This time around, there were no standing ovations or tribute videos for former manager A.J. Hinch who helped lead the Houston Astros to their first World Series title in 2017.

Hinch felt the love and got the victory in his first appearance at Minute Maid Park in April 2021; he was not so fortunate Thursday night as the Astros defeated the Tigers 3-2 to extend their winning streak to four games which matched their season-high.

Astros second baseman Jose Altuve, who was removed from Wednesday’s game against the Seattle Mariners with right groin soreness, made his presence felt when he hit a home run to left-center field on the first pitch he saw to give Houston a 1-0 lead.

Houston would strike again in the bottom of the fifth inning when rookie shortstop Jeremy Peña hit his sixth home run of the season as the Astros extended their lead to 2-0.

That lead would stand until the ninth inning, with closer Ryan Pressly set to take the mound. Pressly was reinstated earlier in the day from the IL after recovering from right knee inflammation.

After retiring the first two batters, Pressly allowed Tigers designated hitter Miguel Cabrera to get on base with a single. Third baseman Jeimer Candelario was a thorn in the Astros side last season, hitting .409 at Minute Maid Park was down to his final strike before tying the game with a two-run home run on a 1-2 count.

“I had a very poorly executed pitch,” said Pressly about the hanging curveball he threw to Candelario. “There are probably a handful of times that I can count that I have done something like that, and it is frustrating. Especially being the first time out but thank God for Tuck and Yordan and everyone who swung the bat today and bailed me out.”

Pressly’s mistake didn’t worry Astros manager Dusty Baker so much as he knew he had the heart of the batting order coming up in Alvarez, Yuli Gurriel, and Tucker.

That is a lot of pressure on a relief pitcher trying to get all three of those guys who can end the game on one swing, and it almost happened with Alvarez facing Detroit reliever Gregory Soto.

With the count even at 2-2, Alvarez hit a massive 397-foot single. Yes. I said single.

Once Alvarez made contact with the ball, he stood at the plate to admire what he thought was a walk-off home run. As the ball hit just below the yellow line in center field and ricocheted back into the field of play, Alvarez had to hustle to first base as he had not fully gotten into his home run trot around the bases.

“I think I froze a little bit after I hit the ball,” Alvarez said. “I thought the ball was gone. Obviously, that doesn’t justify me not running.”

After being pulled from the game for pinch-runner Chas McCormick, Alvarez immediately went to his manager to apologize for his baserunning error.

“When I took him out for a pinch-[runner], he came to me immediately and he said that he messed up. I said, ‘Yeah, I know,’” Baker said. “Baseball’s a game; like life, it teaches you lessons sometimes. That probably won’t happen again. I’m glad we won the game. We all thought it was gone, but the ball is not gone until it disappears over the fence. Like I said, he learned a lesson. He really would have felt bad had we lost that ballgame. Sometimes, you need your teammates to bail you out.”

His teammates did just that. First baseman Yuli Gurriel drew a walk to advance McCormick to second base, and Tucker hit a walk-off single in between the Tigers’ shift to win the game. It was his second walk-off hit in his career and his first since his walk-off home run against Seattle on Aug. 16, 2020.

“This team is never out of it,” said Tucker during his postgame interview. “Whether we are down by ten in the ninth inning, our offense is phenomenal, and our pitching staff keeps us in games. We feel like we are never out of the game no matter how much we are down. We can always fight back and win.”