Arizona Diamondbacks vs Houston Astros Match Player Stats On Sep 18, 2020

Kole Calhoun recorded his second multi-homer game of the week to support a quality start from Zac Gallen as the Arizona Diamondbacks rallied for a 6-3 win over the host Houston Astros on Friday.

Calhoun bashed a three-run homer into the upper deck in right field off right-hander Zack Greinke in the fourth inning to allow the Diamondbacks (20-32) to erase a 2-0 deficit.

Calhoun entered play with a .579 career average against Greinke, the best for any hitter with a minimum of 15 plate appearances against the six-time All-Star and 2009 American League Cy Young Award winner.

In the eighth inning, Calhoun added his 14th home run of the season, a solo shot off left-hander Blake Taylor that just cleared the outstretched glove of Astros right fielder Josh Reddick. Calhoun produced a multi-homer game against his former club, the Los Angeles Angels, on Tuesday, and he has slugged five home runs over his past four games.

Gallen (2-2) set the tone for his solid outing by allowing just one unearned run in the bottom of the first despite the Astros loading the bases with no outs. Gallen uncorked a wild pitch that enabled George Springer, who twice reached on fielding errors, to score the first run of the game. But Gallen recovered to strike out Alex Bregman, Kyle Tucker and Yuli Gurriel to limit the damage.

Tucker added a double in the third inning that scored Jose Altuve, and Springer launched a 415-foot homer to left, his 11th, leading off the fifth, but Gallen proved effective. He limited the Astros to three runs (one earned) on six hits and one walk with six strikeouts over six innings.

Greinke needed 89 pitches to complete five innings but matched his season high of nine strikeouts in his first 2020 start against the club that traded him to Houston in exchange for four players on July 31, 2019. He gave up three runs on six hits and no walks.

Arizona's Pavin Smith added an RBI triple off Luis Garcia (0-1) and scored on a wild pitch in the seventh inning. Three Diamondbacks relievers muzzled the Astros (25-26), with Stefan Crichton throwing a 1-2-3 ninth inning for his fourth save.

Arizona is 3-1 against the Astros this season.

--Field Level Media