Houston 5, Cleveland 3
When: 2:10 PM ET, Wednesday, May 11, 2016
Where: Minute Maid Park, Houston, Texas
Temperature:
Indoors
Umpires:
Home -
Dale Scott, 1B -
Bob Davidson, 2B -
Lance Barrett, 3B -
Dan Iassogna
Attendance:
24453
By The Sports Xchange
HOUSTON -- In the span of one homestand Houston Astros infielder Marwin Gonzalez went from zero career home runs with men on base to two, including one on Wednesday that produced dizzying levels of euphoria.
Gonzalez smacked his second career walk-off home run in the 16th inning, a two-run shot to right field that capped the Astros' marathon 5-3 victory over the Cleveland Indians at Minute Maid Park.
Gonzalez crushed a first-pitch fastball from right-hander Cody Anderson (0-3), the Indians' 10thpitcher, two batters after shortstop Carlos Correa recorded the first Astros hit since the seventh inning. Houston stranded 17 baserunners, eight in the first three innings, but proved resilient throughout the five-hour, nine-minute rubber match.
"It's great," said Gonzalez, who went 2-for-7 with a double and a homer. "It feels great to help the team in that situation. It was obviously a long game, everybody was exhausted and I wasn't even (thinking about) hitting a (homer). I just tried to put the ball in play. It was a rough day for everybody at the plate and it was kind of hard to make contact."
Said Anderson: "I wasn't getting tired. Obviously I'm stretched out as a starter, so that wasn't the problem at all. Bad pitch, ball went out."
The Indians (16-15) exhausted their entire eight-man bullpen before turning to Anderson, a starter slated to work early next week. Despite their woes at the plate, the Astros remained in the game, thanks in large part to right-hander Michael Feliz (1-0) and his three scoreless innings of relief.
"We watched him grow up in front of our eyes a little bit more and a little bit more and a little bit more," Astros manager A.J. Hinch said of Feliz. "It's real stuff coming out of his hand now. There's no tentative approach to him. It's 96 to 98 miles an hour. He is raring back and blowing it by a very contact-driven lineup, so I love seeing that."
The Astros (14-21) finished 6-4 on their homestand by rallying from an early two-run deficit. Correa and left fielder Preston Tucker produced run-scoring hits with runners in scoring position in the sixth and seventh innings to reverse the Astros' earlier situational struggles.
Trailing 3-2, the Indians saddled Astros closer Luke Gregerson with his first blown save of the season and first after 16 consecutive converted saves. Mike Napoli and Carlos Santana struck with a double and a triple in succession to erase the deficit in the ninth inning.
Houston loaded the bases with no outs against Indians right-hander Danny Salazar in the first, only for Salazar to strike out Colby Rasmus, Gonzalez and Luis Valbuena -- all left-handed hitters -- in succession. The Astros loaded the bases off Salazar again in the second, this time with two outs before Correa rolled into a fielder's choice groundout.
Salazar managed to strand two more baserunners in the third, including Gonzalez at second, before finally surrendering a run when George Springer homered to left field with one out in the fourth. For Springer, who walked four times, it marked his seventh homer on the season and the 1,500th home run for the Astros at Minute Maid Park.
Salazar departed after five innings with an interesting ledger, having allowed just one run on three hits while also posting six walks and 10 strikeouts. Of his 106 pitches, nearly half of them (52) were balls.
"He just didn't command," Indians manager Terry Francona said of Santana. "He pitched out of the first three innings and there were guys everywhere. After five innings, it just got to there were so many high-leverage, high-intensity innings because he wasn't commanding. But he kept them off the scoreboard. It was just really erratic."
Jason Kipnis went 5-for-7 for Cleveland while Napoli finished 3-for-7 with a home run off Astros right-hander Doug Fister in the fourth.
NOTES: Astros RHP Lance McCullers will make his season debut on Friday night in Boston. McCullers opened the season on the 15-day disabled list sidelined by right shoulder soreness. Astros manager A.J. Hinch will utilize a six-man rotation for at least two turns but plans to keep LHP Dallas Keuchel, who will start the series opener on Thursday night, on his regular rest. RHPs Collin McHugh and Chris Devenski will finish out the series while RHP Mike Fiers will be available out of the bullpen. ... Indians 3B Jose Ramirez was not in the starting lineup on Wednesday after suffering a pair of minor hand injuries Tuesday night. Ramirez was hit on the right wrist by a Devenski pitch in the seventh inning and also hurt his left ring finger sliding into second base in the fourth. ... Astros DH George Springer was not in the field for the first time this season. RF Jake Marisnick filled in for Springer defensively as part of a plan by Hinch to get Marisnick more than token playing time.
Top Game Performances
Starting Pitchers
Cleveland |
|
Houston |
Danny Salazar
|
Player |
Doug Fister
|
No Decision |
W/L |
No Decision |
5.0 |
IP |
7.0 |
10 |
Strikeouts |
3 |
4 |
Hits |
6 |
1.80 |
ERA |
2.57 |
Team Stats Summary
Team |
Hits |
HR |
TB |
Avg |
LOB |
K |
RBI |
BB |
SB |
Errors |
Cleveland
|
14 |
1 |
20 |
.233 |
24 |
11 |
3 |
1 |
0 |
0 |
Houston
|
10 |
2 |
18 |
.185 |
30 |
18 |
5 |
12 |
1 |
1 |