TUCKER WALKS IT OFF! King Tuck plays hero as Astros beat Tigers 3-2

It seems Kyle Tucker is there every time the Astros need a clutch hit. On Thursday night, Houston walked-off the Tigers to get a 3-2 victory, thanks to an opposite-field RBI single by Tucker. Houston also had important contributions from José Urquidy, José Altuve, and rookie shortstop Jeremy Peña.

After Jeimer Candelario tied the game in the top ninth with a two-run shot against Ryan Pressly –who returned from the injured list—, the Astros didn’t wait too long to get things done. Facing Tigers’ closer Gregory Soto, Tucker found two men on base and delivered a single to bring people to their feet at Minute Maid Park. It was Tucker’s second career walk-off hit.

But we have to start with Urquidy, who enjoyed his first scoreless outing of the season to help the Astros extend their winning streak to four games. He went six scoreless innings, allowed six hits, gave up one walk, and struck out three hitters. Urquidy’s ERA went down from 5.03 to 4.56 and he got his third win of the campaign (3-1).

On the offensive side, Altuve had the first word. He hit ANOTHER lead-off home run, this time against Tarik Skubal to make it 1-0 for the Astros. Since last year, Altuve is tied with Kyle Schwarber for most lead-off four-baggers in the Majors, both with nine.

Then, in the fifth episode, Peña took Skubal deep for his sixth long ball of the year, most among shortstops in the American League. Thanks to Héctor Neris and Rafael Montero, the Astros got to the ninth inning up in the score 2-0, but Pressly didn’t have a good return to the mound.

Pressly got the first two outs of the inning, but allowed a single to Miguel Cabrera. Immediately, Candelario destroyed a ball and sent it over the right-field fence to tie things up. However, just a few minutes later, Yordan Álvarez hit a looong single, Yuli Gurriel was walked, and Tucker came with his big hit to end it.

This is the first time this season the Astros are four games over .500. Both teams will collide again on Friday night, when Luis García will take the ball with Beau Brieske as his counterpart in the second contest of the four-game series.

VIDEOS AND BOX SCORE HERE.