Cam Smith’s home run off Jhoan Duran in the ninth inning lifted the Houston Astros to a 2-1 win over the Philadelphia Phillies at Citizens Bank Park on Thursday.
Smith jumped on a first-pitch splitter from the Phillies’ closer that hung in the middle of the strike zone and the Astros’ outfielder launched it deep over the right-center field wall for his 20th home run of the season. He also hit a homer in Wednesday’s 11-7 loss off Cristopher Sánchez.
In the bottom of the ninth, Josh Hader retired Edmundo Sosa, Kyle Schwarber and Trea Turner to close out Houston’s win. The Astros improved to 75-72 with the victory, increasing their first-place lead in the American League West to 2.5 games over the Texas Rangers, pending the result of their matchup with the Seattle Mariners.
Astros starter Cristian Javier didn’t allow a hit during his first four innings before Luis Arraez led off the Phillies’ half of the fifth with a single. Alec Bohm followed with a double and Bryson Stott drove in Arraez with a groundout to tie the score at 1-1. (Houston took a 1-0 lead in the second on an RBI double by Taylor Trammell.)
Javier finished with 1 run and 3 hits allowed over 6 innings, adding 5 strikeouts and 1 walk in 79 pitches. Bennett Sousa, Bryan Abreu and Hader each pitched one hitless inning to keep Philadelphia off the board. The only time the Phillies got a runner beyond first base was when they tied the score in the fifth.
With the defeat, Philadelphia (82-65) dropped to four games behind the Atlanta Braves (86-61), who earned a 3-1 win over the Tampa Bay Rays on Thursday. However, the Phillies maintain a solid hold on the NL’s top wild-card playoff spot with 15 games remaining on the regular-season schedule, 2.5 games ahead of the Chicago Cubs and six over the San Diego Padres.
Philadelphia travels to Atlanta for a three-game showdown this weekend, with Aaron Nola (6-10, 4.76 ERA) and Chris Sale (14-9, 2.10) pitching on Friday. Jesús Luzardo (14-5, 2.87) faces Tyler Mahle (5-10, 4.05) on Saturday, while Andrew Painter (3-9, 5.71) and Grant Holmes (9-5, 3.46) pitch in Sunday’s series finale.
The Astros finish their six-game road trip with a three-game series at AL-leading Tampa Bay (87-59).
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