The Houston Astros’ nine-game series winning streak came to an end Monday night, falling 5-4 to the Minnesota Twins at Daikin Park in a game defined by a disallowed challenge in the ninth inning.
Houston was already shorthanded entering the night. Jeremy Peña was placed on the injured list with a mild left calf strain before the game, and Nick Allen, activated earlier in the day from his own IL stint, started at shortstop in his place, going 1-for-2 with a walk.
Cam Smith provided the Astros’ biggest offensive spark, hitting two home runs, including a solo shot in the fifth inning and another in the ninth as Houston nearly erased a four-run deficit.
Peter Lambert struggled from the start, allowing three home runs across 5⅔ innings—the fifth consecutive start in which every run he has allowed has come via the long ball. He has surrendered eight homers in that span.
“It’s real frustrating, but that’s the name of the game though,” Lambert said. “You’ve got to keep the ball in the ballpark.”
Royce Lewis and Victor Caratini went back-to-back with two outs in the fourth for Minnesota’s first hits of the night off Lambert. Caratini, playing his first game in Houston since leaving as a free agent, reached base three times. Smith answered with a 408-foot homer in the bottom of the fifth to cut the deficit to 2-1, but Josh Bell’s two-run shot in the sixth restored Minnesota’s cushion, and Kody Clemens drove in a run with a groundout in the seventh to make it 5-1.
Joey Loperfido made the defensive play of the night in the sixth, leaping into the Crawford Boxes wall to rob Tristan Gray of extra bases with two runners on and two outs, keeping the deficit at three.
Reliever Miguel Ullola made his major league debut in the eighth and ninth innings and was outstanding, striking out four over two scoreless frames. He opened with a 95.9 mph fastball that froze Royce Lewis for his first career strikeout, then navigated traffic in the second inning—including back-to-back singles—by striking out the side. His final strikeout came on a slider against Kody Clemens after a seven-pitch battle.
“I actually like his second inning better than his first one because he got traffic, and he continued to pound the zone,” manager Joe Espada said. “Threw the fastball, threw some really good sliders.”
Trailing 5-1 in the ninth with a runner on and one out, Christian Walker appeared to draw a full-count walk on a changeup above the zone. Walker tapped his helmet to challenge the pitch, but home-plate umpire Brennan Miller ruled the challenge invalid after determining Walker had looked toward the dugout before signaling, making the challenge ineligible. The strikeout stood.
“It was the look to the dugout,” Espada said. “The umpire just thought he kind of looked in to ask for help on that pitch.”
The very next batter, Taylor Trammell crushed a 412-foot two-run homer to cut the deficit to 5-3. Smith followed with a 429-foot blast, his second of the night, to make it a one-run game, but Joey Loperfido grounded out to end the rally.
“We made that push there at the end,” Espada said. “I love watching that fight there at the end.”
It wasn’t enough. Despite Smith’s two-homer performance and Ullola’s impressive scoreless major league debut, the Astros fell to 42-45 with two games remaining in the series against Minnesota.
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