From Brown to Sousa: Five Crucial Moments That Shaped the Astros’ Epic 10-Inning Victory Over the Angels

ANAHEIM, Calif. – Ten innings required a slip to provide separation. A wild pitch by Angels right-hander Hunter Strickland allowed the
Houston Astros
to score the decisive run in
a 3-2 win Friday night
and rebound from a tough finish 24 hours earlier.

Twice in a four-game series against the A’s, the Astros suffered
walk-off
losses
with one of their top two relievers on the mound. Friday’s game threatened to mirror the outcome. A series of moments in what proved a taut – and at times tense – game allowed them to avoid it.

Brown escapes jam

After
benches cleared and tensions subsided
in the third inning, Hunter Brown still faced a jam. Zach Neto being hit by a pitch put runners on first and second with two outs. Brown induced a lineout from Nolan Schanuel that brought up Mike Trout.

Trout took a first-pitch curveball for a strike, then four four-seamers called out of the zone. Two nearly clipped it. One arrived at 99.3 mph, the fastest pitch Brown fired all night. Trout took his base, loading them for Taylor Ward, the Angels’ cleanup hitter.

Brown threw 87 pitches across five laborious innings Friday. Just two of them were cutters. He started Ward with a slider away and a curveball that missed high. In a 2-0 count, Brown located a cutter down and away, just off the corner. Ward grounded out to end the inning.

“I thought I landed an 0-0 pitch to Trout and then I thought I threw him a pretty good fastball and it didn’t go my way,” Brown said. “I wasn’t going to give in there, especially to a player of his caliber. And then was able to make a good pitch to Ward and got the result that I was looking for.”

King comes through

Shawn Dubin drew the sixth with a 2-1 lead. The Angels loaded the bases against him with one out. LaMonte Wade Jr., a left-handed hitter, loomed, followed by switch-hitter Luis Rengifo. Manager Joe Espada picked his matchup, summoning left-hander Bryan King knowing another move would follow.

The Angels countered with right-handed pinch-hitter Logan O’Hoppe, leaving King to face consecutive right-handed batters. Platoon neutrality has helped King ascend to a set-up role this season. He awoke holding righties to a .456 OPS. Lefties actually owned an .858 OPS against him.

King built a 2-2 count on O’Hoppe and spun a sweeper that induced a whiff. Rengifo swung through a 94.4 mph fastball for strike three, the second-fastest pitch the left-hander has thrown this season. King has inherited 13 runners; none have scored.

“We knew that they’re going to bring (O’Hoppe) in that spot,” Espada said. “And (King) knows that, he knows where to go with his fastball and slider and his wipeout stuff and get us through the sixth.”

Meyers’ web gem

King allowed a home run to Christian Moore in the seventh, forging a 2-2 tie that remained intact in the eighth, when Ward struck a leadoff single against Bryan Abreu. With one out, Jo Adell sent a drive toward the left-center field gap.

Jake Meyers, the Astros center fielder, was shading Adell toward right-center. Shortstop Jeremy Peña knew this and made an initial read of the ball off Adell’s bat.

“Once Adell hit that ball, I saw it in the gap,” Peña said. “But (Meyers) is just so good in the outfield. It feels like he just glides through the air. And he gets to balls that not many outfielders do.”

Meyers ranged over to left-center and made a lunging catch as he left his feet. Ward retreated to first base with the play potentially saving a run.

“Almost every one I believe I can catch, that’s just kind of my mentality,” Meyers said. “Off the bat I got a great jump on it and kind of gave myself a chance later on to make that play. But yeah, I thought it was a really good play.”

From the visitors’ bullpen beyond left field, reliever Bennett Sousa said his initial view was blocked by a wall but: “I saw Jake midair catching it and it was sick.

“But I mean, Jake’s been doing it all year, he’s one of the best center fielders in the league,” Sousa said. “He’ll run through a wall for us.”

Bullpen’s back end delivers

Abreu also stranded the bases loaded in the eighth, striking out Moore on a full-count fastball to end it. That Abreu drew the eighth confirmed a fact that seemed in question. Closer Josh Hader had thrown 21 pitches across multiple innings in
Houston’s 10-inning loss to the A’s
a night earlier.

That game had ended on Nick Kurtz’s walk-off home run against Hader, who hadn’t pitched the previous three games. As the Astros squandered a first-and-third, one-out situation in the top of the ninth Friday, Hader warmed for the bottom of the inning.

Hader needed nine pitches to produce extra innings again, inducing fly ball outs from Neto and Schanuel and getting Trout to foul a 1-2 fastball into the glove of catcher Yainer Diaz. It came after Abreu threw 30 pitches a night after using 20 in a scoreless inning against the A’s.

“After last night’s game with Josh coming back tonight, that just shows the true character of him and the kind of professional he is,” Sousa said. “And Abreu last night with a long inning, getting out of it and then doing it again tonight, those guys are our workhorses and they did it again tonight.”

Sousa slams the door

With his top three relievers spent, Espada turned to Sousa for the 10. It was the second extra-innings save chance Sousa has drawn this season. He also drew the 10th
earlier this month in Cleveland
, though with a two-run lead. Friday, the automatic runner on second represented the potential tying run.

“It changes a little bit but just trying to execute my pitches and get the first guy out – that’s the most important guy,” Sousa said.

Espada said in Cleveland he likes Sousa in extra innings for his ability to notch strikeouts. Sousa awoke Friday with a 32.7% strikeout rate that ranked in the 95th percentile among major-league pitchers, per Baseball Savant. His 40% whiff rate ranked in the 99th percentile.

Sousa struck out Ward swinging on an elevated 96 mph fastball. A slider induced a ground out by Travis d’Arnaud that did not move the automatic runner from second. In a 2-1 count, Sousa threw a slider to Adell, who popped out to Christian Walker in foul territory, the final touch on a taut victory.

“Every game in the big leagues is a big win, but I think also coming back and bouncing back,” Meyers said. “It can be easy if you get walked off the night before, late travel, to kind of be the victim and maybe not finish a game. And right there, I felt like we did a great job of finishing a game.”

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