Astros stunned late, still on cusp of playoffs

September 26th, 2020

The celebration will have to wait.

One strike away from beating the Rangers and clinching a spot in the postseason, the Astros squandered leads in the ninth and 10th innings and lost, 5-4, to the Rangers on Friday night at Globe Life Field. Houston's magic number remained at one.

The Astros could still clinch later Friday if the Dodgers beat the Angels, but if the Angels win, Houston will have to wait until Saturday to try to wrap up second place in the American League West and punch a ticket to the playoffs.

Astros closer gave up a two-out, two-strike homer to in the ninth inning to allow the Rangers to tie the game and stun the Houston dugout. The Astros pushed home automatic runner in the 10th, but the Rangers scored twice in the bottom of the 10th off .

“Man, we were so close to clinching it,” Astros manager Dusty Baker said. “You struck out the first two hitters and had two strikes, 0-2 and got to 2-2, and [Guzmán] squeaked one over the wall. Sheesh. It hurts. It doesn’t hurt any more than the rest of them. There's nothing we can do now. We have to come back and play hard and win tomorrow.”

Pressly struck out the first two batters in the inning and was ahead of Guzmán, 0-2, before he lined a 2-2 curveball down the right-field line and over the fence.

“Right where I wanted to throw it actually,” Pressly said. “It was in, off the plate. It was a great 2-2 pitch. I don’t think he even got all of it. You got to tip your hat to him. He went down and got it. It’s frustrating, obviously. Your team goes out there and gives you a chance to win, and you come in and get beat on a pitch like that, it’s very frustrating. He’s a good hitter. You’ve got to tip your hat to him and flush this out of your brain as fast you possibly can.”

In the 10th, the winning run scored when hit a grounder to drive in . Astros second baseman fielded Gallo’s grounder with a backhanded stab on the infield grass and threw wide of home. Catcher got spun around on the play and was slow to get up as the Rangers celebrated a walk-off win.

“We knew they were one game away from clinching,” Rangers manager Chris Woodward said. “There was a lot on the line for them. To see our younger guys out in that situation and compete was great.”

Gallo was batting with the game tied and runners at second and third, but Baker didn’t think about walking the slugger to face when he brought in for a lefty-on-lefty matchup. Especially with , who had homered twice off starter , set to follow Odor.

“If you set up the double play, Odor doesn’t hit into many double plays,” Baker said. “As easy as it is to look back, we thought we could strike him out, and he barely put the ball in play. And then Huff has been killing us, if we don’t turn the double play against Odor, the way Huff’s been swinging the bat, we took our chances with Gallo.”

Urquidy had a terrific outing except for the solo homers by Huff in the second and fifth innings. Urquidy pounded the strike zone, throwing 71 of 98 pitches for strikes and completing seven innings for the second time in three starts.

But after erupting for 15 hits and 12 runs against the Rangers on Thursday, the Astros’ offense reverted. Houston got an RBI triple from in the fifth, and ’s second homer in as many games tied the game at 2 in the sixth.

“I think we’ve got to turn the page to tomorrow and be positive and play better tomorrow,” Bregman said. “I don't think anybody’s down. We’re going back out there tomorrow to compete.”