Jose Altuve clubbed a walk-off grand slam in the 10th inning as the Houston Astros rallied for a 6-3 victory over the visiting Texas Rangers on Tuesday.
Altuve socked his 13th home run into the Crawford Boxes in left field off Texas reliever Demarcus Evans (0-2), answering the solo run Texas scored off Astros closer Ryan Pressly (3-1) in the top of the 10th. Altuve followed walks by Myles Straw and pinch-hitter Jason Castro after Chas McCormick started the inning at second.
The Astros pulled even at 2-2 when Carlos Correa drilled a home run, his 12th, the opposite way to right field with two outs and two strikes in the ninth against Rangers right-hander Josh Sborz.
Texas right-hander Kyle Gibson notched his 11th quality start and third in as many appearances against Houston by allowing one run on seven hits and one walk with three strikeouts in six innings. He struck out McCormick following a two-out walk to Correa to cap the second inning and worked around two baserunners in the third by getting Altuve to hit into a fielder’s choice after allowing singles to Straw and Martin Maldonado to open that frame.
It wasn’t until the sixth that the Astros struck, but even then Gibson limited the damage to a Yuli Gurriel sacrifice fly after loading the bases with one out. Gibson, whose 2.49 ERA against the Astros entering the game was the lowest of his career against an American League opponent, had not recorded a win against Houston this season despite three strong performances.
Relievers Spencer Patton and Brett Martin combined to stifle the Astros in the seventh and eighth to hold the one-run lead and Sborz got two quick outs in the ninth before Correa struck.
Joey Gallo ripped a double to the wall in right-center field in the fourth that plated Adolis Garcia, who reached on a leadoff single against Astros right-hander Lance McCullers Jr. Gallo struck again an inning later, working a four-pitch walk against Astros left-hander Blake Taylor after McCullers loaded the bases. Isiah Kiner-Falefa, who walked with one out, scored for a 2-0 lead.
McCullers, making his first start since May 22, allowed two runs on three hits and three walks with three strikeouts in 4 1/3 innings. He’d been on the 10-day injured list with shoulder soreness.
–Field Level Media