Peter Lambert delivered another strong start to open the Astros’ post-All-Star break schedule, but a late home run allowed by the bullpen and a lineup that couldn’t cash in scoring chances led to a 3-2 loss to the Baltimore Orioles on Friday at Daikin Park.
Taylor Ward turned the game in Baltimore’s favor in the top of the eighth, hitting a two-run homer off reliever Bryan King that overturned a one-run Astros lead, coming right after Houston left the bases loaded in the bottom of the seventh without scoring. The Astros stranded 11 runners on the night and went just 1-for-7 with runners in scoring position.
Lambert gave Houston little reason to worry through six innings, matching a career high with 10 strikeouts while allowing just one run on three hits over 104 pitches. Facing a Baltimore lineup stacked with hitters batting from the left side or as switch-hitters, Lambert kept the damage to a single two-out rally in the third that produced Baltimore’s first run on a bases-loaded walk. Houston’s bullpen took over from there, with Steven Okert working a scoreless seventh before King surrendered Ward’s decisive shot in the eighth.
Houston built its early offense around the top of the order. Jeremy Peña walked to lead off the first and scored on a Yordan Alvarez double into the gap. In the third, Peña singled and later scored on a sacrifice fly from Isaac Paredes, who played the game two days after he and fiancée Paulina Quiroz welcomed their first child, a son named Isaac Jr., born July 15. Paredes’ sacrifice fly put the Astros up 2-1.
Peña and Alvarez combined to reach base eight times between them, but the middle and bottom of Houston’s lineup went hitless outside of a Lucas Spence single, limiting the team’s ability to turn traffic on the bases into more runs.
Houston’s best scoring chance arrived in the seventh, when Baltimore’s Grant Wolfram walked two batters and allowed a base hit, filling the bases with just one out. Baltimore countered with right-hander Cam Sanders, who retired both Paredes and Christian Walker to close out the threat and protect the Orioles’ one-run deficit before Ward’s homer flipped the game in the following half-inning. Houston had one final chance in the ninth after a Peña infield single and a Paredes walk put the potential tying run in scoring position, but Tyler Wells struck out Walker to end it.
Making his major league debut, outfielder Lucas Spence drew a nine-pitch walk in his first career plate appearance and later added his first big league hit, a single up the middle against Wolfram in the seventh.
Alvarez’s two hits pushed his batting average to .321, and with Tampa Bay’s Yandy Díaz going hitless in a doubleheader Friday, Alvarez now leads the American League outright in batting average, home runs and RBIs, keeping his season on track for a Triple Crown that hasn’t been won in either league since 2012.
Houston looks to even the series Saturday at 3:10 p.m. Central, with Spencer Arrighetti taking the mound against Baltimore’s Trevor Rogers.
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