Cam Smith delivers for Astros in home sweep of Phillies

Cam Smith’s two-out, RBI single in the bottom of the eighth broke a tie and gave the Houston Astros a 2-1 win over the visiting Philadelphia Phillies on Thursday afternoon.
The Astros swept the three-game series that was dominated by pitching. Houston also won 1-0 and 2-0. The Astros have won five of their past six.
The Phillies have lost four of their last five.
Smith’s line single to left, just over the glove of the leaping Trea Turner at short, off loser Orion Kerkering (5-3) scored Isaac Paredes from second. He was hit by a pitch and moved to second on Jose Altuve’s single.
Bryan Abreu (3-3) got the win as he struck out all four batters he faced to close the game.
Starters Hunter Brown (Houston) and Cristopher Sanchez (Philadelphia) were both outstanding.
Brown allowed only three hits in seven scoreless innings with no walks and nine strikeouts. He retired nine in a row from the third through fifth innings. That streak was snapped by Rafael Marchan’s single leading off the sixth. But Brown then fanned the next three batters for 12 retired hitters out of 13. The outing dropped the right-hander’s earned-run average from 1.88 to 1.74.
Astros reliever Bryan King started the eighth and surrendered the tying run on Brandon Marsh’s sacrifice fly to the warning track in right. It was the Phillies’ first run of the series, in its 26th inning.
Sanchez gave up one run on five hits in six plus innings without walking a batter and struck out 11. He was replaced by Max Lazar after Christian Walker’s leadoff double in the seventh. A groundout moved Walker to third with one out, but Lazar got pinch hitter Victor Caratini on a soft liner to first and Mauricio Dubon on a groundout.
The Astros took a 1-0 lead in the second on Yainer Diaz’s RBI single. That left runners on first and third with one out, but Sanchez escaped further damage by striking out Cooper Hummel and Dubon to end the inning.