Houston wins it 10-9 on a walk-off homer in the 10th
WOW, what a wild game. Honestly, I am not even that excited, just relieved they didn’t blow another lead. This game had all the mixings for another frustrating Astros loss, but thanks to a pinch-hit, walk-off homer by Caratini in the 10th, Houston extended its win streak to three and closed off an abysmal April on a high note. If you didn’t watch here is the “TLDR”, which is what the cool kids call “Too long did not read”.
Hunter Brown gave up a three-run homer in the top of the first to Josh Naylor on a flyball that was only a homer at MMP. Unphased, Brown got back to business and did not give up another run until the 6th inning. Although Hunter was tagged with six earned runs, he pitched a lot better than that. Hindsight is 20/20, but Espada probably should have taken Hunter out after the 5th inning, or at least after he gave up the lead-off triple. Overall, there was a lot to like about Downtown Brown’s performance; the results will come.
The offense was dormant until the bottom of the third when Alex Bregman hit his first home run of the season to tie the game at three. The offense broke the tie in the bottom of the fourth with a bases-loaded two-run single by new Astro Joey Loperfido. It is always a good night when a top prospect records their first hit, but even more so when it helps the team win a tight game.
Later in the 5th inning, Singleton joined the slugfest with a three-run home run of his own.
With an 8-3 lead, it appeared the Astros were going away with this one; however, the Guardians had their own plans.
Steven Kwan lead off the top of the 6th with a triple, and Andres Gimenez drove him in the next at-bat with a towering homerun to right-center. Espada pulled Brown for Montero after giving up a walk to Naylor. Unfortunately, Montero gave up a three-run homer to Florial, and the score was tied at 8.
Thanks to some solid bullpen work, neither team would score the rest of regulation. Then extras happened.
After striking out two hitters to lead off the top of the tenth, Josh Hader gave up an RBI double to David Fry. Score: Mistakes by the Lakes: 10, Houston: 9 Oh no, here we go again.
Joey Loperfido showed a lack of plate discipline to lead off the bottom of the 10th, striking out after swinging at two pitches way out of the zone. His biggest weakness is his strikeouts, and, not surprisingly, he struck out in a situation where a K hurt the most. Singleton grounded out to second, but he did move the ghost runner over.
With two outs and the nine-hole hitter up, this just felt like a game Houston was destined to lose. However, Espada had one card left to play: use Victor Caratini as a pinch hitter. With a 1-0 count, Caratini hit a low fastball into the right field stands for a key walk-off homerun. I wish I could say I was pumped, but I think I had already written the game off.
Thoughts:
Going into tonight, the Astros were 1-11 in extra innings over the past season and 0-7 in one-run games in 2024. Most of that is just dumb luck, I suspect we will see some mean reversion in those areas.
The Guardians were lucky to be in this one, as they struck out 15 times and complied a cumulative expected battling average under .150. However, when you can drive the ball in the air you can make good, or bad, things happen.
On the day J. Abreu was sent down it was nice to see Singleton and Loperfido contribute in a big way. It is unlikely that either of those gentlemen will ever be close to a prime Jose Abreu, but that isn’t the point. If they can even be average they will be a massive improvement from what Abreu provided the past month. In only 77 plate appearances, Abreu was worth negative 1.2 WAR. Something had to change.
It is too early to say the Astros are “back,” but this team simply has too much talent to continue at their current pace. Do you think the Astros are through their slump? Comment below!