Daulton Varsho<\/a> and the single by Taylor Trammell that preceded it. Those proved their only two baserunners in the game.<\/p>\nAfter\u00a0Varsho\u2019s homer in the second inning, Padres pitchers Randy V\u00e1squez, Kyle Hart, Bradgley Rodriguez and Jeremiah Estrada combined to retire the Astros\u2019 final 22 hitters in order. Two hits marked their fewest in a game this season. They totaled seven hits in the final two games of this series, both losses.<\/p>\n
Houston has followed a season-long six-game winning streak with series losses to the Blue Jays and the Padres. It has a 60-59 record and maintained a half-game lead in the American League West on Sunday thanks to a Rangers loss.<\/p>\n
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Astros hitters averaged a 92.3 mph exit velocity on 16 balls put into play against V\u00e1squez, who worked the first five innings for the Padres, but with little to show for it. They did not draw a walk for the eighth time in 119 games this season and saw 98 total pitches from San Diego\u2019s four pitchers.<\/p>\n
How did Cristian Javier pitch?<\/p>\n
Javier attacked the strike zone. He threw 63% of his pitches in-zone and had a 72% strike percentage. The Padres met the challenge with hard contact. Two swings proved particularly damaging.<\/p>\n
Merrill led off the second inning by driving a two-strike fastball 411 feet to center field, his second home run of the series. It left his bat at 106.8 mph and distilled two trends of Javier\u2019s outing. San Diego hitters averaged a 94.2 mph exit velocity on 21 balls put in play against Javier. Six of their eight hits against him were on two-strike pitches.<\/p>\n
Luis Rengifo lined an 0-2 changeup for a leadoff single in the fourth. With two outs, Freddy Fermin pulled a grounder into the hole between shortstop and third and beat an infield single, extending the inning for Tatis. Catcher Yainer Diaz visited the mound before his at-bat. After a first-pitch fastball, Javier tried three consecutive changeups, a pitch he had thrown 8.5% of the time to righties this season before Sunday.<\/p>\n
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Tatis took the first two and turned on the third. The home run left his bat at 110.6 mph and turned a 2-1 lead for Houston into a two-run deficit. Javier removed his cap and furrowed his brow as Tatis rounded the bases. He recorded four more outs before exiting at 86 pitches, with a 6.68 ERA in his 39 \u2154 innings worked this season.<\/p>\n
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Houston Astros center fielder Daulton Varsho (18) andleft right fielder Taylor Trammell (26) watch a home run hit by San Diego Padres’ Jackson Merrill during the second inning of a baseball game Sunday, Aug. 9, 2026, in San Diego. (AP Photo\/Karl Anderson)<\/p>\n
Karl Anderson\/Associated Press![\"San]()
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San Diego Padres’ Fernando Tatis Jr. hits a home run during the fourth inning of a baseball game against the Houston Astros, Sunday, Aug. 9, 2026, in San Diego. (AP Photo\/Karl Anderson)<\/p>\n
Karl Anderson\/Associated Press![\"Houston]()
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Houston Astros’ Jose Altuve reacts after grounding out during the fourth inning of a baseball game against the San Diego Padres, Sunday, Aug. 9, 2026, in San Diego. (AP Photo\/Karl Anderson)<\/p>\n
Karl Anderson\/Associated Press![\"Houston]()
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Houston Astros pitcher Cristian Javier works against a San Diego Padres batter during the first inning of a baseball game Sunday, Aug. 9, 2026, in San Diego. (AP Photo\/Karl Anderson)<\/p>\n
Karl Anderson\/Associated Press![\"Houston]()
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Houston Astros pitcher Cristian Javier works against a San Diego Padres batter during the first inning of a baseball game Sunday, Aug. 9, 2026, in San Diego. (AP Photo\/Karl Anderson)<\/p>\n
Karl Anderson\/Associated Press![\"Houston]()
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Houston Astros pitcher Cristian Javier works against a San Diego Padres batter during the first inning of a baseball game Sunday, Aug. 9, 2026, in San Diego. (AP Photo\/Karl Anderson)<\/p>\n
Karl Anderson\/Associated Press![\"Houston]()
