HOUSTON,TX--- The Cleveland Guardians lost their second consecutive game to the Astros in Houston Wednesday night by a final score of 2-1. The Astros came into tonight's game with the best ranked pitching in the American League and they sure showed it, with Houston starter Christian Javier not allowing a Guardians hit through 5 innings and striking out the first 6 batters he faced.
Through the the majority of the early innings it was a pitcher's duel, with Cal Quantrill having a solid outing on the mound also, going 6 innings allowing just 6 hits and not allowing a run until the bottom of the 5th. With Javier going 5.2 innings, only allowing 3 hits, no runs and striking out 9 Guardians batters. As I mentioned before the Guardians did not get a hit until the 5th inning, Ernie Clement got the first hit of the night for the Guards hitting a bloop to left fielder, a familiar name in Michael Brantley, who would later drive in the game's first run on a SAC fly that scored Jose Siri. The Astros would score again 2 innings later on another SAC fly that came from Jason Castro who brought Yordan Alvarez to score. The shut-out was broken when Josh Naylor scored the only Guardians run of the game on a wild pitch off the arm of Astros reliever Hector Neris. The game stayed quite after that, as the Astros bullpen totaled 2.4 innings pitched allowing only 1 hit and 1 run.
The Guardians get to try and get things back together in Detroit tomorrow, even though rain looms in the forecast to potentially rain out the Guardians Tigers match up. Aaron Civale is scheduled to take the mound in Detroit for a 7:10 first pitch.