Astros 6, Phillies 4
HOUSTON -- Jed Lowrie hit a two-out, two-run double in the eighth inning to give the Astros the lead, and Houston held on for a 6-4 win over the Philadelphia Phillies on Thursday night.
Matt Dominguez homered for the Astros, who ended the Phillies' winning streak at a season-high seven games and dropped Philadelphia to 3 1/2 games back in the National League wild-card race pending the result of the St. Louis Cardinals-Los Angeles Dodgers game.
Astros starter Lucas Harrell gave up four runs (three earned) on seven hits with five walks and four strikeouts in 5 2/3 innings. While Harrell was walking to the dugout after being pulled in the sixth, he was ejected by plate umpire Bill Miller after giving Miller a few choice words.
Houston, which has the worst record in the majors, took a 6-4 lead with a two-out rally in the eighth.
Dominguez walked, and pinch hitter Scott Moore was hit by a pitch from Phillippe Aumont (0-1). Lowrie, another pinch hitter, followed with a two-run double to the right-center gap off Jake Diekman.
Brandon Barnes singled up the middle to score Lowrie, and Jose Altuve singled and stole second. Diekman, however, struck out Brian Bogusevic to end the inning.
The runs ended the Phillies' bullpen scoreless streak at 21 innings.
Wesley Wright (1-2) threw two-thirds of inning, allowing a hit and a walk with a strikeout. Wilton Lopez pitched a scoreless ninth for his fifth save.
The Phillies had a chance to extend their lead in the sixth after a pinch-hit single by Pete Orr and consecutive singles by Jimmy Rollins and Juan Pierre loaded the bases and chased Harrell. Xavier Cedeno, however, got Chase Utley to ground out to second to end the inning.
Phillies starter Tyler Cloyd lasted three-plus innings, allowing three runs on five hits with four strikeouts. Cloyd has allowed seven runs on 13 hits in only seven innings in his last two starts.
Philadelphia took a 1-0 lead in the second on an RBI double by Erik Kratz, scoring Domonic Brown. The double snapped on 0-for-16 slump for Kratz.
In the third inning, Ryan Howard increased the lead to 2-0 with a sacrifice fly, scoring Pierre, and John Mayberry Jr. followed with an RBI single, scoring Utley to make it 3-0. An error on right fielder Jimmy Paredes allowed Mayberry to go to second.
After Brown walked, Kevin Frandsen extended the lead to 4-0 with a run-scoring single. Lucas Harrell struck out Kratz to end the inning.
Houston cut the lead to 4-3 and chased Cloyd on a Dominguez's three-run home run in the fourth, scoring Justin Maxwell and Jason Castro, who had opened the inning with singles.
Cloyd had run into problems in the third, allowing singles by Paredes and Jose Altuve before hitting Fernando Martinez with two outs to load the bases. He induced a Brett Wallace groundout to end the inning.
NOTES: Astros pitcher Mickey Storey said he was fine after suffering contusions to his right hand and right jaw after being hit by a Dave Sappelt line drive in Wednesday's game against the Chicago Cubs. Houston manager Tony DeFrancesco said the team would keep Storey out a couple days. ... Philadelphia entered Thursday's game leading the majors in both stolen-base percentage (82.9 percent) and in catchers' caught-stealing rate (39 percent). The Phillies stole two bases without being caught, and Kratz threw out one of three Astros who attempted to steal bases.
