Diamondbacks 4 - 5 Astros
Final/10
  for this game

Carter's homer lifts Astros over D'backs in extras

Jun 13, 2014 - 6:25 AM Houston, TX (SportsNetwork.com) - Chris Carter's home run in the bottom of the 10th inning gave the Houston Astros a 5-4 walk-off win over the Arizona Diamondbacks and a sweep of a two-game interleague series from Minute Maid Park.

Carter, who cracked a pair of solo homers in Wednesday's 5-1 decision over the Diamondbacks, had one of three long balls for Houston in this one. Carlos Corporan finished 3-for-4 with a two-run blast, while Jon Singleton added a solo shot and knocked in two runs in the resurgent Astros' sixth victory in eight games.

"It's been real exciting compared to last year, it's like night and day," Carter said. "Last year we lost a bunch of games and guys were down on themselves and it just kind of seemed like there was a really bad vibe and this year everyone's excited, jumping around, having fun."

Tony Sipp (1-0) earned the win by tossing a perfect top of the 10th in relief of Chad Qualls, who served up Miguel Montero's solo homer in the ninth that brought on extra innings.

Chris Owings also homered for the Diamondbacks, with David Peralta ending 3- for-4 with a run scored in defeat.

Carter's leadoff crush job of a J.J. Putz (1-1) fastball also helped the Astros atone for a forgettable ninth inning that began with Montero swatting Qualls' first pitch of the night into the left-center field seats to forge a 4-4 tie.

Houston then put runners on first and third with one out in its portion of the inning, with George Springer following a walk to Marwin Gonzalez with a single off Brad Ziegler. However, Matt Dominguez bounced into a rally-killing around- the-horn double play after Singleton was intentionally walked to load the bases.

How will the Diamondbacks respond from losing in such tough fashion?

"You suck it up," Diamondbacks manager Kirk Gibson said. "You want to -- and you expect to -- win that game. Carter got the home run on us, and they had the last at-bat."

The Diamondbacks trailed 4-1 through five innings of play, but started their comeback in the sixth with aid from Houston starter Scott Feldman. The right- hander hit Didi Gregorius with a pitch and served up a double to Paul Goldschmidt before Corporan couldn't handle a ball in the dirt for a wild pitch that enabled Gregorius to score from third.

Owings pulled Arizona within one an inning later, hammering Feldman's final pitch of the night off the facade in left.

Feldman yielded just four hits and struck out six without a walk over six innings of work, but was touched for three runs -- two earned -- and denied a win when Qualls faltered in the ninth.

Arizona's Wade Miley fanned eight over five innings of work, but surrendered four runs on seven hits.

Miley struggled mightily early on, with Houston loading the bases with none out in the opening inning on a Dexter Fowler single, Jose Altuve's double and a walk to Springer. Singleton followed with a sacrifice fly, but Miley beared down to strike out Dominguez and eventually limit the damage to just one run.

The Diamondbacks drew even when Peralta singled in the third, went all the way to third on Altuve's misplay of a grounder to second, and raced home on a Gregorius sac fly.

Singleton's third homer of his brief big league career -- a no-doubter into the second deck in right -- put Houston back in front in the bottom of the frame, however, and Corporan followed a walk to Robbie Grossman in the fourth with a monster blast to left for a 4-1 advantage.

Game Notes

Qualls came into the contest having thrown 17 2/3 scoreless innings, the third-longest active streak in the American League ... Houston completed just its second-ever series sweep of the Diamondbacks, with the other a two-game set at Arizona from July 21-22, 2004 ... The teams split two meetings at Chase Field prior to Wednesday's matchup ... Fowler finished 3-for-5 for the Astros, who stranded 10 baserunners and went 0-for-6 with men in scoring position.






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