(Photo credit: Bill Streicher)

Cam Smith hit a tiebreaking homer off Jhoan Duran in the ninth inning to lift the visiting Houston Astros to a 2-1 victory over the Philadelphia Phillies on Thursday.

Smith homered in every game of the series, helping Houston (75-72) win two of three against Philadelphia (82-65). Cristian Javier gave up one run and three hits in six innings for the Astros, who moved 2 1/2 games up on the second-place Texas Rangers in the American League West. Texas plays later Thursday.

Zack Wheeler tossed seven strong frames for Philadelphia, allowing one run and five hits with nine strikeouts. The Phillies dropped four games behind the first-place Atlanta Braves in the National League East and now head to Atlanta for a three-game set this weekend.

Smith jumped on a first-pitch splitter from Duran (2-6) for the decisive blast, a 421-footer to center field. Prior to his homer barrage in Philadelphia, Smith had not gone deep since Aug. 18.

Houston took a 1-0 lead in the second inning when Christian Walker singled with one out and scored on a two-out double by Taylor Trammell.

That was the only run scored in the early going, as Philadelphia did not even manage a hit against Javier until the fifth inning. It was a bit of deja vu for the Phillies, who were no-hit by the Astros in Game 4 of the 2022 World Series, with Javier logging the first six frames in that contest.

After Luis Arraez broke up the no-hit bid with a leadoff single in the fifth, Alec Bohm doubled to put two runners in scoring position. Bryson Stott followed with a grounder to plate Arraez, but Bohm was thrown out at third on the play, and Brandon Marsh grounded into a double play, squashing the Phillies' rally.

Wheeler struck out the side in the sixth and got through the seventh before Philadelphia turned to Jose Alvarado, who survived a rocky eighth.

Houston's Bryan Abreu (6-3) then struck out all three hitters he faced in the bottom half, setting the stage for Smith's heroics. Josh Hader had no issues in the ninth en route to his 25th save.

--Field Level Media