HOUSTON -- When Chris Carter stepped up to the plate with the game tied in the 10th inning, Houston manager Bo Porter wasnt thinking about his sub-. Nike Shoes Outlet China .200 batting average and the fact that he had struck out twice Thursday night. The only thing on Porters mind was Carters penchant for changing a game with one swing. "He has the ability that when he steps into the batters box hes in scoring position," Porter said. Carter homered leading off the bottom of the 10th inning to give the Astros a 5-4 victory over the Arizona Diamondbacks. Carter, who homered twice on Wednesday, hit his 13th homer of the season into the Crawford Boxes in left field off J.J. Putz (1-1). "We found out again tonight why we keep running him out there," Porter said of Carter, who has had an up-and-down year and is hitting just .199. There was no doubt about the second game-ending homer of his career. "As soon as I hit it I knew it was going to be out and started celebrating almost in the box," he said. Putz lamented the pitch he threw to Carter. "He put a pretty good swing on it," Putz said. "Theres nothing else to say. I just didnt make the right pitch, I guess." Miguel Montero tied it at 4-4 in the ninth with a home run to left field on the first pitch from closer Chad Qualls. It was a game that last years Houston team would have almost certainly lost. But players and staff alike agree that things are finally starting to turn around for this team that has lost 100-plus games in three straight seasons. "Its been real exciting compared to last year, its like night and day," Carter said. "Last year we lost a bunch of games and guys were down on themselves and it just kind of seemed like there was a really bad vibe and this year everyones excited, jumping around, having fun." Carlos Corporan had a two-run home run and Jon Singleton homered and drove in two runs for the Astros (31-37), who have won six of their last eight games. Tony Sipp (1-0) struck out one in a scoreless 10th for the win. Singleton drove in a run with a sacrifice fly in the first inning and broke a 1-all tie with his solo shot to right field in the third. Corporan extended Houstons lead to 4-1 with his home run to left field in the fourth. Chris Owings hit a solo homer to get Arizona within 4-3 in the seventh inning. Houston second baseman Jose Altuve was hit on the right hand by a pitch in the seventh inning. X-rays were negative and he is listed as day-to-day. David Peralta singled for Arizonas first hit with one out in the third inning. Ender Inciarte reached on an error by Altuve that left Peralta at third and he scored on a sacrifice fly by Didi Gregorius to tie it at 1-1. Enciarte was shaken up in that inning when he took a knee to the head from Jonathan Villar while stealing second base. He remained in the game but was replaced by Cody Ross in the bottom of the sixth as a precaution. Springer had two nifty defensive plays. The first one came when he sprinted from right field to centre and dived to make the catch on a ball hit by Owings for the first out of the fifth. Springer made another excellent diving catch on a fly ball by Martin Prado to start a double play to end the eighth. Paul Goldschimdt was on second and had almost reached home when Springer caught it, allowing Villar to step on second base to end the inning. The Astros celebrated "Drake Day" on Thursday with the Grammy Award-winning rapper attending the game and talking to students from the Astros Urban Youth Academy before the game. Each player came up to bat to music by the rapper and Singleton chose the tune "All Me." Seconds after the music trailed off with one out in the third inning, Singleton caught all of a 90 mph fastball from Wade Miley and launched a towering homer into the second deck in right field to give Houston a 2-1 lead. NOTES: The Diamondbacks acquired INF/C Jordan Pacheco from the Rockies and designated INF/OF Nick Evans for assignment before the game. ... Arizona manager Kirk Gibson said he doesnt expect OF Mark Trumbo, who has been out since April 22 with a stress fracture in his left foot, to return to full baseball activities for at least three more weeks. Nike Shoes Cheap Online . -- Arizona pitcher Bronson Arroyo is expected to miss a week to 10 days because of a back injury. Nike Shoes Cheap . - Alex Dostie scored two goals and assisted on another to lead the Gatineau Olympiques to a 5-3 victory over the Drummondville Voltigeurs in Quebec Major Junior Hockey League action on Sunday. http://www.nikeshoescheapchina.com/ .Bekker was added Wednesday in exchange for allocation money after two seasons with Toronto. The native of Canada had 29 MLS appearances, including 16 starts. Hes also played in 13 games