored on Alvarez's triple and also homered.

"This is the final stretch. Every game means so much, especially to our ball club. We got to treat every game like it's a playoff game."

The Yankees own a 3.06 bullpen earned run average after the group allowed six runs in the series opener and prevented them from moving within 2 1/2 games of the Rays in the AL East. Headrick was scored upon for the 12th time in 68 games, and his appearances are second to Toronto's Mason Fluharty among major league leaders.

"We are now," Yankees manager Aaron Boone said about keeping an eye on Headrick's workload. "Tonight was a night where I was reluctant to even use him. So we'll pick our spots to get him a couple of days. So we're paying attention to that, of course."

New York is 6-2 in its past eight games and 10-6 in the past 16. The Yankees are coming off scoring at least nine runs for the third time since the All-Star break and getting 10 hits.

The Yankees did not announce their starter but right-hander Elmer Rodriguez (0-2, 4.76) is expected to get called up from Triple-A Scranton Wilkes/Barre. Rodriguez has pitched 17 innings for the Yankees and took the loss in his last appearance on June 21 against the Reds when he allowed three runs on four hits in four innings.

Rodriguez is 8-3 with a 2.59 ERA in 19 starts at Triple-A this season. He last pitched on Aug. 18 when he yielded one run on six hits in five innings against Charlotte.

Peter Lambert (8-7, 3.68), who is 0-2 with a 4.95 ERA in his past seven starts, will get the start for Houston and face the Yankees for the first time.

Lambert tied a career high by allowing nine runs on eight hits in 3 2/3 innings during Houston's 18-3 home loss to the Los Angeles Angels on Thursday.