Gabriel Moreno stroked a one-out, RBI single to center field in the top of the 10th inning and the Arizona Diamondbacks rallied to defeat the host Houston Astros 4-3 on Saturday.
The Diamondbacks (75-68) squared the three-game interleague series after Moreno plated automatic runner Ildemaro Vargas with his single off Astros reliever Bryan King (2-4). Brandyn Garcia notched his fifth save with strikeouts of Yordan Alvarez and Jose Altuve in the 10th.
Isaac Paredes singled in consecutive at-bats — the first to spot the Astros (73-70) a 2-0 lead in the third and the second to rebuild that two-run margin with two-out hit in the fifth. His two-run, opposite-field single to right in the third scored Yainer Diaz and Taylor Trammell and came after Arizona right-hander Brandon Pfaadt appeared on the verge of escaping that inning unscathed by retiring Cam Smith and Jeremy Pena after Trammell pushed Diaz to third with his double to right.
Pfaadt allowed three runs on seven hits and two walks with four strikeouts over 6 1/3 innings. Jonathan Loaisiga (7-3) pitched a scoreless ninth and was credited with the win.
The Diamondbacks began to claw back into contention in the top of the fifth when Tim Tawa and Lars Nootbaar sandwiched singles around a Ryan Waldschmidt groundout. Nootbaar chased Astros rookie right-hander Ethan Pecko and advanced Tawa to third with the first of his two hits, and Geraldo Perdomo followed with a sacrifice fly to center off Astros reliever Enyel De Los Santos that plated Tawa and sliced the deficit to 2-1.
Pecko allowed one run on five hits and one walk with two strikeouts over 4 1/3 innings.
After the Astros reclaimed their two-run lead in the bottom of the fifth on Paredes’ bloop single to center that scored Pena, the Diamondbacks rallied again in the seventh, this time against Astros reliever Kai-Wei Teng.
Marte drilled his 22nd home run 388 feet by bashing a 3-2 sweeper. Blubaugh allowed two hits over his 1 2/3 innings of relief, but both resulted in Arizona runs.
