Tampa Bay Rays catcher Nick Fortes and pitcher Bryan Baker celebrate after a baseball game against the Houston Astros, Friday, July 3, 2026, in Houston. (AP Photo/Kevin M. Cox)

HOUSTON (AP) — Nick Fortes homered and hit a run-scoring double, Junior Caminero added a solo shot, and the Tampa Bay Rays beat the Houston Astros 3-1 on Friday night to extend the longest active win streak in the major leagues to nine games.

The Rays have homered in a season-high eight consecutive games. Tampa Bay had its streak of nine straight games scoring at least four runs snapped.

Steven Okert (1-1) replaced starter Spencer Arrighetti to begin the seventh and struck out Jonathan Aranda swinging before Caminero hit a 1-1 slider over the wall in left field to give the Rays a 2-1 lead.

Kevin Kelly (5-3) pitched 1 2/3 innings of no-hit relief for the win.

Bryan Baker pitched a 1-2-3 ninth for 23rd save this season.

Yordan Alvarez hit his American League-leading 27th home run this season, a 427-foot shot off Rays starter Nick Martinez in the sixth that made it 1-1. Philadelphia’s Kyle Schwarber leads MLB with 30 homers.

Caminero has 25 homer runs, tied with Minnesota’s Byron Buxton for second in the AL. The 22-year-old Caminero had a string of six consecutive games with a homer snapped Thursday in a 5-2 win at Kansas City.

Fortes hit a two-out solo shot, his second this season, in the sixth inning that opened the scoring.

Tampa Bay’s Cedric Mullins went 0 for 4 and snapped his career-long streak of reaching base in 25 straight starts.

Arrighetti gave up a run and two hits.

Rays RHP Drew Rasmussen (7-4, 2.45 ERA) starts Saturday against RHP Hunter Brown (1-0, 1.78) in the second of a three-game series.

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