Walk-off ending turns frustration into celebration

HOUSTON — To win a game in which you left 17 runners on base, including eight through the first three innings, went 2-for-15 with runners in scoring position and then later went eight consecutive innings without getting a base hit is as unlikely as it gets for the Astros.

And, oh, what fun they had.

A game of missed chances and offensive frustration turned into a party when Marwin Gonzalez lined the first pitch he saw from Cody Anderson into the right-field seats in the 16th inning for a two-run walk-off homer and a 5-3 win over the Indians at Minute Maid Park.

“Now that it’s over and we won, it would have been deflating just given the opportunities we created for ourselves [if we had lost],” Astros manager A.J. Hinch said. “As much as we didn’t come through early against [Indians starter Danny] Salazar, who has good stuff and is one of the better evolving pitchers in the American League, we kept giving ourselves more and more opportunities. We got through their whole bullpen to where they had to bring a starter in who was going to pitch later this weekend. In that regard, I felt like our guys hung in there.”

It was the first time …

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