Winning Streak Becomes Dustin the Wind, as Moseley and Padres Defeat Astros 3-1

San Diego native Ron Burgundy once said, "Everyone just relax, all right? Believe me, if there's one thing Ron Burgundy knows, it's women."

The same could be said for J.A. Happ about his knowledge of the Padres, who entered the game with a 1-1 record and a 2.12 E.R.A in his career versus the Padres.

With the Astros on a 4 game winning streak and my roommate finding a place that sells Dunkaroos, I don’t know what was more exciting today.  It would only take an Astros’ victory to make this day perfect.

J.A. Happ took the mound looking to extend the winning streak versus the luckless Dustin Moseley, who entered the game with a very respectable 3.18 E.R.A., but a 1-6 record because of low run support.  Moseley entered the game with a 0-1 record with a career E.R.A. of 3.52 versus the Astros.

Hits came early in the game, but nothing materialized into a run. For example, Chris Johnson led off the 2^nd with a leadoff triple after ignoring Dave Clark’s sign, but got left on base. Then Michael Bourn led off the 3^rd with a single and got to third, but nothing materialized. San Diego was also able to hit the ball, but like the Astros had trouble scoring.

The scoring trouble continued until the 4^th when Chris Johnson hit his 2^nd triple of the game with 1 out. This was followed by J.R. Towles’s squeeze bunt which scored Chris Johnson and made the score 1-0. Bud Black got ejected by the home plate umpire after Happ’s foul ball.

Unfortunately for the Astros, the Padres also fixed their run scoring struggles in the 4^th, and Happ’s mastery of the Padres seemed to cease. Jason Barlett scored on Ryan Ludwick’s single to make the score 1-1 with Chase Headley being thrown out by Michael Bourn at 3^rd for the first out of the inning. After Jorge Cantu’s popout, Aaron Cunningham doubled and scored Ludwick to give the Padres a 2-1 lead. Chris Denorfia hit a solo homer in the 5^th to extend the Padres’ lead to 3-1.

Happ pitched well in 6 innings allowing 3 runs and 2 Strikeouts, and was replaced by Fernando Rodriguez who threw two scoreless innings of relief. Unfortunately the Padres are a perfect 12-0 this season when they have the lead after the 7^th. The same cannot be said for the Astros. Mike Adams replaced Moseley in the 8^th with the Padres leading 3-1 and maintained the lead with a perfect inning. Heath Bell came in the 9^th to save the game, and he was successful making the Padres 13-0 with a lead after 7.

 It just seemed to be the Padres day, with three deflections leading to outs. The first occurred in the 2^nd that deflected off Jason Bartlett to Logan Forsythe’s arms. Then, another was invoked after going off Moseley and into Chase Headley’s hands in the 5^th in addition to another Moseley deflection to Logan Forsythe in the same inning. The Padres scored all 3 of their runs after manager Bud Black’s ejection. After going 1-3 at San Diego in 2010, the Astros are now 1-1 in the city of San Diego this year. The Astros will send Aneury Rodriguez (0-2, 5.40 ERA) to the mound on Saturday versus the Padres’ Aaron Harang (5-2, 3.88 ERA).