Astros fall 4-2 to Diamondbacks, lose ground to A’s
Pinch-hitter Jon Jay’s tiebreaking triple in the eighth inning helped the visiting Arizona Diamondbacks beat the Houston Astros 4-2 Friday night, tightening a pair of playoff races.
The AL West-leading Astros had their edge cut by the A’s to 2½ games. Arizona moved within three games of St. Louis and Los Angeles for the second NL wild-card spot.
It was 2-all when Nick Ahmed doubled off Hector Rondon with one out in the Arizona eighth. Jay hit a two-out, tiebreaking drive into the right field corner and later scored when a flyball by A.J. Pollock dropped in shallow center field for a single.
Arizona starter Robbie Ray yielded two hits and two runs with six strikeouts in 51/3 innings.