George Springer hit a pair of solo home runs and Carlos Correa delivered a redemptive sacrifice fly in the eighth inning as the Houston Astros won the rubber match of their three-game interleague series with the Arizona Diamondbacks 3-2 on Sunday at Minute Maid Park.
Springer greeted Diamondbacks reliever Taylor Widener with an inside-the-park home run leading off the sixth inning that cut a 2-0 deficit in half before drilling an opposite-field blast off Hector Rondon with two outs in the seventh that pulled the Astros (27-26) even. The latter homer, the 13th this season for Springer, was the Astros' 2,000th at Minute Maid Park.
Correa struck out with the bases loaded against Arizona right-hander Yoan Lopez to snuff the rally in the sixth. Up with the bases loaded again two innings later, Correa drove home Alex Bregman with a fly ball to right field off Diamondbacks reliever Junior Guerra (1-2) for the go-head run.
Astros closer Ryan Pressly notched his 12th save with a perfect, 14-pitch ninth. Left-hander Blake Taylor (2-1), the third pitcher of the game for Houston, earned the win in relief.
The Diamondbacks (20-34) scored just one run in the fourth off Astros starter Jose Urquidy despite loading the bases with no outs. Nick Ahmed smacked a leadoff homer in the fifth for a 2-0 lead.
Diamondbacks left-hander Madison Bumgarner recorded his first scoreless outing of the season. Bumgarner allowed two hits across the first three batters he faced before settling into a groove and retiring five consecutive batters.
After issuing a leadoff walk to Astros catcher Dustin Garneau in the third, Bumgarner capped his start with a flourish, retiring the final nine batters he faced. Bumgarner recorded a season-high seven strikeouts over five innings and 80 pitches. He relied largely on his fastball, mixing 43 four-seamers with 24 sinkers to extend the Astros' recent woes against scuffling starters.
Bumgarner, staff mate Luke Weaver, and Texas right-handers Kyle Gibson and Jordan Lyles entered their starts against the Astros this week with bloated ERAs and ongoing struggles. That quartet combined to allow just five earned runs on 12 hits over 26 1/3 innings against Houston.
--Field Level Media
