Grae Kessinger Saves the Astros’ Asses in Extras. 4-3 Over Padres

Miracle play in the tenth inning saves two runs and the game.

Be careful what you wish for.

The Padres were probably pretty happy to have Jose Altuve ejected for protesting a clearly wrong call. I mean, who would you rather face in extra innings, a future Hall of Famer, or some guy named Grae Kessinger.

But lets be honest, thirty four year old Jose Altuve probably doesn’t make the play that saved the game.

But first.

The Astros’ recent hitting woes continued tonight, but the Astros did manage a 2-0 lead in the fourth on the strength of a Kyle Tucker leadoff single, an RBI Jon Singleton double, and an Jeremy Pena RBI fielder’s choice that scored Alex Bregman.

Meanwhile, Astros starter Hunter Brown was in peak form, holding the Padres scoreless until the sixth inning, when Manny Machado hit a two run homer.

Brown got a well-deserved quality start, finishing six innings, allowing the two runs on five hits, one walk, while whiffing three Padres.

Brown’s counterpart, Michael King, held the Astros to two runs in seven innings, but his relief, Jason Adam, gifted the Astros a go-ahead run in the eighth. With one out, Yordan Alvarez doubled, but even though the Astros failed to get a hit behind him Alvarez scored after King balked him to third and allowed Alvarez to score on a wild pitch.

The Astros returned the favor in the bottom of the eighth. Fernando Tatis opened the inning with a double off Ryan Pressly. But Pressly got the next two batters, including Machado with a strikeout. However, manager Joe Espada brought in Josh Hader to face lefty Jackson Merrill. On his first pitch, Hader wild-pitched Merill, allowing Tatis to score, tying the score at three.

The Astros threatened in a wild, weird, but ultimately fruitless ninth inning that ended in the ejection of Jose Altuve and manager Espada. Jeremy Pena doubled and later, with two outs, Jose Altuve was called out on a ground ball that replay showed hit his foot, but was called fair. When Altuve took off his shoe to show the umpire Brennan Miller his bruise, Altuve was ejected. Espada was then ejected for arguing with Miller.

Josh Hader held the Padres in the bottom of the ninth sending the game into extra innings.

In the tenth, with one out, Kyle Tucker scored ghost runner Kessinger, in for Altuve with a single to left. Tucker then advanced to second on a Yainer Diaz single but Bregman and Singleton failed to capitalize on the runner in scoring position.

Hector Neris came in to save the game against the meat of the Padres lineup, but on his first pitch allowed the ghost runner to reach third on a wild pitch. Neris then walked Elias Diaz, sending up uber-tough out Luis Arraez, who grounded to shortstop Pena. Pena held the runner at third and got the force at second base. Neris then struck out slugger Tatis, bringing up red-hot Juricson Profar, who was hit by the pitch which loaded the bases, another controversial call that stood after an Astros challenge.

(The umpiring in this game was a travesty. They even called a pitch clock violation on Josh Hader that was overturned on review in New York. )

That brought up mighty Manny Machado with the bases loaded. Machado and the Friars probably would have preferred the 34 year old Altuve at second, but Grae Kessinger leapt like a lemur to stop Machado’s 103 MPH grounder up the middle, who then tossed to Pena to get the bases loaded force out, preserving the lead and giving the Astros the 4-3 win.

Josh Hader got the win, and Hector Neris got the save, holding the Padres despite their having the tying run on third with no outs.

The Mariners lost earlier tonight to the Yankees, leaving the Astros’ magic number at seven.

Framber Valdez takes on Dylan Cease in the rubber match. Game time 5:40 CT.

Box score HERE.