Another bullpen disaster sinks Astros 8-7 against Dodgers

Five runs in two innings, three straight walks, and a “balk”… A nightmare in Hollywood.

This time, the Astros did hit but they lost against the Dodgers on an 8-7 score in Los Angeles. On Saturday, they got to the seventh inning up 7-3 but the Dodgers scored five times between innings seven and eight. The winning run was cashed in after a Ryne Stanek shocking balk that eventually led to an ejection. This was the Astros’ 12th miscue in their last 17 games.

The Astros wasted a seven-run, 13-hit effort which included a grand slam by Alex Bregman. Also, they couldn’t hold the Dodgers despite a nice pitching performance by starter Ronel Blanco, who worked for six innings, allowing two hits and three earned runs with two walks and six strikeouts.

Even José Abreu came back to action after being benched for two games in a row and got two hits, with a double and an RBI. The Astros enjoyed a 10-for-21 performance from their first five hitters with three doubles and a home run.

After Blanco’s outing was done, Phil Maton allowed two earned runs in the seventh to leave the score 7-5. Then, Bryan Abreu came out of the ‘pen to relieve Héctor Neris in the eighth and that’s when the game got screwed up.

Working with no outs, bases empty, and a two-run lead, Abreu kicked off the inning by loading the bases with three straight walks. Jason Heyward hit a sacrifice fly to make it 7-6 and James Outman hit a game-tying double that led to Abreu’s departure.

Manager Dusty Baker brought Ryne Stanek. The veteran righty immediately struck out David Peralta for the second out of the inning. And right when we might have thought that the worst had already happened, Stanek committed what’s supposed to be a balk that forced in a run to give the Dodgers the lead 8-7. He was ejected after the third out. That was it.

The Dodgers and Astros will have the final game of the series on Sunday (6:10 pm CT) with Tony Gonsolin and Hunter Brown as the starters.

VIDEOS AND BOX SCORE HERE.