Rockies hang on, beat Astros behind Thairo Estrada's big day

Patrick Saunders, The Denver Post on Jul 3, 2025

Published in Baseball

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DENVER — The Colorado Rockies flipped the script.

Thursday afternoon’s game was the kind they have lost so many times this year. And last year. And the year before that.

But they got the key hits in the key moments and beat Houston, 7-6, at Coors Field.

Of course, Houston made the game interesting in the ninth against closer Seth Halvorsen. Jake Meyers led off with a triple to the right-field corner and scored on Jose Altuve’s groundout to short, cutting the lead to one run. Halvorsen struck out Cam Smith for out No. 2, but Christian Walker and catcher Victor Caratini hit back-to-back, two-out singles.

With the game in the balance, Cooper Hummel flew out to right fielder Tyler Freeman and Halvorsen breathed a sigh of relief and got his seventh save.

The Rockies looked like they were going to follow a tired storyline in the seventh.

Freeman, who extended his career-high on-base streak to 18 games, reached on a single, and pinch-hitter Mickey Moniak roped a triple to Hummel in left. But Freeman, running from first, was cut down at the plate for the second out. A video review showed that catcher Caratini’s swipe tag got Freeman just before his hand touched the plate.

Rather than buckle, Colorado left fielder Jordan Beck hit a two-out single to score Moniak, then Beck stole second. He was rewarded by Thairo Estrada’s RBI single to shallow left-center.

Houston had tied the game, 5-5, in the top of the seventh against reliever Juan Mejia, though Mejia was hardly to blame. Issac Paredes scooted a one-out single past shortstop Ryan Ritter and Altuve looped a hit to Beck in left field, who dove for the ball and came up empty, giving Altuve a double.

Mejia got Smith to hit a fly-ball to shallow left-center for what should have been the final out, except that the ball dropped between Beck and center fielder Brenton Doyle, who appeared to miscommunicate, and rolled beyond them, giving Smith a two-out triple.

Estrada, who boosted his average to .317, went 3 for 4. He tied the game, 2-2, with a two-run homer to left off Astros left-hander Brandon Walter in the first. Estrada’s infield grounder scored Kyle Farmer to put Colorado in front, 3-2, in the third.

Starter Kyle Freeland’s luck was plain rotten in the Astros’ two-run first inning. Meyers reached on a one-out infield single to third, Altuve blooped a single to left, and Smith barely got his bat on the ball but squibbed a two-run double down the first-base line.

Freeland issued a leadoff walk to Hummel in the second, and it came back to haunt the lefty when Issac Paredes ripped an RBI double to right, giving Houston a short-lived, 3-2 lead.

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