Kyle Tucker posted his second multi-homer game in three days and scored the winning run when Jeremy Pena delivered a walk-off single in the 10th inning as the Houston Astros topped the visiting Los Angeles Angels 6-5 on Tuesday.
Pena plated Tucker with a single to right field off Angels closer Carlos Estevez (0-3). Tucker opened the 10th on second base as the automatic runner and advanced to third on an Alex Bregman flyout to left.
Josh Hader (3-3) earned the win in relief for Houston, striking out four over two perfect innings.
Tucker and Yordan Alvarez erased the first two-run deficit that the Astros faced when they homered in succession in the first off Angels starter Griffin Canning. Tucker clubbed his 16th home run of the season before Alvarez followed with his ninth to knot the score at 2-2.
Canning settled in and worked five solid innings, allowing two runs on five hits and three walks to go along with two strikeouts. But three batters into the sixth, the Astros pulled even again at 4-4 when Jon Singleton walloped a two-run blast to straightaway center off Los Angeles reliever Carson Fulmer.
The Angels’ Kevin Pillar and Tucker then traded solo shots in the seventh.
Los Angeles began the home-run barrage with haste, securing a 2-0 lead two batters into the game when Luis Rengifo followed a leadoff single from Nolan Schanuel with his third home run this season. That two-run shot signaled the start of a rocky outing for Astros right-hander Cristian Javier.
Javier labored over four innings and 71 pitches. He retired the Angels in order in the second but needed left fielder Chas McCormick to snare a sinking line drive to leave the bases loaded in the third. Los Angeles created more traffic against Javier in the fourth, when Zach Neto put the Angels up 3-2 with an RBI double.
Two batters later, Rengifo struck again, dumping a single into center that scored Neto and stretched the lead to 4-2.
Javier was tagged for four runs and eight hits. He walked three and fanned one.
–Field Level Media