Miley shuts down Astros
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Wade Miley tossed six effective innings on Friday and the Arizona Diamondbacks edged the Houston Astros, 3-1, in the opener of a three-game set at Minute Maid Park.
Miley (13-8) gave up just one run on eight hits with no walks and five strikeouts to snap a personal two-game slide. Brad Ziegler and David Hernandez held down the fort in the seventh and eighth innings and J.J. Putz earned his 24th save of the season with a scoreless ninth inning.
"I felt pretty good, just wasn't locating the fastball early," Miley said. "But I was able to go the offspeed stuff and start throwing my slider for strikes, which helped a lot. I just needed to battle through."
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Chris Young and Paul Goldschmidt smacked an RBI doubles, and Miley was credited with an RBI on a sacrifice bunt for the Diamondbacks, who have won three of their last five games.
Dallas Keuchel (1-5) was tagged with the loss after allowing two runs on four hits with three strikeouts and a pair of walks over 6 2/3 innings. Tyler Greene knocked in the only run of the night for the Astros, who have dropped four of their last five.
Arizona finally broke a scoreless deadlock in the fifth inning with a pair of runs. Gerardo Parra ripped a solid one-out single to left and went first-to- third on a base hit back up the middle by Wil Nieves before scoring easily on a bunt by Miley. Young followed with a double down the line in left to score Nieves.
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"It's frustrating because we kind of conceded that first run with the safety- squeeze," Keuchel said. "It's frustrating to allow that second run to score when we eventually do get the one run."
Houston got a run back in the home portion of the inning to cut the deficit in half. Marwin Gonzalez opened the frame with a double, moved to third on a single by Jose Altuve and scored on a sacrifice fly by Greene.
The Astros threatened in the sixth when Brandon Barnes ripped a two-out single and Jason Castro reached on a dropped third strike, but Miley recovered and fanned Gonzalez to keep the lead intact.
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Arizona picked up an insurance run in the eighth on consecutive doubles by Aaron Hill and Goldschmidt to widen the lead to two.
Houston came back with a threat in the home eighth as Justin Maxwell coaxed a leadoff walk from Hernandez and Ben Francisco followed with a base hit. But Hernandez got Barnes to foul out and Castro to fly out before whiffing pinch-hitter Brian Bogusevic to end the inning.
Putz allowed a two-out single to pinch-hitter Scott Moore in the ninth, but came to strike out Steve Pearce to end the game.
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Game Notes
The Astros fell to 12-19 against left-handed starters this season ... Arizona has won seven consecutive games against the Astros and four straight this season ... It was Altuve's 44th multi-hit game this season ... The Diamondbacks have won five straight and eight of their last nine games at Minute Maid Park ... Houston finished 2-for-11 with runners in scoring position and stranded 11 men on base.