Hamilton’s home run lifts Angels in the 10th

Josh Hamilton’s home run in the 10th inning gave the Angels a 6-5 win over the Houston Astros on Saturday night at Angel Stadium.

Hamilton’s blast off Astros reliever Josh Fields was his seventh career walk-off hit and his second this season. He also hit a walk-off homer July 6 at Angel Stadium against the Boston Red Sox.

His latest homer came after a play in the ninth inning that illustrated why more instant replay is coming to baseball.

The score was tied 5-5 when Houston’s L.J. Hoes singled to right field and tried to stretch it into a double.

Angels right-fielder Collin Cowgill threw to Erick Aybar, who tried to tag Hoes on the back. Second base umpire Eric Cooper said the tag missed and called Hoes safe.

But then the umpires huddled and ruled that Aybar had, in fact, tagged Hoes out.

Houston Manager Bo Porter argued vehemently, but the Angels got out of the inning unscathed.

The Angels’ scoring was led by Mark Trumbo, who had a solo home run and a two-run triple, and Aybar, who had two run-scoring hits, including a single that scored Mike Trout to make it 5-5 in the seventh inning.

Angels starter Garrett Richards was roughed up by the Astros for five runs and 12 hits in his six-plus innings.

Trumbo hit his home run off Houston starter Dallas Keuchel to deep center field, then drove in Cowgill and Trout with his triple in the third inning. Aybar’s double scored Trumbo.

Houston parlayed four consecutive singles for two runs against Richards in its half of the third inning.

In the fifth inning, after Brett Wallace hit a two-run homer to tie the score 4-4, Jose Altuve singled and Chris Carter hit a deep fly ball that Cowgill appeared set to catch on the run.

But Cowgill apparently lost the ball in the lights because it sailed over his head, Altuve scored and Houston took the lead.

Green looking good

Injuries to the Angels’ Howie Kendrick and others are giving some young Angels a chance to show what they’ve got at the big league level.

Rookie Grant Green, for instance, has been hitting well while filling in for Kendrick at second base.

Entering Saturday’s game, the 25-year-old Green was batting .433 (13 for 30) in 10 games overall since he was acquired in the July 30 trade that sent Alberto Callaspo to the Oakland Athletics. Green was hitless in four at-bats Saturday.

“I don’t feel like I’m in a groove where the ball is looking like a beach ball right now, but in the same sense I’m getting more [at-bats] ... and able to settle into a new organization,” he said.

“The guys here have made the transition really easy,” Green said.

Born in Fullerton, Green was a standout at Canyon High in Anaheim and then USC.

While a junior at USC, he signed with Oakland after the club chose him in the first round of the 2009 amateur draft.

As a kid “the only games we ever came to were Angels games,” but “I was a huge Giants fan, actually, growing up,” he said. “My dad was a Giants fan.”

Green’s mom, meanwhile, is from Ohio and loved the Cincinnati Reds, so Grant said he also became a fan of all-time hits leader Pete Rose, even though Rose’s playing days ended the year before Green was born.

It stems from “how he always hustled and always played the game the right way,” Green said of Rose. “You see that as a young kid and so you know that’s what you need to do.”

But the Angels players Green watched as a kid also left an impression.

Green really wants to meet J.T. Snow, who played for the Angels and Giants. “If I was able to meet him, it would be awesome,” Green said. “I may not be able to even speak my name.”

Trout out as MVP?

It might be a moot point given how well Miguel Cabrera of the Detroit Tigers is batting this season, but Scioscia acknowledged that the Angels’ poor play might not help Mike Trout win the American League most-valuable-player award.

Cabrera topped the 22-year-old Trout for the award last year, and the Angels’ struggles this year “might work against Mike a little bit,” Scioscia said.

“But, I mean, Cabrera’s having an incredible year,” Scioscia said. “He’s earning [the award] too.”

Entering Saturday’s play, Cabrera had the AL’s highest batting average at .358 and Trout was second at .330.

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james.peltz@latimes.com

Twitter: @PeltzLATimes

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Not best in West

The Angels have struggled against AL West opponents this season.

*--* Opponent Angels record Texas 2-10 167 Oakland 4-9 308 Seattle 6-7 462 Houston 7-8 467 AL West 19-34 358 All others 36-33 522 *--*