Kyle Tucker’s RBI single in the top of the 10th inning Tuesday night lifted the visiting Houston Astros to a 4-3 win over the San Diego Padres.
The hit scored Grae Kessinger, the automatic runner placed at second to start the inning. Yordan Alvarez’s groundout moved Kessinger to third before Tucker got singled off Adrian Morejon (2-2). That made a winner of Josh Hader (8-7), who blew a save chance yet retired all four batters he faced.
Hector Neris worked out of a bases-loaded, two-out jam in the bottom of the 10th, retiring Manny Machado on a fielder’s-choice grounder for his first save with Houston and 18th this year.
The Astros (82-69) took a 3-2 lead in the top of the eighth when Tucker scored as Jason Adam tossed a wild pitch on ball four to Alex Bregman. However, the Padres tied it in their half of the eighth when Hader entered with two outs and a runner on third, and his first delivery was a wild pitch that scored Fernando Tatis Jr.
While the Astros upped their American League West lead to five games over the Seattle Mariners, who were 11-2 losers to the New York Yankees on Tuesday, San Diego (86-66) missed on a chance to expand its lead for the top wild-card spot in the National League. The Padres are 2 1/2 games ahead of both the Arizona Diamondbacks and the New York Mets in the wild-card chase, and they remain 3 1/2 games behind the Los Angeles Dodgers in the NL West.
The pitching matchup promised a low-scoring game, based on the starters’ form since June 1. The Astros’ Hunter Brown had a 2.32 ERA since then, and San Diego’s Michael King had a 2.35 in that span. Both pitchers delivered a good outing.
Houston broke through against King with two runs in the fourth. Singles by Tucker and Bregman led to Jon Singleton’s bloop double down the left field line that scored Tucker. Jeremy Pena’s groundout cashed in Bregman.
King stiffened after that, while Brown made the 2-0 edge stick until a mistake pitch to Machado in the sixth. With Tatis at second after a single and a steal, Brown hung a 3-2 knuckle curve. Machado drilled it an estimated 405 feet to the seats in left-center for his 27th homer, tying the score.
Brown departed after six innings, having yielded five hits and two runs with a walk and three strikeouts. King lasted seven innings, permitting five hits and two runs while walking one and whiffing seven.