Astros buck ugly trends as they end lengthy losing streak vs. Yankees

While the Houston Astros have owned the New York Yankees when it matters most, sending the Bronx Bombers packing all four times they've met in the playoffs, this success hasn't translated to the regular season as of late.

The Astros entered Thursday evening at Yankee Stadium riding a nine-game losing streak against New York, which was on the verge of sweeping them for the third straight time. Houston bucked that ugly trend, along with a few others, with a 4-3 win to close out the series.

This marked a rare win in a one-run game for the Astros, who are now 2-9 in such scenarios this season. The way they secured the victory should spur optimism moving forward as Houston heads into an opportunity to make up ground in the playoff race, with just one current division leader on the schedule between now and late June.

The Astros led wire-to-wire after Kyle Tucker and Jon Singleton put them up 3-0 with home runs in the top of the first, but the Yankees threatened throughout, cutting the gap to one with a two-run homer by Anthony Volpe in the third and again on a solo shot by Aaron Judge in the eighth. Astros shortstop Jeremy Peña drove in Alvarez in the fifth on what proved to be a pivotal RBI single.

Houston's bullpen—which has been shaky for much of the season, ranking in the bottom five of the AL in ERA and dead-last in saves—rose to the occasion on Thursday. The Astros gave up two hits after Ronel Blanco exited the mound in the bottom of the sixth, with Bryan Abreu delivering 1 1/3 innings of no-hit baseball with three strikeouts to start things off. Ryan Pressly ran into a bit of trouble in the eighth, allowing a one-out homer to Judge and walking Alex Verdugo in consecutive at-bats. But he struck out prodigious slugger Giancarlo Stanton for the second out, and closer Josh Hader proceeded to pop up fellow lefty Anthony Rizzo to escape the inning.

Hader encountered a bit of drama in the ninth, with Gleyber Torres smacking a leadoff single and advancing to second on the first out of the inning. Hader stranded the tying run in scoring position, flying out Jose Trevino before inducing a swinging strikeout from Volpe to seal the win.

The Astros also received a promising performance from Alex Bregman, who entered the day batting .189 on the season. Bregman went 2 for 4, marking just his third multi-hit game since April 15.

Houston will return to action on Friday as it begins a three-game series in Detroit.