Houston falls to beatable Arizona

Astros fall to D-backs in second-straight extra-inning game to even series

Astros' Jose Altuve
Houston's inexplicable struggles against struggling teams continued on Saturday night. Photo by Harry How/Getty Images

Houston's inexplicable struggles against struggling teams continued on Saturday night.

After needing extra innings to beat the struggling Diamondbacks, the Astros hoped to rebound with a much more convincing win over Arizona on Saturday to secure the series win. Instead, Arizona would get the best of Houston in extras, tying the three-game set at one game apiece


Final Score (10 innings):
Diamondbacks 6, Astros 4

Astros' Record: 87-61, first in the AL West

Winning Pitcher: J.B. Wendelken (3-2)

Losing Pitcher: Yimi Garcia (3-9)

Houston strikes first, Arizona responds against McCullers Jr.

After a quick top of the first by their starter, Lance McCullers Jr., the Astros jumped out to an early lead off the bat of Yordan Alvarez, who capitalized on a one-out walk by crushing a 453-foot two-run homer to straightaway center, putting Houston ahead 2-0. McCullers dealt with some traffic in the second, allowing a one-out double and two-out walk, but erased both to maintain the lead.

After a 1-2-3 third, things unraveled for him in the fourth, allowing a leadoff double that would result in a run on an error, then gave up the lead with an RBI double and RBI single in back-to-back at-bats to give Arizona a 3-2 advantage. He finished that frame, erased a leadoff double in the fifth, and then made it through the sixth with some defensive help. His final line: 6.0 IP, 7 H, 3 R, 2 ER, 2 BB, 8 K, 111 P.

Game stays tied as the teams go to extras for second straight night

Houston got McCullers Jr. off the hook in the bottom of the sixth, getting a single and double to start the frame to set up a sac fly by Carlos Correa, making it 3-3. Phil Maton was Houston's first reliever in the top of the seventh, and he would face three batters, getting two outs and allowing a walk before Brooks Raley came in to finish the inning.

Despite back-to-back singles to start the bottom of the seventh for Houston, they would come away empty-handed as the game remained gridlocked. Ryne Stanek was next out of the bullpen, and he sat down Arizona 1-2-3 before Houston suffered the same fate in the bottom half. For the second night in a row, Houston's closer came in to try and keep things tied in the top of the ninth. Ryan Pressly did it again, but so did Arizona in the bottom of the ninth, making it back-to-back nights with extra innings.

Astros fall in extras as Arizona evens the series

Yimi Garcia had the top of the tenth for Houston, but after allowing the free runner to score on a one-out single, he would give up a two-run homer to make it a 6-3 lead for Arizona before finishing the inning. Houston made it a two-run game with a pinch-hit RBI single by Jason Castro in the bottom of the inning but would not come any closer as the Diamondbacks would even the series.

Up Next: The finale of this three-game series will be a normal 1:10 PM Central start on Sunday. It'll be the battle of the Zac(k)s, as Zac Gallen (2-10, 4.44 ERA) will be on the mound for Arizona and Zack Greinke (11-6, 3.94 ERA) will pitch for the Houston.

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A new era begins. Composite image by Jack Brame.

It’s go time! While the Astros are not the juggernaut they were over the more than half-decade stretch from 2017 through 2022 that yielded regular seasons with 101, 103, 106, and 107 wins, four American League pennants, and two World Series Champions, as the saying goes, they ain’t dead yet. There is no superpower in the American League West the Astros need to overcome. In fact, the American League as a whole is grossly inferior to the National League. As a result, a fifth Astros’ AL title in this era is not some absurd fantasy, though it is certainly unlikely. But winning the pennant is unlikely for every AL team, so if you’re a fan of the Astros there is nothing wrong with a “Why not us?” mentality. On the other hand, the floor for the 2025 Astros is lower going into a season than it has been in almost a decade. The lineup has numerous question marks, and if the terrific trio atop the Astros’ starting rotation (Framber Valdez, Hunter Brown, and Ronel Bronco) runs into injury or performance issues the Astros would have serious problems. That the Texas Rangers and Seattle Mariners both finish ahead of the Astros is clearly plausible. Play ball!

