Mauricio Dubon homers twice as Astros hold off Angels

Mauricio Dubon hit two home runs and drove in three runs and Jeremy Pena homered, doubled and scored twice to lead the Houston Astros to an 8-7 victory over the Los Angeles Angels in the rubber game of their three-game series on Sunday afternoon in Anaheim, Calif.
It was the second multi-home run game of Dubon’s career. Jake Meyers had two hits, two stolen bases, on run scored and an RBI, and Christian Walker doubled and had two hits and an RBI for Houston, which won for the ninth time in the last 12 games.
Ryan Gusto (5-3) picked up the win, allowing five runs on six hits over six innings while striking out seven without a walk. Josh Hader, despite allowing a leadoff homer to Zach Neto to open the bottom of the ninth, garnered his 19th save in 19 tries.
Nolan Schanuel went 3-for-5 with a home run, double and four RBIs, Neto and Logan O’Hoppe also homered and LaMonte Wade Jr. went 2-for-3 with a walk and run scored for Los Angeles. Hunter Strickland (1-2) suffered the loss, allowing three runs on three hits and two walks in one inning of relief.
Los Angeles took a 2-0 lead in the fourth inning when O’Hoppe lined a two-run home run to left, driving in Taylor Ward, who had doubled. It was the third homer in two games for O’Hoppe and also his 17th of the season, the most by an Angels catcher before the All-Star break in franchise history.
Houston rebounded to take a 4-2 lead in the fifth on solo homers by Dubon and Pena, a two-out fielding error by third baseman Luis Rengifo that allowed Meyers to score, and Walker’s RBI double.
The Angels regained the lead, 5-4, in the bottom of the fifth on Schanuel’s sixth home run, a three-run blast to right.
The Astros answered with their second consecutive four-run inning in the sixth to take an 8-5 lead highlighted by a two-run homer by Dubon, an RBI double by Pena and a sacrifice fly by Meyers.
Los Angeles closed to 8-6 in the seventh on an RBI single by Schanuel. The Angels had two runners on base with two out, but reliever Bryan Abreu came in and ended the threat by striking out Mike Trout on three straight sliders.
Neto led off the bottom of the ninth against Hader with his first career pinch-hit homer down the left field line. After Christian Moore and Rengifo struck out, Schanuel lined a double off the bottom of the fence in right-center, but Hader rebounded to get Trout to line out to center to end the game.