Mauricio Dubon lined a go-ahead, two-out single in the 10th inning as the Houston Astros won their eighth straight game Wednesday night, beating the Tampa Bay Rays 2-1 to sweep a three-game series in St. Petersburg, Fla.
In an eight-pitch at-bat against Garrett Cleavinger (7-3), Dubon ripped a 3-2 cutter to center to plate pinch runner Pedro Leon with the go-ahead run.
Jeremy Pena swatted a solo home run as the first-place American League West club went 8-1 on their road trip.
Houston starter Ronel Blanco received a tough no-decision after tossing six innings of two-hit shutout ball. He fanned four without a walk.
Josh Hader (5-6) pitched two perfect innings for the win.
Rays starter Zack Littell was strong in a five-inning, 68-pitch outing. He allowed one run on one hit (Pena’s homer) with two walks and three strikeouts.
Taylor Walls singled, walked, scored and stole two bases while Yandy Diaz had a single and an RBI for Tampa Bay, which lost for the fifth time in six games.
Each team went 2-for-32 at the plate.
Houston finished 4-2 against Tampa Bay in the season series.
Littell breezed through the Astros’ order by retiring the first 11 batters before issuing a four-pitch walk to Yordan Alvarez. Diaz then popped out to end the fourth.
Any notion of a no-hit bid for Littell ended when Pena crushed his 12th homer leading off the fifth. The 384-foot blast came on a 3-1 sinker.
Blanco avoided disaster in the sixth when Brandon Lowe smashed a 3-2 changeup 106.5 mph back to the mound, traveling head-high on the righty. The pitcher got a piece of it with his bare hand and shortstop Pena recorded the out.
Astros reliever Tayler Scott got out of a two-on, one-out jam in the seventh by striking out Ben Rortvedt and getting Jonny DeLuca to ground out.
Walls’ speed knotted the score at 1-all in the eighth without a hit. After walking, Walls was in motion and reached second on a groundout, swiped third base and narrowly scored on Diaz’s RBI fielder’s choice. The Astros challenged the call at the plate, but it wasn’t overturned.
–Field Level Media
