Pence, Lee power Astros past Giants

Hunter Pence got the Houston Astros into position to win and Carlos Lee finished the job.

Lee hit a home run, his second of the game, in the 10th inning against Jonathan Sanchez to lift the Astros to a 6-5 victory over the San Francisco Giants on Tuesday night.

The Giants rallied from a 3-0 deficit to take a 5-3 lead into the bottom of the eighth, but Pence tied it with a two-run drive against Armando Benitez. Lee then won it with his ninth home run.

“We know what we have in this clubhouse is the ability to do a lot of damage and score a lot of runs,” Lee said. “So we expect to score runs every day and do good every day.”

Barry Bonds was hitless in two at-bats with two walks for the Giants and remained at 745 homers, 10 shy of Hank Aaron’s all-time record. He hasn’t homered in Houston since opening day in 2004.

Lee finished four for four, scored four runs and finished with two runs batted in, and Pence was three for three with three RBIs to help the Astros win for the ninth time in 13 games. It was Houston’s eighth come-from-behind win.

“It’s a huge win. Those build momentum,” said Pence, who has 12 RBIs in his last nine games. “For the team to come back from being down after we jumped out to a lead shows some character.”