Major League Baseball

Arizona rally falls short in 3rd straight loss to Astros 5-4

Updated Mar. 4, 2020 5:09 p.m. ET

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HOUSTON (AP) For a second straight day, the Arizona Diamondbacks fought back against the Houston Astros, this time tying it in the ninth.

The Diamondbacks could not finish the rally for a second straight day, suffering yet another disappointing defeat.

George Springer homered with two outs in the bottom of the 11th inning to give Houston a 5-4 win over Arizona on Wednesday night for the Astros' fifth straight win, and third in a row against the Diamondbacks.

Springer hit the first pitch he saw from Tyler Clippard (2-2) off the facade in left-center for his 13th home run of the season and his first career walkoff shot.

''The guys battled back,'' Arizona manager Chip Hale said. ''They never gave up. Disappointment is losing of course but played a good baseball game. (Houston) just had more firepower and got us.''

Michael Bourn hit an RBI double to cut Houston's lead to 4-2 in the ninth before Jake Lamb hit a two-run homer off Luke Gregerson to tie it.

''It was more a team effort,'' Lamb said. ''We battled back and then we just didn't come through with the win. We're getting close. We're playing fairly solid defense. We're playing good baseball. That's a frustrating one, that's a tough one to lose.''

Lamb liked that they got to Gregerson, who shut the door Tuesday after Arizona cut the Astros' lead to three and brought up the tying run in the ninth.

''It was nice to battle back and get him out of the game like that, but at the end of day, we lost the game,'' Lamb said.

Brandon Drury scored on a wild pitch in the third to give Arizona a 1-0 lead.

Robbie Ray allowed three runs and six hits with six strikeouts in five innings. The left-hander has not made it through the fifth in his last three starts and six of his last eight.

''I thought he threw the ball well,'' Hale said. ''Obviously we want more length. We'd like to get him into the sixth and the seventh, especially today with the middle of our bullpen being down ... It'd be nice to get a few more innings out of him but he's building it. He gave us a chance to win giving up three runs.''

Michael Feliz (4-1) pitched two innings for the win.

Carlos Correa had a two-out RBI single and Evan Gattis followed with a homer off the facade in left to give the Astros a 3-1 lead in the fifth.

Tony Kemp added a sacrifice fly in the eighth for Houston, which won for the eighth time in nine games and gave manager A.J. Hinch his 200th career victory - 89 with the Diamondbacks and 111 with the Astros.

Mike Fiers allowed one run and four hits with a season-high seven strikeouts in six innings.

TRAINING ROOM

Diamondbacks: LF David Peralta went 1 for 5 and stole a base in an extended spring training game Wednesday. Hale said Peralta felt good Wednesday, but he will play another extended spring training game Thursday in order to get another five or six at bats, probably take Friday off and then go to Triple-A Reno for Saturday and Sunday. ''We'd like him to get some at bats and be ready for Monday,'' Hale said.

GOLDSCHMIDT HONORED

Prior to the game, Arizona's Paul Goldschmidt received the 2015 Baseball Writers Association of America's Houston area player of the year award. Goldschmidt, who graduated from The Woodlands High School about 35 miles north of Houston, also won the award in 2013.

SHOWING THE GLOVE

Bourn robbed Marwin Gonzalez of extra bases in the second, making a running grab at the wall in deep center field. An inning later, Carlos Gomez robbed Bourn of extra bases making a running, leaping grab in left-center. Jake Marisnick followed Gomez's grab with a diving catch on Goldschmidt's sinking line drive to end the third.

UP NEXT

Diamondbacks: RHP Zack Greinke (6-3) will look to continue his recent string of good starts when he takes the mound in the finale of the two games in Houston on Thursday. Greinke has won three straight starts and is 6-1 over his last nine outings.

Astros: LHP Dallas Keuchel (3-6) will try to win his second straight after he won his last start Saturday giving up two runs over seven innings.

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