ARLINGTON -- When Carlos Correa clanked a game-tying home run off the right-field foul pole in the eighth inning Friday night, there was a hope in the Astros' dugout that it would be the hit that would finally break their offense loose. That hope turned to despair in extra innings, leaving the Astros wondering where the juice went.
The Astros’ revamped offense, which included the additions of Correa, Jesús Sánchez and Ramón Urías at the Trade Deadline and Yordan Alvarez off the injured list Aug. 26, continues to sputter and is costing them chances to pad their lead in the American League West. The Rangers got Friday’s first hit in extra innings when Dustin Harris shot an RBI double down the right-field line in the 12th inning for a 4-3 walk-off to beat the Astros at Globe Life Field.
“Tough one to lose,” Astros first baseman Christian Walker said. “They’re all tough at this point. I felt like we had the opportunity. Carlos hits a home run like that and gives us a chance to win that game. Just lack of execution, I guess.”
The Astros and the AL West second-place Mariners both lost for the second night in a row, leaving the Astros 3 1/2 games ahead of Seattle with 20 games remaining. The surging Rangers are now only four games behind Houston with five meetings left between the clubs, including Saturday’s showdown between aces -- Hunter Brown of the Astros and Jacob deGrom of the Rangers.
One night after going 1-for-11 with runners in scoring position in an 8-4 loss to the Yankees in Houston, the Astros were 2-for-14 with runners in scoring position against Texas, including a staggering 0-for-9 in extra innings. Are the Astros’ bats pressing in clutch situations?
“There’s a lot of guys in here that have won championships and I don’t think a regular-season game would make them press,” Correa said. “It’s just sometimes you don’t feel good at the plate and the at-bats find you and there’s nothing you can do about it.
“It’s really hard to explain. When you look at the pitcher and you feel really uncomfortable, it’s really hard to be productive. It seems like we're in a funk right now as a team. We’ve got a couple of guys that are not feeling the best right now. The good thing is it takes one swing and you're right back on track. Tomorrow's another day.”
Rangers starter Merrill Kelly had the Astros feeling uncomfortable for seven innings, allowing one run and five hits. Still, Correa’s two-run homer in the eighth tied the game and provided a spark that didn’t ignite into more offense in the final four innings.
“It’s September, right, and every game means a lot,” Astros manager Joe Espada said. “Kelly was pretty good. He’s a pretty good pitcher. The Rangers' pitching has been good the whole entire season.”
The Astros called up rookie Colton Gordon from Triple-A to start the game and got 4 1/3 innings out of him before turning to AJ Blubaugh for essentially a piggyback start. He went 2 2/3 innings as the Houston bullpen threw 6 2/3 innings without allowing an earned run. The Rangers were 0-for-14 with runners in scoring position before Harris’ game-winning hit off Lance McCullers Jr. -- Houston’s seventh pitcher.
“There’s some good things about that game,” Espada said. “Our pitching continued to keep us in the game. The bullpen did a tremendous job keeping us in there. We just couldn't get that big hit when we needed to. … We’ve just got to continue to grind. We are an offense [that needs to] pass the baton and get good pitches hit, but when we try and do too much we find ourselves against the [wall]. We’ve got to keep digging. We’ll hit.”