Now for the meat of the evening's game: the 'Stros were three outs away from adding to a milestone 2022 season when the team entered the top of the ninth inning without giving up a hit the rest of the game.
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Justin Verlander's five and 1/3 innings of work served as the foundation piece to a potential combined no-hit game the night before the regular season finale on Wednesday.
The video above is from a July 2022 stream discussing the Astros' second-half outlook.
Midseason call-up Hunter Brown, who cites Verlander as one of his heroes, relieved JV and delivered a dominant two and 1/3 innings.
Hector Neris then finished up the eighth inning for Brown, getting two outs and setting up midseason trade acquisition Will Smith to complete history.
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But it was Phillies' catcher and former Astro, Garrett Stubbs, making contact on a slider to send a single to right center and put out the fire of a historic outing.
Smith gave up two more hits but still collected the three outs to close out a shutout game for Houston.
Verlander, who already has a nine-inning, no-hit game under his belt with the Astros, still made history. He moved up to 12th all-time in strikeouts thrown after fanning 10 Phillies batters.
Houston can already leave the regular season behind with a few pitching milestones, including a second combined no-hitter of the Yankees, two immaculate innings in one game, and the first All-Star Game winning decision for an Astros pitcher.
The Astros and Phillies meet again for game No. 162 on Wednesday at 3:10 p.m. Houston then waits for the winner of the Seattle-Toronto wild card matchup before the start of the American League Division Series next Tuesday.