None of that mattered once Houston's bats got going. A three-run third inning, capped by Yainer Diaz's homer, did the heavy lifting, and Javier — shaky ERA and all — tied a season high with 8 strikeouts across 5 innings to make it stand up.
Kelly wasn't sharp the way he'd been in his previous turn against San Francisco. He allowed 3 runs on 7 hits over 6 innings, and Arizona's only answer came on a solo homer from Gabriel Moreno in the fourth. Houston's bullpen took it from there and didn't blink, finishing off a 3-1 win that pushed the Astros to a season-high mark over .500.
Zoom out and the shape of both rosters explains a lot about how this one went. Houston has won 2 straight and taken 3 of the first 4 games from the White Sox, the kind of stretch that papers over a rough turn from Javier. Arizona is still waiting on reinforcements — Burnes is targeting a return in the upcoming Royals series, with Gallen not far behind — and until that group is actually back on a mound, nights like this one are the cost of running a rotation this thin.
The Polymarket chat room was buzzing through that third-inning outburst, and the busiest stretch of the night lined up right with it. One poster, holding Arizona, admitted "Should I take the L," while another just wanted the offense to show up: "Give me the damn bat smh." For a Diamondbacks team already down four starters, this loss was another reminder of how thin the margin for error has gotten.