CLEVELAND -- The wins continue to pile up, but nothing is coming easy for the Astros. They have three-fifths of their starting rotation to begin the season on the injured list, have been without slugger Yordan Alvarez for more than a month and were without two of their best high-leverage relief pitchers on Saturday.
Even when ace starter Hunter Brown was staked to a three-run lead in the sixth inning at Progressive Field after a two-run homer from Yainer Diaz, the Astros still needed contributions from nearly every inch of their roster to pull out a gritty 5-3 win in 10 innings over the Guardians.
“I think this is what you call a team win,” Astros manager Joe Espada said. “It took everyone, it took every pitch, every at-bat for us to win this game. Another series win on the road with a chance to sweep tomorrow against a really good team.”
Jake Meyers, Houston’s automatic runner to start the 10th, scored from third base on a Hunter Gaddis wild pitch, and Isaac Paredes moments later shot a single to right field to score rookie Jacob Melton -- who drew a walk off the bench -- for the second run of the inning. All five runs the Astros scored came with two outs, continuing a season-long theme.
The American League West-leading Astros (36-28) improved to a season-best eight games over .500 with their 10th win in their past 13 games. They’re 3-0 in extra innings.
“That was a great win,” Brown said. “The bullpen did a great job, and quite frankly, you’re just happy any time you come out with a win. That was great for us.”
Brown gave up one run on four hits and struck out nine batters in 5 1/3 innings to lower his season ERA to 1.82, but had a career-high-tying five walks. Houston’s bullpen, which was without Bryan Abreu and Bryan King (workload), held the Guardians to two runs and two hits in the final 4 2/3 innings, with lefty Bennett Sousa getting his second career save (first since 2022).
“Everyone in the bullpen, we knew that our horses in the back [end] were down,” Sousa said. “We have to try to go out and post a zero.”
Brown was yanked after 101 pitches and the bases loaded in the sixth, but with a 3-1 lead was still in line to get what would have been his Major League-leading ninth win of the season. Lefty Steven Okert came in and needed only six pitches -- all strikes -- to whiff right-handers David Fry and Will Wilson swinging and strand the bases loaded.
“Obviously, just hoping to limit the damage there as much as possible with the bases loaded and one out,” Okert said. “Didn’t expect that, but obviously happy with that.”
Guardians slugger José Ramírez walloped a two-run homer to right field in the seventh off Shawn Dubin to tie the game, but Dubin came back to record five consecutive outs to get the game to the ninth. After the game, Espada called Dubin into his office and praised him for his work.
“I told him, ‘Listen, things could have gone sideways if you would have just let that home run affect the rest of your performance,’ but he went and got the next two [hitters] and went back out and gave us a chance to win the game,” Espada said. “That’s when you see young pitchers turn the corner when you don’t let one moment just ruin the rest of your outing. You turn the page and go get the next guy.”
The Ramírez homer came on a changeup that the slugger pulled a Statcast-projected 342 feet down the right-field line to tie the game.
“Those are the kind of situations you want to come into,” Dubin said. “Just got to learn from it and move on to the next one.”
Josh Hader pitched around a double and a walk in the ninth before Sousa came out in the 10th with a two-run lead. A two-out walk to Bo Naylor on a 3-2 pitch that appeared to land in the strike zone didn’t faze him. He came back to strike out Jhonkensy Noel to end the game.
“They've been really good all year,” Espada said of his bullpen. “I have confidence in getting those guys in the game against whoever because we’re going to need all those guys. We were a little thin today, but we still got good enough weapons in the bullpen to get us through that game. Big win. Proud of those guys.”