Best-laid plans go awry
Consecutive excuse-me hits during 8th-inning rally prove decisive for Arizona
Out of 15 hits on Friday night at Minute Maid Park, the softest one was enough for the Arizona Diamondbacks to take down the Astros 4-2.
A southpaw pitcher’s duel turned late-innings chess match sustained a 2-2 tie into the eighth.
With two outs and a runner on second base, Astros reliever Hector Rondon tried to muscle through his second inning of work. His stuff was overpowering, but his performance was shaky against the bottom of Arizona’s lineup.
He fired a 97-mph fastball far inside to jam pinch hitter Jon Jay. The pitch splintered Jay’s bat, but Jay’s effort outmuscled Rondon’s.
The ball dunked into shallow right, where no Astros fielder could make a play. First baseman Yuli Gurriel watched the ball die in the grass and threw up his hands. Right fielder Josh Reddick raced in, but it was too late. Jay reached third base with a go-ahead RBI triple.
Outfielders had aligned for Jay to drive the ball to the opposite field.
“You’re not going to play on the line 20 feet beyond the base,” Astros manager A.J. Hinch said. “That’s the only place we could’ve played to catch it.”
The next batter, A.J. Pollock, foiled
Rondon with another weakly struck hit. Center fielder George Springer dove and could not snare the shallow fly ball. Springer sprang up in time to throw out Pollock at second base, but Jay had trotted across home plate for the final run.
Springer left the game after his diving attempt because of a shoulder injury. He is considered dayto-day and could return to the lineup Saturday, according to Hinch.
The bullpen for the Astros (9255) has allowed eight earned runs in September. Rondon (2-4, 2.43 ERA) is responsible for three of them.
The victory keeps the Diamondbacks (78-70) within four games of a wild-card berth in the National League.
“It was frustrating,” Hinch said. “We didn’t do a ton between the first and sixth inning offensively.”
Lefthanded starters Dallas Keuchel and Robbie Ray weathered an exchange of two-run first innings.
Keuchel allowed a walk to Eduardo Escobar, ground-rule double to Paul Goldschmidt and a two-RBI single to David Peralta.
The Astros answered by loading the bases with no outs. Gurriel drove in one run with a single and Carlos Correa added another when he grounded into a double play. Correa tied the game, but he ultimately killed the rally.
Ray did not give up another hit to the Astros — who entered with baseball’s highest batting average against lefthanders — through 51⁄3 innings. His mid-90s fastball juxtaposed a flummoxing breaking ball. He threw 24 sliders. The Astros swung and missed nine of them. Springer missed one so badly that after slamming his bat and helmet to the dirt he turned to home plate umpire Scott Barry to clarify he was frustrated only with himself.
Keuchel had one 1-2-3 inning. He tiptoed around trouble and stranded seven runners in six innings. With a runner on first, Keuchel finished his outing with his fifth strikeout. He got Jeff Mathis flailing at a changeup that veered out of the hitter’s reach.
The game slowed when the pitcher’s duel ended.
Ray exited the sixth with Jose Altuve on first base. Diamondbacks manager Torey Luvolla brought in righthander Archie Bradley, who induced fly outs from Gurriel and Correa.
The Astros needed three relievers to clear the seventh. Like déjà vu, Joe Smith allowed a walk to Escobar and double to Goldschmidt, which put runners in scoring position for Peralta.
Then lefty Tony Sipp came in from the bullpen to do what Keuchel could not. Sipp struck out Peralta with a slider.
Hinch called upon Rondon, a righthander, to finish cleaning up Smith’s mess. Luvolla countered with lefthanded pinch hitter Daniel Descalso. Rondon blew Descalso away with four high fastballs
Rondon’s critical strikeout appeared to generate some momentum for the Astros. To lead off the bottom of the seventh, Tyler White lined a ball to left-center and slid headfirst into second base. He pushed himself off the dirt to hear roaring cheers and spot Springer leaning over the dugout railing. Springer pantomimed milking a cow — the team’s signature big hit celebration — and White replied with the same gesture.
Springer fueled the merriment, but the frustration he had shown earlier boiled over by the end of the inning.
Springer batted with two outs and Jake Marisnick, who pinchran for White, on third base. Springer reached a full count against veteran submariner Brad Zeigler and watched a sixth pitch pass by.
Springer thought it was ball four. Scott called it strike three. Springer turned around to argue. Hinch got in between his center fielder and the umpire to keep the discussion from escalating to an ejection.
Neither Springer nor Rondon were available for comment after the game.
Springer’s strikeout began a pattern of sparking and squelching the potential for a comeback. Gurriel and Correa reached base in the eighth. Marwin Gonzalez and Brian McCann got on to start the bottom of the ninth.
Including White, six Astros reached base in the final three innings. None scored.
“We just needed to get a hit,” Hinch said. “We couldn’t do it.”
Reddick represented the goahead run in the ninth. He grounded into a double play. J.D. Davis followed with a hard grounder for the final out.