Missed opportunities sink Astros in extras

Astros reliever Yimi García allowed a go-ahead RBI single to D-backs designated hitter Kole Calhoun in the 10th inning, then served up a two-run home run to Daulton Varsho in the next at-bat, taking the loss in Houston's 6-4 defeat on Saturday at Minute Maid Park. It was the second consecutive 10-inning game between the teams.

The Astros added one run in the bottom half of the 10th on an RBI single by Jason Castro, but they weren’t able to match Varsho’s blast.

“He found too much of the plate,” manager Dusty Baker said of García’s slider to Varsho, which hung in the lower part of the strike zone. “Simple as that.”

Through an interpreter, García said he did not have great command on any of his pitches.

Saturday’s loss dropped the Astros to 87-61 and ended a three-game winning streak. Coupled with an Oakland win, Houston’s AL West lead is now at six games with 14 games left to play. The magic number to clinch remains at nine. The Astros did not lose any ground in the potential race for home-field advantage in the American League Division Series, since Tampa Bay (92-57) lost to Detroit, and the Chicago White Sox (84-64) fell at Texas.

Lance McCullers Jr. pitched six solid innings, surrendering three runs (two earned) while striking out eight. All three of McCullers’ runs allowed came in a sloppy fourth inning, which included an error at first base by Yuli Gurriel that led to a run scoring on the play. Catcher Martín Maldonado had two passed balls in the inning, as well.

“I had great stuff and threw a good amount of strikes,” McCullers said of his outing.

“One thing I wish I would've done a little better is stop the bleeding there, in the fourth,” McCullers added. “We got into a little situation and had some controllable guys coming up, and I probably could've done a better job there. Balls were squeaking through a little bit there, but overall, I gave our team a chance to win, which is always the goal.”

Houston tied the game, 3-3, on a Carlos Correa sacrifice fly in the sixth, which scored Gurriel and advanced Kyle Tucker to third base. They appeared poised to add more and grab the lead, but Tucker was caught stealing home before the next pitch. While it first seemed as if Tucker had made a blunder, particularly with only one out, the Astros were actually attempting to atone for an earlier miscue by Gurriel.

“That was a heads-up play by [third-base coach] Omar Lopez,” Baker said postgame. “He knew the rules. They were going to [appeal] that Yuli left early, and he said he did leave early. That would have negated that run. When Tucker took off, they were out of challenges, and the run scored.”

Arizona had already used a replay challenge unsuccessfully on a play at home plate, where Correa cut down Josh VanMeter.

Once Tucker was tagged out in a rundown, the D-backs were unable to appeal Gurriel’s tying run, since another play had been made. While that was enough to avert disaster and keep the game tied, Gurriel’s mistake did lead to the potential go-ahead run being taken off third base.

From there, Houston couldn’t push across any runs in the seventh, eighth or ninth, and things fell apart for García in the 10th. The Astros did not pitch some of their more established relievers, such as Kendall Graveman, Cristian Javier, or Blake Taylor, but Baker said each was unavailable after throwing at least one inning in Friday’s bullpen game.

“Our bullpen was big-time short tonight,” Baker said. “We pitched the guys that were available that we thought were going to do the job.”

Yordan Alvarez opened Saturday’s scoring with a massive two-run homer in the first inning off D-backs starter Humberto Castellanos. Alvarez’s blast, which was his team-leading 31st home run this season, traveled 453 feet to center field and was rocketed at an exit velocity of 114.1 mph. However, the Astros only mustered two more runs over the ensuing nine innings, and one came courtesy of the automatic runner on second base to start the 10th.

Gurriel and Tucker had two hits apiece, but none were RBIs. Jose Altuve added a fifth-inning double, making him the all-time record holder for the most regular-season hits (850) at Minute Maid Park.

But in contrast to Friday’s win, when the Astros scored four runs on four hits, they scored four runs on 11 hits in Saturday’s loss and were just 2-for-8 with runners in scoring position. The final out was on Gurriel’s flyout to center in the 10th with runners on second and third base, as Houston was unable to pull off a second straight walk-off.