Monday night’s Astros game was an interesting affair, a real dichotomy showcasing the different sides of the team this season. Coming off a frustrating 2-hit loss to close out a losing series in San Diego, the team was looking to turn things around against a floundering Giants team. And it looked like that might slip away from them, in a back-and-forth affair that saw the Giants one strike away from a one-run win.
Then, through a stroke of last-minute luck, Houston tied it up. From that point on, everything was coming up Astros, with a tenth inning so lopsided that Giants fans were starting to stream out of Oracle Park before their team even batted. Final score, 6-3 to take the series opener.
But how did we get there? Well, it looked like the Astros had broken out of their slump, at the start. The team scored a quick first-inning run off rookie Blade Tidwell, thanks to a Yordan Alvarez double (25th on the season!), a bloop single from Isaac Paredes, and a deep sac fly by Jose Altuve. So far, so good!
You’d think that would indicate a high-scoring game, a new pitcher immediately giving up a run, the top of the lineup looking strong. But Tidwell, to his credit, turned it around, making it to the sixth inning for the first time in his career and allowing no more runs while striking out 6. Only one walk too, and some nice movement on his pitch.
Thankfully, Hayden Wesneski also ate his Wheaties today, and matched Tidwell with a quality start. It ended up tying the longest start in his career, making it a full 7.0 innings for just the fourth start in his career, and the first time since April 7th last year. Wesneski struck out four and walked two, and scattered just 5 hits over those 7 innings.
Unfortunately, that “scattering” included the right field bleachers, which were the big blemish on the night for him. The Giants first struck in the fourth, scoring in a similar manner to the Astros (Bryce Eldridge double, Rafael Devers walk, Osleivis Basabe single, Drew Gilbert sac fly). Taylor Trammell made a nice play to end the inning and limit the damage, though.
The next inning, Wesneski missed his spot on a pitch to Jung Hoo Lee, and the right fielder turned on it, sending it to the concourse in front of McCovey Cove. Cam Smith would tie things back up in the top of the seventh with his 16th homer of the year, a shot to left field. Unfortunately, that tie last all of two batters, as Drew Gilbert homered on the second pitch of his at bat. The minor consolation was those two solo shots were the only base runner the Giants saw in Wesneski’s last three innings, but man, does that ever make for a big asterisk.
I’m not going to lie, things looked pretty dim at that point. The Astros had left the bases loaded without scoring in the sixth inning, and outside of the Cam Smith home run as a bright spot, were going down in order after that. Even Yordan went down quietly. Taylor Trammell lined out sharply to start the ninth, but then Christian Walker worked a walk. Daulton Varsho flew out, leaving things once again up to Cam Smith.
And Smith once again came through in the clutch! After a wild pitch to advance pinch runner Nick Allen, Smith punched a two-strike single through the right side, just out of the second baseman’s reach! Allen scored, and while Smith was thrown out trying for second, it meant we were once again tied! And after a quick Josh Hader ninth, we were headed to extras.
…But after such a tight back-and-forth nine innings, there was little drama in the tenth. Cam started on second and advanced on another wild pitch, Late Night LaMonte Wade Jr. (in his return to San Francisco) worked an easy walk off a shaky Jason Foley, then Jeremy Peña punched an RBI single through a pulled-in infield to break his slump (his first hit since the series opener against Toronto, a full week ago). Maybe it was a little lucky, but he lost a single up the middle in the previous at-bat to a nice play from Willy Adames and Rafael Devers, so I guess it evened out here. Isaac Paredes would add a two-run double into the left field corner, and that would be the final score, with Josh Hader coming out again for another 1-2-3 inning, marking his first two-inning outing on the season.
The Astros are now 61-59 on the season, and remain in first place in the AL West by half a game after the Rangers pulled off their own 3-run extra innings win in Anaheim. Hopefully, Houston can turn this into a winning streak tomorrow, with Hunter Brown taking the mound against a Giants team that has still not announced a starting pitcher.
And as a bonus triple crown watch, Yordan didn’t hit any home runs or drive in any runs. But he did go 2-5 with a double and score once himself. Also, according to the SCHN broadcast, his sixth inning single was tied for the second-hardest hit baseball of the season, with an exit velocity of 118.5 MPH!
It was a solid (if somewhat understated night) from him, Paredes, and Wesneski, but the real MVP of the evening was definitely Cam Smith. He ended the night 3-4 with a home run, 2 RBI, and 2 runs scored, as well as a few nice plays out in right field. Game 2 begins tomorrow, once again at 8:45 PM CST.
As mentioned by martymouse on discord, this was truly the Kyle Tucker game, as all 3 trade pieces from the Tucker trade factored in.
– Wesneski went 7 IP, 3ER
– Cam went 3-4 with a game tying homer in the 7th, a game tying RBI single in the 9th, and a game winning run in the 10th
– Paredes went 2 for 4 with a 2 RBI 10th inning double for insurance.