Houston splits the series with Detroit

Astros fall to Tigers in extras in series finale

Astros' Jose Altuve and Carlos Correa
Houston's offense remained cold in Detroit to finish the series on Sunday. Photo by Ezra Shaw/Getty Images

Houston's offense remained cold in Detroit to finish the series on Sunday.

With their winning streak snapped in the loss in the first half of a doubleheader the day before, the Astros tried to move their new one to two games by taking the finale and, therefore, the series victory with a win Sunday. The Tigers would continue to stifle Houston's offense, though, and would get the walk-off win over Houston in extras.

Final Score (10 innings): Tigers 2, Astros 1

Astros' Record: 48-30, first in the AL West

Winning Pitcher: Gregory Soto (4-1)

Losing Pitcher: Blake Taylor (0-2)

Odorizzi goes five scoreless

There wasn't much going on for either offense as the afternoon rolled on. For Jake Odorizzi, he was able to hold Detroit scoreless over five frames, allowing just a walk in the second, a single in the third, and a single in the fifth, all of which he was able to strand. His final line: 5.0 IP, 2 H, 0 ER, 1 BB, 3 K, 77 P.

He left in line for the win, despite the Astros only giving him one hit of support. It came in the top of the fourth when Tarik Skubal hit the leadoff batter before issuing two walks to load the bases. Carlos Correa brought in the first run of the day; a sac fly to put Houston in front 1-0.

Detroit ties it as game goes to extras

With Odorizzi making it through five, the Astros turned to long-reliever Cristian Javier to try and eat up some innings. He would work in and out of trouble, starting with two walks in the bottom of the sixth, which he erased, then issuing two more in the bottom of the seventh while getting two outs. That prompted Dusty Baker to move on to Brooks Raley to try and get out of the jam, but Raley instead gave up a game-tying RBI single before ending the frame.

Raley remained on the mound to start the bottom of the eighth but would face one batter, issuing a walk, before Baker moved on to Ryne Stanek. Stanek escaped unscathed, allowing a single to his first batter then retiring the next three in a row to strand both runners. Tied 1-1 in the bottom of the ninth, Ryan Pressly came in and forced extra innings, posting a 1-2-3 inning.

Tigers get the walk-off in extras to split the series

Houston played small ball in the top of the tenth, getting a leadoff walk then a sac bunt by Jason Castro to put runners on second and third with one out, but did nothing with it as the next two batters would foul out and a groundout. Blake Taylor was the next reliever for Houston, coming in with a free runner on second trying to extend things another inning. Detroit would get the walk-off win, getting a groundout to move the runner to third, then an RBI bunt to win the game, with the Tigers and Astros splitting the four-game series.

Up Next: With this seven-game road trip complete, the Astros will continue this long stretch of games with three at home starting Monday at 7:10 PM Central with another series against the Orioles. Zack Greinke (8-2, 3.56 ERA) is slated to go up against Thomas Eshelman (0-1, 7.27 ERA) in the opener of the three-game set.

Most Popular

SportsMap Emails
Are Awesome

Listen Live

ESPN Houston 97.5 FM
Can the Texans defense slow down Patrick Mahomes and the Chiefs? Photo by Alex Slitz/Getty Images.

When DeMeco Ryans became coach of the Houston Texans before last season, the two-time Pro Bowl linebacker brought his swarm defense with him.

It’s an identity the Texans have embraced as they prepare for their second straight trip to the divisional round of the playoffs Saturday where they’ll face the Kansas City Chiefs.

“You really can’t go out there if you’re not about it,” Ryans said.

And while every member of the defense has bought into Ryans’ aggressive style, there is one player who epitomizes it like no one else.

“Will every time,” cornerback Derek Stingley said of defensive end Will Anderson Jr.

Anderson, last year’s AP Defensive Rookie of the Year, has taken his game to another level this season and had 1½ sacks last week after piling up 11 in the regular season.

He described what playing swarm defense means to him.

“Do whatever it takes to get the ball, attacking the ball,” Anderson said. “We’ve got this saying in our D-line room; ‘who gonna pop it off?’ Whoever pops it off first, that’s swarming. Like who’s gonna make the big play? And I feel like there’s a lot of guys on defense that pop it off, who swarm.”

The Texans intercepted Justin Herbert a career-high four times, including one which was returned for a score, in last week’s win over the Chargers after he had been picked off just three times all season. Houston’s four takeaways in the first week of the playoffs are tied with Philadelphia for most in the NFL.

That performance came after Houston ranked fifth in the league in the regular season by forcing 29 turnovers.

Stingley, who had two of the interceptions last week a day after earning AP All-Pro honors, shared his mindset on the team’s defensive mentality.

“It really just comes down to if I was to tell you this is the last time you’re gonna do something, how you gonna do it,” Stingley said. “It’s simple as that. Just do that every single play.”

Ryans said there’s really no secret to why his team has such a knack for forcing turnovers. He believes it’s because he has good players, and they emphasize it in practice which translates to games.

“That’s our main thing that we go into every week is talking about attacking the football, taking the football,” Ryans said. “Because we know, when you take the football away, it just raises your percentages of winning the football games… it’s the defense helping the team win the game.”

While all of Houston’s takeaways last week came on interceptions, Stingley was quick to point out that those picks wouldn’t have happened if not for the pressure the defensive line put on Herbert. The Texans sacked him four times and hit him another nine in the 32-12 victory.

“The defense starts with them up front,” Stingley said. “They’re doing their job and it just makes it easier for us on the back end.”

Anderson said with each turnover, the defense got more and more amped up and was pushing each other to see who the next player would be to force one.

“That’s just that swarm mentality and we just feeding off each other,” Anderson said. “This person can’t do it by themselves so who is gonna be next and that just generates that contagious energy.”

The Texans were the fifth team since 1963 to have at least four sacks, four interceptions and an interception return for a touchdown in a playoff game last week. The past three teams to do it all went on to win the Super Bowl, with Tampa Bay doing so in the 2002 season, Baltimore in 2000 and San Francisco in 1989.

This Texans team would love to keep that going. But first they’ll need a win Saturday to put them in the AFC championship game for the first time after losing their previous five divisional matchups.

“That’s what you come here for,” Anderson said. “That’s what they’ve been rebuilding for is moments like this… we’ve got all the right pieces, we’ve just got to go out there and make it happen.”

SportsMap Emails
Are Awesome