Coming off a 3-1 loss to Philadelphia on Friday night, the Astros sought to bounce back against Zack Wheeler and the Phillies on Saturday afternoon at Minute Maid Park.
Wheeler dueled with Astros starting pitcher Cristian Javier as the two exchanged shutout innings until Nick Castellanos hit a towering home run to the train tracks off Javier. Brandon Marsh would score later in the inning off a J.T. Realmuto sacrifice fly to give the visitors from Philadelphia a 2-0 lead after four frames of ball.
Fast-forward to the sixth inning, Kody Clemens stepped up to the plate with Realmuto on second and sent a homer to right to double the Phillies’ lead. Alec Bohm’s double in the eighth inning would bring Marsh home, and Jake Cave would score Bohm to end the Philadelphia scoring for the night at six runs.
Jeremy Pena’s home run in the bottom of the eighth was the only Astros run of the evening and only their second of the three-game set against Philadelphia this weekend. The Astros’ bats will have to come alive as they face off in the final matchup of the series against projected starter Bailey Falter. Jose Urquidy is projected to be the starter for the Astros.
Gametime is set for 7 PM EDT.
