Blown leads haunt Astros in 14-inning battle, fourth straight loss

CLEVELAND -- Astros manager Dusty Baker compared Houston’s 10-9, 14-inning loss to the Guardians to a 15-round fight in boxing. Well, with one slight difference.

“We only went 14,” Baker said with a laugh.

On five separate occasions, the Astros had the Guardians down to their final out on Friday at Progressive Field. Four of those times, Cleveland stormed back to tie. The fifth time, the Guardians finally dealt the knockout blow in the form of a Will Brennan walk-off double that went over Chas McCormick’s head in left field.

“My guys battled hard, and [Cleveland] battled hard,” Baker said.

The Astros’ first blown lead came in the seventh inning at the hands of the red-hot José Ramírez, who cranked a game-tying home run to right field. Two innings later, Houston had Cleveland down to its last strike when Josh Naylor hit a game-tying double off Ryan Pressly.

That double set the stage for a back-and-forth, extra-inning affair that seemed like it would never end. After both teams exchanged zeros over the first two innings in extras, the Astros took the lead on an RBI single from Kyle Tucker. In the bottom of the inning, Seth Martinez got Will Brennan to ground into what looked like a game-ending double play, but Jeremy Peña uncorked a wild throw to first that allowed Naylor to score.

“He thought he could get to the bag first, and then the runner was barreling down on him,” Baker said. “These guys nowadays aren’t used to that. Every step he took that guy would take two steps. Unfortunate play.”

Peña said the play was a matter of instinct.

“It was a fast runner at the plate, so I trusted my gut and thought I had a play,” Peña said. “It just didn’t work out.”

An inning later, Mauricio Dubón appeared to play hero when his second double of the game gave the Astros the lead, but the Guardians once again responded with an RBI single from Steven Kwan in the bottom of the inning. Kwan made a fantastic diving catch on a Jose Altuve liner at the top of the inning to keep it a one run game.

Tucker gave the Astros another lead in the 14th inning with an RBI single, but it was short-lived, as Tyler Freeman led the bottom of the inning off with a game-tying double before Brennan recorded the walk-off double.

With Bryan Abreu unavailable, Martinez pitched the final four innings of the game. He threw a career-high 52 pitches across his 3 1/3 innings.

“He was our last line of defense,” Baker said. “He gave us all he had. That was a gutsy performance.”

Not only was Martinez in unfamiliar territory in terms of pitch count, but he was also put in the uncomfortable situation of having to start every inning with a runner on second. For three of the four innings, he was able to walk that tightrope.

“You can’t really prepare for that,” Martinez said. “I was trying to keep my poise between innings and just focus on going one batter at a time.”

While Friday's loss will sting, there were still some positives to take away for the Astros on a day where the club put superstar Yordan Alvarez on the injured list.

José Abreu continued his career-long trend of beating up on Cleveland pitching by going 2-for-7 with a three-run opposite-field home run that started the scoring. Peña picked up the second four-hit game of his career. Dubón had two doubles. And even Yainer Diaz -- one of the Astros who will be tasked to fill the void left by Alvarez -- came up big with a go-ahead sacrifice fly in the eighth inning.

Baker and the Astros are hoping Abreu’s home run, one of three balls that he hit over 95 mph on Friday, gets the first baseman going. Abreu entered the series opener leading all active players in games (150), hits (144), home runs (27) and RBIs (85) against Cleveland since 2014.

“He hit the ball hard a couple times tonight,” Baker said. “It was nice to see him hit that ball to right field. That’s as good as it gets.”