Marlins Win Streak Ends At 7
HOUSTON (AP) — At first base with two outs in the eighth inning and the game tied, Travis Buck knew exactly what he wanted to do if the ball was put in play by pinch-hitter Brian Bogusevic.
"I knew right off the bat, I'm scoring," Buck said. "He's either going to catch it or I'm scoring."
Bogusevic's RBI double sent Buck home and the Houston Astros ended the Miami Marlins' season-long seven-game winning streak with a 3-2 victory on Tuesday night.
The game was tied 2-2 when Buck singled before Bogusevic's hit off Ryan Webb (1-1) to the corner of left field, which a leaping Logan Morrison just missed, sent Buck home.
"The thing that I loved about that (play) was Travis Buck at first base," Houston manager Brad Mills said. "He never broke stride. As soon as the ball was hit, he knew there were two outs, but he was gone as fast as he could. That's exactly what you're supposed to do, but sometimes guys want to look at the ball. But he took off right from the get-go and put him in a position to be able to score. That was great."
The Astros had tied the game when two errors on one play by Omar Infante allowed two runs to score in the sixth inning. The normally reliable Infante had committed just one error in his previous 136 chances before that play.
"It was an easy ground ball," Infante said. "I didn't catch it and then I (didn't look) and threw it too quickly. I don't know why I threw the ball."
Infante had a solo homer in the fourth and John Buck added one in the fifth to give Miami the 2-0 lead, but they managed just two hits the rest of the way.
Wilton Lopez (3-0) allowed one hit in the eighth for the win and Brett Myers pitched a scoreless ninth for his eighth save.
Houston's Aneury Rodriguez, who was recalled from Triple-A Oklahoma City before the game, allowed two hits and struck out six in six innings in his 2012 major league debut. He wasn't feeling well on Monday when he arrived in Houston, but was better by game time.
"I cried yesterday and they put me on some vitamins and today in the morning I felt better," he said when asked if he was sick on Monday. "I felt good."
Miami starter Anibal Sanchez allowed five hits and two runs — none earned — with eight strikeouts in seven innings. He wasn't upset that Infante's errors likely cost him the win.
"That's part of the game," he said. "I don't have any concerns about it. He is one of the best second baseman in the major leagues. He's not perfect. He's human. I know he didn't want to make the error, especially in that situation."
Houston hadn't been able to get more than one runner on base in an inning until the sixth. Pinch-hitter Marwin Gonzalez started things off with a single before a single by Jose Altuve with one out. Jed Lowrie grounded out before Sanchez loaded the bases by walking Carlos Lee.
Infante then had two errors on a ground ball hit by Buck. His first error allowed Buck to reach and the second one came when he badly missed the throw to first base, allowing Gonzalez and Altuve to score and tie it at 2-all.
Pinch-hitter Greg Dobbs singled for the Marlins with one out in the eighth inning for their first hit since John Buck's homer in the fifth. But Jose Reyes grounded into a double play to end the inning.
Giancarlo Stanton made a jumping catch at the wall in right field on a ball hit by Lowrie for the first out in the eighth inning.
Rodriguez didn't allow a hit until Infante's two-out shot to the Crawford Boxes in left field in the fourth inning. John Buck, who also homered on Monday night, added a solo home run in the next inning to make it 2-0.
Rodriguez got his first major league hit and Houston's first hit of the game on a single to right field with two outs in the third inning. Sanchez retired seven in a row after that, with the next hit coming on a single by Chris Johnson with two outs in the fifth inning.
