Before a pitch was thrown Tuesday night at Daikin Park, the Houston Astros paused to honor one of their own. The club played a tribute video and held a moment of silence for Phil Garner, the former player and manager who passed away April 11 after a two-year battle with pancreatic cancer. Garner, nicknamed “Scrap Iron” for his blue-collar approach to the game, played for Houston from 1981 to 1987 and later managed the Astros to their first World Series appearance in 2005. He was 76.
Then the Astros went out and played the kind of game Garner would have appreciated: gritty, imperfect, and ultimately good enough to win.
Houston snapped an eight-game losing streak, the longest for the franchise since the final 15 games of the 2013 season, with a 7-6 victory over the Colorado Rockies. The Astros entered the night tied for the worst record in baseball at 6-11. They leave it at 7-11.
None of it came easy. Colton Gordon, making his first start of the season, couldn’t get through the fourth inning despite being spotted a four-run lead. The bullpen was tested early and often, requiring five relievers to record the final 16 outs. The Rockies, who brought their purple faux fur home run celebration coat on the road with them, got plenty of use out of it—Hunter Goodman homered twice and Jordan Beck added another—and trimmed a four-run deficit to one in the eighth before Enyel De Los Santos struck out Beck on a 94.3 mph fastball to end it and earn his first save since 2024.
“Our bullpen came in and gave us some quality innings,” manager Joe Espada said. “A ton of strikes, big outs for quite a few guys there. It’s a good win; it’s a big win.”
The decisive blow came in the third inning, when the Astros sent nine men to the plate and scored six runs on just four hits. Christian Vázquez’s double started the rally, a Willi Castro error put two aboard, and Yordan Alvarez smoked a two-run double at 114.2 mph down the right field line to tie the game at three. Christian Walker’s fielder’s choice scored Alvarez, Cam Smith added an RBI single, another Castro error plated Walker, and Vázquez capped the uprising with an RBI single through the left side. Six runs, four hits, two Colorado errors, and a balk.
“When there’s a guy in scoring position or there’s a guy on third with less than two outs, we’ve got to get him home,” Walker said. “That’s kind of the identity of this offense.”
Walker had a fine night overall, going 3-for-4 with a second-inning solo homer, his 29th career home run against Colorado, tying Paul Goldschmidt for the most among active players against the Rockies. Alvarez drove in two and Vázquez had two hits and an RBI.
Gordon didn’t issue a walk in his 3⅔ innings—the first Astros starter this season to work multiple innings without walking a batter—but all four runs he surrendered came with two outs, including a two-run triple by Jake McCarthy in the second and solo shots to Goodman and Beck.
AJ Blubaugh stranded three inherited runners and earned the win. Steven Okert threw a scoreless sixth, and Kai-Wei Teng worked into the eighth before being relieved by Bryan King, who gave up Johnston’s RBI single to cut the lead to one before De Los Santos slammed the door.
The Astros continue the homestand Wednesday night with Spencer Arrighetti making his 2026 debut against the Rockies.
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