The Astros dropped their third straight game to the Baltimore Orioles on Sunday, falling 5-2 at Daikin Park to complete a sweep and stretch Houston’s losing streak to four games overall. The loss pushed the club to 47-54 on the season, seven games under .500. Houston played the finale without shortstop Jeremy Peña and first baseman Christian Walker, both sidelined by injuries suffered in Saturday’s game, with Nick Allen and LaMonte Wade Jr. filling in. Baltimore’s win extended its own streak to seven straight, the longest run for the club since an eight-game streak in July 2023.
Hunter Brown couldn’t find the strike zone in his return from the break, walking a career-high six batters while also hitting two across 4⅔ innings. He opened with two scoreless frames before Baltimore broke through in the third on an RBI single from Gunnar Henderson, part of a sequence complicated by a replay reversal that erased a caught-stealing at second base and extended the inning. Two batters later, Henderson scored from third on a stolen-base attempt by Pete Alonso that drew a throw to second rather than home, making it 2-0. Brown’s outing unraveled further in the fifth. He built two-strike counts on both Taylor Ward and Sam Huff and lost each at-bat, walking Ward, hitting Pete Alonso in between, and eventually loading the bases before Leody Taveras capped it with a two-run single off a bat that split on contact, ending his outing.
Houston’s lineup managed just seven hits and went 1-for-8 with runners in scoring position, continuing a pattern that defined the series. Back-to-back doubles from Jose Altuve and Yordan Alvarez produced the Astros’ first run in the third, but the next two batters were retired without advancing anyone further. Houston didn’t threaten again until the eighth, when Altuve led off with a solo homer into the Crawford Boxes against reliever Rico Garcia, and an Isaac Paredes single aided by a throwing error put a runner in scoring position before the next two batters were retired to end the threat.
Baltimore starter Brandon Young held the Astros to one run over seven innings, striking out seven, while the Orioles added insurance in the sixth on a solo homer from Coby Mayo off reliever Bryan King. It was King’s fifth home run allowed across his last four outings, a stretch of trouble that stands in sharp contrast to the rest of his season, in which he’d allowed just one over his first 38 appearances. Kai-Wei Teng worked 2⅓ scoreless innings in his first appearance since returning from the injured list, and Cristian Javier closed out the game in relief.
The sweep drops Houston to 4-9 in July, with the club now sitting four games back in the AL West and 3½ games out of the final AL wild-card spot. Houston collected more hits than Baltimore across the three-game series, 22 to 16, but went just 4-for-27 with runners in scoring position and stranded 28 baserunners over the weekend.
Houston will look to turn things around Monday, opening a three-game home series against the Miami Marlins at Daikin Park. The Astros picked up some encouraging news for their pitching staff, too: right-hander Ronel Blanco will make his return from Tommy John surgery and start Monday’s series opener against Miami, his first big league appearance since May 2025.