Astros history lives in these moments

It is simple fact that time marches on, but it is still amazing that the Astros are beginning their second quarter-century of play at what for its first two seasons was called Enron Field, then for the past 23 seasons Minute Maid Park, and now Daikin Park. That’s 25 seasons in the books, at least 26 more to come, with the Astros a few years ago having extended their lease through 2050. In non-specific order, I have twenty easily come-to-mind most spine-tingling moments at the ballpark. If you want 25 for 25 years, I leave five more to you.

Not all spine-tinglers on the home field are generated by the home team. Here are three produced by visiting players. In 2001, Barry Bonds smashed his 70th home run of the season to tie Mark McGwire’s single season Major League record. We know what went into the home run numbers of that era, but it was still jaw-dropping stuff. Bonds would finish the season with 73 homers. Game five of the 2005 National League Championship Series, with the Astros one out from winning their first ever pennant, Albert Pujols launched a Brad Lidge hanging slider that might still be airborne if not for the glass wall above the train tracks. It may be the most instantaneous crowd delirium to utter silence moment ever. It turned a 4-2 Astros’ lead into a crushing 5-4 loss. But, the next game Roy Oswalt pitched the Astros to that pennant in St. Louis. Lastly, the second game of the 2013 season, Rangers’ pitcher Yu Darvish retired the first 26 Astro batters before Marwin Gonzalez smacked a ball through Darvish’s legs up the middle for a base hit. Soooooo close to a perfect game. Only 22 perfect games have been thrown in MLB’s modern era (1900-today).

Now to Astro achievements. Fudging a bit by including Roger Clemens since it’s not for one specific moment. But the Rocket’s starts with the Astros were events. Speaking of Hall of Famers, Craig Biggio’s 3000th hit is an obvious list-maker. Jeff Kent is not a Hall of Famer but he was better in the batter’s box than any second baseman elected after Joe Morgan. Kent won game five of the 2004 NLCS with a bottom of the ninth three-run bomb to end what had been a scoreless game. Alas, the Astros would lose the next two games and the series in St. Louis. The crowd went much wilder over Kent’s homer than over Chris Burke’s series-winning homer over the Atlanta Braves in a 2005 NL Division Series. Burke’s homer came in the 18th inning, so sheer exhaustion held down the decibel level a little. A sleeper for the list occurred earlier in that same game, when Brad Ausmus of all people hit a two-out game-tying homer to get the game into extra innings.

Four no-hitters have been thrown by Union Station. Working backwards: Ronel Blanco last season, Framber Valdez in 2023, a combined job started by Aaron Sanchez in 2019, and the first in 2015 by Mike....yes, Fiers.

And now to the grandest home park moments of this Platinum Era in Astros’ history. Carlos Correa authored two of them, each in a game two of the American League Championship Series. In 2017 he doubled home Jose Altuve with the winning run in the bottom of the ninth. That came off of Aroldis Chapman who shall appear once more in this column. In 2019 Correa tied the series at one win apiece with a walk-off homer. Yordan Alvarez also gets a pair of entries. You know, Yordan hit just .192 in the 2022 postseason. But talk about making your hits count. In game one of those playoffs, ALDS vs. Seattle, it was a two-out three-run walk-off blast off of Robbie Ray to give the Astros an 8-7 win. Then in the final game of those playoffs, it was a sixth inning gargantuan three-run launch to dead center turning a 1-0 deficit into a 3-1 lead.

That leaves four moments that are 100 percent non-negotiable entries. While not dramatic (4-0 final score), the payoff warrants inclusion of the Astros winning Game seven of the 2017 ALCS over the Yankees. Similarly, while the moment of victory lacked drama (4-1 final), how could one exclude the Astros winning the World Series on home turf in 2022. Finally, for my money the two most pulsating, goosebump-inducing, viscerally exciting moments at 501 Crawford Street. In one of the most scintillating games ever played in any sport, Alex Bregman’s bottom of the 10th inning single gave the Astros’ their epic 13-12 win over the Dodgers in game five of the 2017 World Series. Then in 2019, Jose Altuve’s game six homer ended the ALCS (I warned you Aroldis).

Here’s to the new season! Join Brandon Strange, Josh Jordan, and me for the Stone Cold ‘Stros podcast which drops each Monday afternoon, with an additional episode now on Thursday. Click here to catch!


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