for the Canadian national team. SHEFFIELD, England -- Italys Vincenzo Nibali displayed his riding smarts at the Tour de France, winning Stage 2 on Sunday and taking the yellow jersey after a well-choreographed attack on rivals in the postindustrial English city known for "The Full Monty." The Astana team leader nicknamed "The Shark" for his road savvy took the final lead in a cycling dance of sorts with other title hopefuls, who took turns in front in the last stretch through a sea of fans from York to Sheffield. Nibali perhaps had more at stake: The 29-year-old rider has won the Italian Giro and Spains Vuelta, but has never captured cyclings showcase event. The victory on Sunday gave him both his first Tour stage win and yellow jersey, and sent a message that he could contend to take it home from Paris in three weeks. With less than two kilometres left, Nibali escaped a 21-man breakaway bunch at the end of the 201-kilometre course over nine heath-covered hills of Yorkshire, and held off their late surge. England is hosting the first three Tour stages this year. GERMAN LOSES YELLOW JERSEY Marcel Kittel, a powerful German sprinter who often struggles on climbs, trailed nearly 20 minutes back and lost the yellow jersey that he had captured by winning Stage 1. While the Italian won the fight to the line, under the shadow of a black Sheffield Forgemasters tower, defending champion Chris Froome of Britain and two-time winner Alberto Contador of Spain are focusing more on the overall race -- which ends July 27 on Paris Champs-Elysees. Overall, Nibali leads 20 other riders by two seconds, including Froome in fifth place and Contador in eighth. A six-man breakaway bunch tried its chances early, but got swallowed up by the pack with less than 40 kilometres left. Then, the big race stars moved to the front, splitting the pack. Contador, Froome, and Americans Andrew Talansky and Tejay van Garderen all spent time at the front. At times, they mustered bursts of speed or zipped across with width of the road in tactical manoeuvrs. "In the finale, a lot of contenders were making moves: Nibali ended up taking two seconds on us," Froome said. "Its not a big margin. For me, it was about staying out of trouble to stay at the front, and avoiding any major issues or splits. "Im tired, but I hope everyones tired after a day like today." TIME TO WORK, ASTANA Dave Brailsford,, boss of Froomes Team Sky, said the leaders actually "were all hesitant, because nobody wanted the jersey. Nike Shoes Cheap Wholesale. " In the cycling playbook, the yellow shirt brings both glory and responsibility. Brailsford said: "Astana will have to now defend it, which is pretty good for anybody else. "Perfect. Theyve got to work." Nibali didnt dare claim he might keep it all the way to Paris, saying "the Tour de France doesnt stop here: We have three weeks to go, and very tough and tricky stages lie ahead." Mondays stage should be a far less grueling ride: Riders cover 155 kilometres from Cambridge to London, where the pack will finish on the Mall not far from Big Ben and Westminster Abbey. CROWDS FOR A CLASSIC STAGE The course Sunday resembled that of historic one-day races known as "classics," which often feature hilly terrain. Michael Rodgers, an Australian on Contadors Tinkoff-Saxo Bank team, called it "a bit of a special stage, like the Amstel Gold Race, but with 20 times the people." New roads for cyclings greatest race also mean new audiences, some of whom are so enthusiastic and eager for a selfie with the pack that they might not realize the hazards of getting too close to the riders as they go by. Untold thousands turned out just hours after one of the biggest British stars in the race, Mark Cavendish, dropped out because of pain from a separated right shoulder sustained in a crash Saturday. "There are thousands and thousands of people. Its great but its also dangerous," Contador said. Race officials say millions of fans have flooded the course route in just the first two stages. While Yorkshire doesnt have ascents on a par with the Alps or Pyrenees in France, riders faced nine low- to mid-grade climbs. The hardest was the Holme Moss pass. The steepest was also the shortest: The 800-meter Jenkin Road pass had an average gradient of 10.8 per cent. Several riders crashed. Simon Gerrans, who went down with Cavendish in Saturdays stage, also spilled -- as did van Garderen and Joachim Rodriguez, the third-place finisher in the 2013 Tour. All recovered to finish the stage. On the up-and-down, picturesque course, the 197-rider peloton scaled a narrow, cobblestone hill in Haworth, where the Bronte sisters -- the famed 19th-century novelists -- lived when their father was parson in the town. ' ' '