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Houston Astros pitcher Cristian Javier works against a San Diego Padres batter during the first inning of a baseball game Sunday, Aug. 9, 2026, in San Diego. (AP Photo\/Karl Anderson)<\/p>\n
Karl Anderson\/Associated Press![\"San]()
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San Diego Padres pitcher Randy V\u00e1squez works against a Houston Astros batter during the first inning of a baseball game Sunday, Aug. 9, 2026, in San Diego. (AP Photo\/Karl Anderson)<\/p>\n
Karl Anderson\/Associated Press![\"San]()
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San Diego Padres’ Fernando Tatis Jr., right, celebrates with teammate Freddy Fermin at home plate after hitting a home run during the fourth inning of a baseball game against the Houston Astros, Sunday, Aug. 9, 2026, in San Diego. (AP Photo\/Karl Anderson)<\/p>\n
Karl Anderson\/Associated Press![\"San]()
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San Diego Padres’ Fernando Tatis Jr. celebrates at home plate after hitting a home run during the fourth inning of a baseball game against the Houston Astros, Sunday, Aug. 9, 2026, in San Diego. (AP Photo\/Karl Anderson)<\/p>\n
Karl Anderson\/Associated Press![\"San]()
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San Diego Padres’ Fernando Tatis Jr. runs near third base after hitting a home run during the fourth inning of a baseball game against the Houston Astros Sunday, Aug. 9, 2026, in San Diego. (AP Photo\/Karl Anderson)<\/p>\n
Karl Anderson\/Associated Press<\/p>\n
Daulton Varsho breaks through<\/p>\n
Uprooted at the trade deadline by Toronto dealing him to the Astros<\/a>, Varsho started 2-for-18 in his first five games with his new club. Houston at first plugged Varsho directly into the cleanup spot in its order, then moved him down to sixth for the first two games in San Diego and seventh Sunday.<\/p>\nIf that was to take some pressure off Varsho, perhaps it helped. In his first at-bat, Varsho worked a full count against V\u00e1squez and sent his eighth pitch, a sweeper, 395 feet into the right-field seats for a two-run home run and his first extra-base hit with Houston.<\/p>\n
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It was Varsho\u2019s first home run overall since June 20, as he went his final 114 plate appearances with the Blue Jays without one. Varsho had four extra-base hits in that span, making his swing Sunday perhaps a positive sign for an Astros team hoping he can help its sparse outfield production.<\/p>\n
Varsho also had an eighth-inning fly out at 98 mph off the bat against Rodriguez but, like the rest of the Astros\u2019 lineup, was shut down outside of the second inning.<\/p>\n
Up next<\/p>\n
The Astros will open a three-game series against the Giants on Monday at Oracle Park.\u00a0Hayden Wesneski and Hunter Brown are scheduled to start the first two games for Houston, with its starter for Wednesday not yet announced.<\/p>\n
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Ronel Blanco, who started Friday and would be on turn to pitch Wednesday, is \u201can option\u201d to start in the finale in San Francisco, manager Joe Espada. It would require Blanco to pitch on four days\u2019 rest, which he has not done since returning from Tommy John surgery.<\/p>\n
Tatsuya Imai was available out of the bullpen Sunday. Espada indicated Imai could also be a candidate to start against the Giants, saying \u201cwe\u2019ll talk about San Francisco once we get there tomorrow.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Jose Altuve and the Astros’ lineup didn’t have a hit after the second inning during Sunday’s loss at…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":402255,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[56,58,57],"class_list":["post-402254","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-houston","tag-houston","tag-houston-headlines","tag-houston-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/402254","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=402254"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/402254\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/402255"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=402254"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=402254"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=402254"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}