Astros' shot at 2nd no-hit game of 2022 broken up with 3 outs left, but Houston shuts out Phillies

HOUSTON, Texas (KTRK) -- First, thing's first: the Houston Astros dominated the Philadelphia Philles on Tuesday night, scoring 10 runs on 17 hits.

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.

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.

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.