Credit: Troy Taormina-USA TODAY Sports
A decision to intentionally walk the bases loaded in the 10th inning backfired on the Texas Rangers as the Houston Astros celebrated a 4-3 walk-off victory on a wild pitch Wednesday night in Houston, Texas.
Jose Altuve raced home on Jonathan Hernandez’s wild pitch with two outs, enabling the Astros to take two of three in the series.
Houston is now 4-5 in extra innings, while the Rangers fell to 6-8.
In the hectic 10th inning, Mauricio Dubon sacrifice bunted automatic runner Christian Vazquez to third base off Hernandez (1-2). Texas intentionally walked Altuve, and Jeremy Pena bounced to short. Vazquez was out in a rundown trying to score from third.
Yordan Alvarez was intentionally walked to load the bases for Alex Bregman. But Hernandez bounced a pitch away from catcher Sam Huff, and Altuve scored the game-winning run on the wild pitch.
In the top of the 10th inning, Astros reliever Hector Neris (5-4) stranded Rangers automatic runner Nick Solak, retiring three straight, including striking out Corey Seager to end the inning.
After falling behind by three early, the Astros pulled even at three in the sixth inning on Kyle Tucker’s two-run homer, his 24th.
In a no-decision, Astros starter Cristian Javier gave up three runs, one earned, with eight strikeouts and two walks in 5 1/3 innings.
Rangers rookie Cole Ragans, reinstated from the injured list after being out with a calf injury, made his first start since Aug. 22. On a pitch limit, the left-hander threw three shutout innings, not allowing a hit.
The Rangers jumped on top in the first inning on Nathaniel Lowe’s 24th home run, a two-out shot to right field.
In the third inning, the Rangers capitalized on an error and scored two unearned runs.
Solak reached on Pena’s throwing error at short. Bubba Thompson dropped a sacrifice bunt, and Marcus Semien lined a run-scoring single to right. Lowe added a single, and Kole Calhoun’s two-out, RBI single made it 3-0.
The Astros got on the board in the fourth inning on Yuli Gurriel’s RBI single. Tucker drew a two-out walk and advanced to second on Brett Martin’s wild pitch, setting up Gurriel’s single to center.
–Field Level Media