Bregman, Urquidy Lift Astros Over Mariners

Meanwhile, Gurriel reached on a hit by pitch before he stole his sixth bag of the season, becoming the second Cuban-born player age-38 or older to do so, per journalist Francys Romero. 

José Urquidy provided 6 2/3 scoreless innings in his final start before the trade deadline. The righty punched out three batters, notching only one inefficient inning in his eighth-straight quality start.

In the third frame, Urquidy surrendered a leadoff single to Adam Frazier before issuing back-to-back walks to Dylan Moore and Julio Rodríguez. Frazier scored on a sacrifice fly which advanced both Moore and Rodríguez, too, while a Santana ground ball brought home Moore a batter later.

Urquidy yielded two runs in his outing on four hits and two walks. The righty entered Thursday with a 2.29 ERA in his six previous starts as he continued an impressive stretch since he dropped his cutter.

Ryan Pressly entered the ninth with a two-run lead and a 30-consecutive-retired-batters streak on the line. The closer recorded two outs to tie him with Justin Verlander — who accomplished the feat in September 2019 — for the longest such streak by an Astros pitcher in team history. Pressly already held the franchise record for a reliever. 

Unfortunately, he will remain tied with Verlander, after he surrendered a two-out single to J.P. Crawford last night. The righty's streak is the longest by a major league reliever since Yusmeiro Petit's 39 straight retired batters for the Giants in 2014.

The Astros improve to 65-35 on the year and return to action at 7:10 p.m. on Friday at Minute Maid Park. Justin Verlander toes the rubber with the 2021 American League Cy Young winner, Robbie Ray.