NEW YORK -- Dallas Keuchel made plenty of good pitches Thursday night, but the most significant throw for the Houston Astros belonged to left fielder Jake Marisnick.

Keuchel pitched six strong innings and remained unbeaten when Marisnick threw out Jacoby Ellsbury at the plate for the final out of Houston's 3-2 victory over the New York Yankees.

The Yankees had runners at second and third with two outs in the ninth after Ellsbury singled and stole second against Ken Giles.

Three pitches later, Gary Sanchez hit a sharply hit ground ball to left field.

Marisnick charged in a few steps and made a strong throw in one motion to catcher Brian McCann. Standing to the left of the base line, McCann leaned over and applied the tag on Ellsbury's right arm just as the New York center fielder approached the plate.

"It was coming out there pretty good and I had a chance to kind of take my time with it," said Marisnick, who was a defensive replacement in the seventh. "That's the biggest thing, not to rush it and I was able to take my time with it."

"When the ball was hit, I had a high degree of confidence just because he was playing a little bit in and the ball was hit pretty hard," Houston manager A.J. Hinch said. "He was going to charge the ball, he was going to make a pretty good throw. There's a lot that has to happen for it to go right but Marisnick brings his defense to the ballpark every day."

Keuchel (6-0) allowed an unearned run on five hits and tied a season high with nine strikeouts. He became the first six-game winner in the majors and improved to 5-2 against the Yankees, but it was not secure until Marisnick's game-ending assist.

"It almost seemed like he just took his time, knew he was going to make a good throw and put the throw on the money," Keuchel said.

Keuchel's latest strong showing against the Yankees and Marisnick's throw helped the Astros win their fourth straight and improve to 9-2 in their last 11 games. It also gave Houston (23-12) its best 35-game start in team history.

"Right on the money, you couldn't ask for a better throw," McCann said.

Said Yankees manager Joe Girardi: "That's the right call and he made the perfect throw."

Before Marisnick's game-ending throw, Carlos Correa hit a two-run homer in the first inning and George Springer hit an RBI single in the fifth off Michael Pineda (3-2). Those hits gave Keuchel a 3-0 lead and then he worked out of his most significant threats of the night.

The left-hander threw 55 pitches in the fifth and sixth and only allowed a run on Ellsbury reaching via catcher's interference for the 28th time in the fifth. After Ellsbury reached, Keuchel retired Sanchez on a groundout.

Keuchel opened the sixth by allowing consecutive singles to Matt Holliday and Starlin Castro. With runners at first and third, he used his breaking pitches to strike out Aaron Judge, Chase Headley and Didi Gregorius.

The inability to hit Keuchel and Marisnick's game-ending play gave the Yankees (21-11) only their seventh loss in the last 27 games.

"We just never really got that one big hit," Girardi said. "We had a couple of chances off him."

Pineda allowed three runs and six hits in 6 2/3 innings and lost for the first time in six starts.

NOTES: DH Carlos Beltran and C Brian McCann received applause from fans before their first at-bats. Beltran and McCann were part of New York's free-agent spending spree in the 2013 offseason after 2B Robinson Cano signed with the Seattle Mariners. ... The Yankees recalled RHP Giovanny Gallegos from Triple-A Scranton/Wilkes Barre. ... Houston OF Teoscar Hernandez (left knee contusion) and RHP David Paulino (right forearm tightness) began rehab assignments with Triple-A Fresno, which had a delayed start at Oklahoma City. ... New York 1B Greg Bird (right ankle contusion) met with team physician Dr. Chris Ahmad and was not cleared to begin baseball activities. He was placed on the disabled list May 2.