Michael Brantley delivered a game-tying RBI triple in the eighth inning as the Houston Astros pushed their winning streak to six with a 3-2 win over the visiting Detroit Tigers on Saturday.
Brantley followed a one-out single from Jose Altuve with his extra-base hit into the right field corner, scoring Altuve and knotting the game at 2-2. Altuve and Brantley struck against Tigers reliever Michael Fulmer (1-1), who later issued a bases-loaded walk to Kyle Tucker.
Astros closer Ryan Pressly, who coughed up a two-run lead in the series opener on Thursday, notched his fourth save with a perfect eight-pitch ninth. Bryan Abreu (1-0) earned the victory.
Left-hander Eduardo Rodriguez produced his best start with Detroit, recording a season-high eight strikeouts. He surrendered just one hit, a two-out solo home run to Altuve in the third inning, and retired nine consecutive batters before issuing a two-out walk to Tucker in the seventh.
Relying mostly on his four-seam fastball, Rodriguez issued three walks — two to Tucker — in addition to the Altuve homer. He threw 99 pitches, 58 for strikes, and showed marked improvement over his previous three starts during which he allowed 12 runs (10 earned) on 16 hits over 17 2/3 innings.
After mustering only a pair of hits in their one-run loss on Friday, the Tigers created ample traffic against Astros left-hander Framber Valdez.
Detroit generated a pair of baserunners in the first and second, and had runners on the corners when Miguel Cabrera came to the plate in the third. Cabrera followed with a double down the left field line that drove home Javier Baez and Robbie Grossman, the 600th double of his career.
Cabrera joined Hank Aaron and Albert Pujols as the only players in major league history with 3,000 hits, 600 doubles and 500 homers, and he passed Hall of Famer Frank Robinson for 19th on the career RBIs list with his 1,813th.
Valdez, despite allowing nine hits and one walk, limited the damage to the Cabrera double. He struck out seven and departed trailing 2-1, pitching well enough to set the table for the late-inning rally.
–Field Level Media