Astros blow 4-run lead, but rally in 9th to defeat Angels

ANAHEIM, Calif. (AP) — Even the mighty Houston Astros are not immune to occasional bouts of comprehensive ineptitude, as they demonstrated while blowing a four-run lead in the seventh inning Tuesday night with two errors, a hit batter with the bases loaded and a passed ball.

The Astros still had plenty of time to recover against an opponent that’s been largely inept for two full months now.

Kyle Tucker delivered a tiebreaking RBI double in the ninth inning, and the Astros rallied for a 6-5 victory over the spiraling Los Angeles Angels.

Although the Astros wasted a strong six-inning start by Luis Garcia with a mistake-filled seventh, the AL West leaders have still won four of five and 21 of 27 to move a season-high 28 games above .500 at 57-29.

“They say there’s no such thing as an ugly win, but that wasn’t very pretty,” Houston manager Dusty Baker said. “That was tough.”

José Altuve led off the ninth with a walk from Angels closer Raisel Iglesias (2-6), who had his second straight calamitous outing. Aledmys Díaz singled before the double to right by Tucker, a first-time All-Star selection last week.

Díaz hit an early two-run homer and Alex Bregman and Altuve had RBI singles. Hector Neris (2-3) pitched the eighth, and Ryan Pressly picked up his 19th save.

“I’m just grateful we were able to bounce back and get that run we needed against a very good closer,” said reliever Phil Maton, who got charged with four unearned runs in the seventh after committing one of the two errors. “We shouldn’t even have been in that situation.”

Pinch-hitter David MacKinnon had a two-RBI single during that four-run rally in the seventh, but the Angels had only two hits in their latest punchless performance at the plate.

“I don’t know if I’ve ever seen a game where they get two hits and five runs without a homer,” said Baker, who made his major league debut in 1968. “But we came back. We were lucky to win the game.”

Mike Trout left with upper back spasms before the fifth inning on another disappointing night for the Halos, who have lost five straight and nine of 10 to drop a season-low 12 games below .500 at 38-50. Shohei Ohtani went 0 for 2 with two walks on the night before the All-Star returns to the mound and attempts to extend his streak of 28 2/3 scoreless innings.

Trout struck out in his first two at-bats against Garcia before leaving the game. He also struck out 16 times while batting .177 on the Angels’ road trip.

Garcia struck out seven and retired his final 13 hitters over six innings of onehit ball for the Astros.

He left with a 5-1 lead, but failed to win his fifth consecutive start after Houston’s bullpen and defense collapsed.