Houston — Trey Sweeney addressed the issue before the game and he stood in front of the cameras and microphones again afterward, as unpleasant as the questions certainly were.

“They were both routine plays,” he said, after his back-to-back throwing errors in the seventh inning helped the Houston Astros secure an 8-5 win over the Tigers in the first of three at Daikin Park Monday night. “I hurt the team there. But I’m going to get better at it and keep working. But those plays definitely need to be made.”

The Astros took a 4-3 lead into the seventh. A pair of two-run home runs off starter Jack Flaherty — by Christian Walker and Jose Altuve — had erased the Tigers’ early 3-0 lead. Right-hander reliever and ground ball inducer Brenan Hanifee was on the mound, and Yainer Diaz short-hopped Sweeney.

Sweeney was flat-footed when he picked the ball and his throw pulled first baseman Spencer Torkelson off the bag. Hanifee got the next hitter, Cam Smith, to hit was looked like a sure double-play ball. Sweeney’s throw went into right field.

“Anytime something like that happens, it’s rough,” manager AJ Hinch said. “But when it happens at the beginning of an inning, it creates a lot of momentum for them and then they got some big hits as the inning went along.”

Both of those runners scored on a bloop single by Mauricio Dubon and the Astros ended up scoring four unearned runs.

BOX SCORE: Astros 8, Tigers 5

MLB STANDINGS

Sweeney, who had two throwing errors during the just-completed homestand and several other errant throws that Torkelson rescued, was asked before the game if he was dealing with any arm soreness.

“No,” he said. “I just made a few bad throws. I’m all good. The arm gets sore throughout the year but no excuses with my arm.”

The first throwing error Monday, on Diaz, was a tough play. He never had time to set himself after fielding the short hop. The second one, a short routine throw to second, was completely sprayed.

“Same thing, I just rushed it,” Sweeney said. “Just a bad grip and I threw it away. I waited back on both of them and obviously, that was the wrong thing. And we still had a chance to make a good throw. Just didn’t.

“I should’ve made both plays to keep them at four runs and that ended up costing us at the end.”

Throwing issues have not been a problem for Sweeney and for that reason, he was asked if it was becoming a mental issue.

“We play a lot of games,” he said. “And we do this every day. So just keep showing up for work and give it everything I got. I just have to get through it, keep working hard.”

For Flaherty, it was a case of the third-time-through-the-order blues.

In a relatively small sample size, his first five starts, opponents had an .807 OPS against him the third time through the order and an .872 OPS in pitches 76 through 100, with two doubles and two homers. Last season, in a larger sample, opponents seeing Flaherty a third time also had an .807 OPS with eight homers.

Flaherty brought a 3-2 lead into the bottom of the sixth and Jeremy Pena opened the inning with a sharp single to right.

Altuve followed, launching a 93-mph fastball over the high wall in left.

“It’s not something I really worry about,” Flaherty said of the third time through stats. “Each game is different. I’ve done a poor job in the sixth inning at times and I’ve also done a good job in a couple and gotten taken out. I think it depends on how you look at it.

“(Hinch) gave me a chance to go through the lineup. He knows I will figure it out.”

It was a rough ending to what was looking like another quality start for Flaherty.

Against an Astros lineup stocked with eight right-handed hitters, he deftly used his four-seam fastball and knuckle-curveball to keep the hitters off balance.

His disposition changed, though, in the fourth. He got two quick outs and was ahead of former Tiger Isaac Paredes 1-2. He ended up walking Paredes, spraying three straight pitches.

He was visibly upset and catcher Dillon Dingler used a mound visit to settle him down. Apparently, Flaherty threw a waste pitch, not realizing the count was even, 2-2.

“Walks are walks, you hate them,” Flaherty said. “Also, that’s two times now that I forgot the count. I don’t know what’s going on there.”

The next hitter was a slumping Walker. Again, Flaherty got ahead 1-2 but couldn’t put him away. After missing with two straight curveballs, he challenged him with a 3-2 fastball.

Walker smoked it. The ball left his bat at 105.7 mph and soared 399 feet off the signage just under the train tracks that run above the left field wall.

“It looked like Jack was in a pretty good place,” Hinch said. “There were some times when he had his spin and then he had a good fastball. They were sitting spin quite a bit. The pitch to Walker is one I know he’d want back. He got beat by a couple of mistakes, but generally, I thought he was in control of the game and a pitch or two got away.”

The Tigers flashed some oppo power to build a 3-0 lead against Astros’ right-hander Ronel Blanco.

In the third inning with a runner at first and two outs, lefty-swinging Kerry Carpenter worked a full-count and swatted a 94-mph fastball on a majestic arc over the high wall in left-center field.

It was his 50th career homer, the sixth this season.

Greene hit one in almost the same spot in the fourth and hit another into the Crawford boxes in left field in the eighth, a two-run shot.

“It’s just approach and where the pitches are,” Carpenter said of the opposite-field homers. “I think when we’re both driving the ball backside like that, it’s a good feeling and it’s a good spot for our swing and our approach.”

Greene, who went a stretch of 76 plate appearances without a homer earlier this month, now has hit three in three games and has six on the year.

“I thought we played a good game for the most part,” Carpenter said. “A couple of plays, a couple of pitches here and there — that’s kind of how baseball goes. Nothing to hang our heads about. It’s something we can control better the next time. We will get back at it tomorrow.”