None of that mattered for the first six innings. Houston jumped on Taillon early and looked like it was cruising toward a series win behind Brown, who came in hot off his last outing against Texas.
The Astros put up 3 runs in the 3rd and made it hold up until Toronto finally broke through with a 3-run 6th to tie it. The two clubs traded zeroes through the 7th and 8th before the finale turned into a track meet — Toronto pushed across 2 in the 9th, and even after Houston clawed one back in the bottom half, it wasn't enough.
Houston actually out-hit Toronto 10-5 and still lost, the kind of game that should sting more given they're the ones sitting atop the AL West. An error didn't help matters, and for a team that's been stacking wins lately, dropping a series finale to a sub-.500 club is the sort of loss that lingers.
Toronto, for its part, is still a long way from meaningful October relevance at 53-61, but stealing a rubber match in Houston is exactly the kind of game a club chasing a wild-card spot needs to bank while it waits for its rotation to heal up.