The Astros Phillies final score reads 2-1, and the whole thing turned on one swing in the ninth: Cam Smith took All-Star closer Jhoan Duran deep for a solo shot that broke a tie and won Houston the rubber game in Philadelphia on Thursday. Cristian Javier and the Houston staff had already done the hard part, holding the Phillies to three hits all afternoon.
That is the kind of game that does not look like much in a box score and feels enormous in a clubhouse in September. One run of separation. Ninth inning. Best arm the home team has, on the mound, with the crowd standing.
How Cam Smith got to Jhoan Duran
Duran is not a guy you nick. He is a guy you survive. The stuff plays at the top of the league and the Phillies traded for him precisely so late innings in Philadelphia would stop being an adventure. Smith did not survive him. Smith beat him, and did it with the swing of a hitter who has stopped being surprised to be in the big leagues.
That matters for Houston beyond the one run. Smith came over in the Kyle Tucker deal, which is the sort of trade a franchise gets asked about for a decade, and the answer to "what did the Astros get back" keeps getting written one at-bat at a time. Thursday it got written in the ninth against an All-Star closer. That's a tell about where the kid's confidence is.
A three-hitter in Philadelphia, again
Javier fronting a three-hit shutdown effort at Citizens Bank Park is not a new sentence in this rivalry.
checked the almanac: on november 2, 2022, javier started game 4 of the world series in that same ballpark and threw six no-hit innings, and houston finished the second combined no-hitter in world series history. four years on, he is back in philadelphia holding the same lineup to three hits. baseball keeps its receipts.
The Phillies, for their part, lost a game they did almost everything right in except score. One run of offense against a Houston staff that gave them nothing is not a crisis in September. It is, however, the second look this week at a lineup that can go quiet in a hurry when the pitching is good and the ballpark plays honest.
What comes next for the Astros and Phillies
Both clubs get right back at it Friday, and neither draw is soft.
| Team | Next game | Opponent |
|---|---|---|
| Astros | Fri, Sep 11, 7:11 PM ET | at Tampa Bay Rays |
| Phillies | Fri, Sep 11, 7:16 PM ET | at Atlanta Braves |
Houston goes to St. Petersburg to face a Rays club that just had a party postponed. Tampa Bay could have moved toward becoming the first team to clinch a playoff berth and instead ran into Martin Perez, who threw seven scoreless, and Austin Riley, whose eighth-inning single gave Atlanta its first lead of that series in a 3-1 win. A team denied a clinch tends to show up angry. Or loose. You find out in the first three innings.
Philadelphia heads to Atlanta, where the Braves just lost outfielder Lane Thomas to the 15-day injured list with an intercostal injury suffered in the batting cage before Thursday's game. Rough way to go down, and it thins an Atlanta outfield that did not have depth to spare.
What I'm watching next: whether Smith keeps getting the ninth-inning at-bat against high-leverage arms, and whether the Phillies' bats travel to Atlanta. Three hits in a rubber game at home is not a season. Repeat it on the road and it becomes a conversation.