The Astros let a golden opportunity slip through their fingers and fell 4-2 to the Baltimore Orioles in 11 innings on Saturday at Daikin Park, dropping the series and falling to 47-53 on the season. The loss came despite Houston loading the bases with nobody out in the bottom of the 10th and failing to push across the winning run on Christmas in July, when Daikin Park featured a decorated tree, holiday music, and a Yainer Diaz catching bobblehead giveaway for the first 10,000 fans through the gates.
Spencer Arrighetti turned in one of his stronger outings of the year, allowing just one run over five innings on a night his manager had called important given his recent struggles. He walked four and hit a batter but limited the damage to a fourth-inning double from Dylan Beavers, working around traffic to keep Houston within reach. Baltimore starter Trevor Rogers matched him for length, keeping the Astros off the scoreboard into the seventh before Houston’s bottom of the order strung together a rally: Zach Dezenzo and Lucas Spence both singled to put runners on the corners, and after Rogers exited, Nick Allen tied the game with a squeeze bunt that scored Dezenzo.
The game stayed level into the 10th, when Baltimore scored first on a sacrifice bunt from Jeremiah Jackson. Houston answered immediately in the bottom half: with Baltimore playing a five-man infield, Yordan Alvarez lined a game-tying double down the right-field line to score the runner who started the inning at second, moving Nick Allen to third. An error on the next play put Isaac Paredes aboard and loaded the bases with nobody out. Houston couldn’t get the go-ahead run home from there. Jose Altuve lofted a fly ball over Baltimore’s five-man infield, and right fielder Tyler O’Neill raced in from his normal position to snag it in short center before firing home in time to catch Allen trying to score from third. Christian Walker’s replacement, LaMonte Wade Jr., then grounded out on a bunt attempt to end the inning.
Baltimore broke through in the 11th. Enyel De Los Santos allowed a go-ahead infield single to O’Neill, then an insurance RBI single to Leody Taveras, putting the game out of reach before Houston went quietly in the bottom of the inning.
The Astros’ night was further complicated by injuries to two regulars. Shortstop Jeremy Peña was pulled following the third inning with a right hamstring cramp, a recurrence of the same issue that cost him time earlier this year, while first baseman Christian Walker exited an inning later with right hip tightness. Both were replaced for the remainder of the game, and manager Joe Espada said after the game that neither player had further updates, with both undergoing testing.
Houston went just 2-for-12 with runners on second or third, and 11 were left on base by night’s end, the same story that sank the Astros a night earlier against this same Orioles club. Houston will look to bounce back Sunday as the series wraps up before the club heads into its next stretch of games.
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