Pinch hitter Victor Caratini slugged a two-run, walk-off home run with two outs in the 10th inning, lifting the Houston Astros to a 10-9 victory over the visiting Cleveland Guardians on Tuesday.
Caratini lined a 1-0 pitch from Cleveland reliever Hunter Gaddis (1-1) out to right field, plating pinch runner Mauricio Dubon with his second home run this season and third career walk-off homer.
Cleveland took a 9-8 lead in the top of the 10th when pinch hitter David Fry produced an RBI double with two outs off Astros closer Josh Hader (1-2), driving home Josh Naylor.
The Guardians pounced on Astros right-hander Hunter Brown for three runs in the first inning but were later forced to rally from a deficit. The Astros put up three runs in the third inning and five in the fourth before Cleveland pulled level with a five-run sixth.
The Guardians had Brown in trouble early, as Naylor followed singles from Steven Kwan and Andres Gimenez with his seventh homer, a one-out, three-run blast the opposite way to left. Brown quickly steadied himself, however, facing the minimum over the subsequent four innings.
When Brown returned to the mound for the top of the sixth, he held an 8-3 lead. The Astros used a pair of three-run homers to flip the game, the first coming from Alex Bregman with two outs in the third off Guardians starter Carlos Carrasco.
Bregman drove home Jon Singleton and Jose Altuve with his first home run this season, a 410-foot shot to left-center field. An inning later, Singleton produced his first homer, another three-run blast on the first pitch after Joey Loperfido delivered a two-run single that provided the Astros a 5-3 lead. It was the first career hit for Loperfido, who was making his major league debut.
Singleton drilled the next offering from Carrasco 431 feet into the second deck in right field. Singleton’s first RBIs of the season lifted Houston to an 8-3 advantage.
Brown and Astros reliever Rafael Montero could not hold the lead in the sixth. Brown surrendered a leadoff triple to Kwan and a two-run homer to Gimenez, his first this season, before Montero allowed a line-drive, three-run homer with two outs and a full count to Estevan Florial. It was Florial’s third long ball of the year.
–Field Level Media
