Sept. 9 – Pavon Smith homered in his first three at-bats and the visiting Arizona Diamondbacks saved a three-game series with a 12–6 win over the Houston Astros on Sunday night.
Smith hit the first multi-homer game of his career and had a career-high eight RBIs to lead Arizona to victory (80-64). He hit a three-run homer in the top of the second inning and the third grand slam of his career in the third, both off Astros starter Justin Verlander (3- 6).
Smith then hit a home run off Houston reliever Caleb Alter in the fifth inning and added three runs on four hits.
In the second inning, after Jake McCarthy and Eugenio Suarez singled, Smith hit a 339-foot shot over the right field foul pole to give the Diamondbacks a 3–0 lead. When Verlander challenged Smith with a 2–2 fastball in the third inning, Smith blasted it 372 feet to left-center for his grand slam.
Suárez’s RBI single extended Arizona’s lead to 4–0 before Smith’s grand slam.
Verlander gave up eight runs on eight hits and one walk in three innings. He has gone 0-4 with a 9.68 ERA without a strikeout in four starts since rejoining the rotation after going on the injured list with neck soreness.
Smith then hit Oates’ 2–2 fastball 393 feet for his seventh home run of the season, increasing Arizona’s lead to 9–2. When Smith loaded the bases in the seventh inning, he had a chance to hit his fourth homer in four at-bats, but he struck out.
Suarez hit his 26th home run of the year in the ninth inning, a solo shot off Astros closer Josh Hader that drove in two RBIs and scored four in a row to tie the score at 4–5.
Arizona starter Ryan Nelson dominated the Astros through three innings but couldn’t stick around until the fifth.
Astros third baseman Alex Bregman hit his 22nd home run of 2024, driving in two runs in the fourth inning, and Houston scored three runs off Jose Altuve and Yaner Diaz on Kyle Tucker’s sacrifice fly in the fifth after Nelson went up 9-5.
Nelson allowed five runs and six hits in 4 2/3 innings. He walked twice and struck out four.
Kevin Kinkel (8-3) got the win in the fifth inning.
The Astros (77–66) had their six-game home winning streak snapped.
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