Tucker, Astros overcome missed opportunities with trio of blasts

MIAMI -- Over the past few days, manager Dusty Baker has consistently described the Astros as not yet “clicking on all cylinders.” Houston entered Tuesday night's game in Miami looking to avoid a three-game losing streak for the first time since June 15-19.

Despite some of the Astros’ cylinders misfiring, Houston eked out a 6-5 win at loanDepot park to even the series thanks in part to a trio of long balls from throughout the lineup.

The night started off much as Houston’s prior two contests: with missed opportunities. After Jose Altuve singled following a first-pitch foul off his left knee (he exited and is day to day with a knee contusion), Alex Bregman hit into a double play. Kyle Tucker and Yordan Alvarez reached on a single and a walk, but Yainer Diaz struck out to strand them on first and second.

The missed chances trickled over onto the defensive side, though. In the third inning, Cristian Javier -- who allowed five runs (four earned) on six hits and one homer, striking out just two -- left a four-seam fastball up in the zone to slugger Jorge Soler in the third inning, resulting in a two-run homer to give Miami a 3-0 lead.

“[Javier] was pretty good,” Baker said. “He just made a couple of bad pitches, and he paid for it.”

Two innings later, after evening the score at 4-4, the Astros punted a routine out that allowed the Marlins to regain the lead. With two outs and Joey Wendle on first, Mauricio Dubón (who entered at second for Altuve) cleanly fielded a soft grounder from Josh Bell. But Dubón threw the ball wide of first base. Javier, backing up first, recovered the ball and hurried a throw to third base, trying to catch Wendle. His throw, though, was also wide of the bag, and Wendle came home to score.

“In that fifth inning, we kind of unraveled defensively,” Baker said. “[Javier’s] part of it, just frustrated trying to get the runner out at third. But we were saved by Chas [McCormick] and by Tucker again. And then our bullpen came in and did a great job.”

The offense did, indeed, battle back.

Diaz redeemed himself from that inning-ending strikeout three innings later, cranking a two-run homer a Statcast-projected 409 feet to left-center field in response to Soler’s homer, cutting into the Marlins’ 3-0 lead.

“[It feels really good [seeing Diaz homer],” Javier said via team interpreter Jenloy Herrera. “[It’s] something that gives you confidence. He told me before that, he was like, ‘Don't worry, we're going to tie this game up.’ And he went out and hit that home run.”

Chas McCormick followed suit with a solo blast in the sixth to even the score at 5-5 before Tucker -- who is eyeing a 30-30 season -- launched his 23rd long ball of the year in the seventh to the second deck in right-center field. Tucker’s homer, which left his bat at an exit velocity of 108 mph and soared a Statcast-projected 422 feet, gave Houston its first lead of the series.

“That was big for us,” Baker said. “And like you said, we left some runners out there early. But they're hitting the ball out of the ballpark more than us. But we came [out] in the end and won the second half of the ballgame, and that's what you got to do. We're just fortunate to win that game, especially after [those] fifth-inning miscues that we had out there, so it's good.”

The homers provided Javier with what the Astros had lacked the night before behind Framber Valdez: crucial run support.

“Obviously it feels good that I have some support behind me there, and the team continued competing and never put their head down,” Javier said.

Beyond that, though, Javier had a rested bullpen behind him, something Valdez didn’t have -- and didn’t need -- in the series opener. Four relievers, including Hunter Brown (who was moved to the ‘pen for the series), combined for 4 1/3 scoreless frames while allowing just two hits and one walk.

So what will it take for the Astros to get “clicking on all cylinders?”

“I don't know,” Baker said. “We've been trying to get it clicking all year long, so it's going to click. It's just a matter when. Sometimes you've got to wait on it to click. You can't really force it -- if you could, it would have happened a long time ago. Some of it's time, some of it's just our turn and our days -- because every team [has a] six-, seven-, eight-, 10-game winning streak, and we haven't had that yet. We play consistent baseball, but not hot baseball.”