The Astros suffered their second consecutive sweep by the Texas Rangers tonight. On a positive note at least this was the more traditional 3-game sweep and not the 4-game sweep they suffered at the hands of the Rangers last time. The game was a close one. One in which the Astros fought back from a 4-2 deficit to tie the game at 4 before ultimately falling 5-4 in the bottom of the 9th. The unlucky bullpen victim tonight was Lo, who pitched a scoreless 8th before suffering the loss in the 9th.
Erik Bedard got the start tonight and labored through his 4.1 innings. Though he only allowed two earned runs (3 total), He struggled to find the strike zone> He walked four batters in those 4.1 innings which led to to a 92 pitch total for his outing. Of those 92 pitches thrown, 53 of them went for strikes.
Rookie David Martinez made his major league debut tonight and pitched admirably. He pitched a total of 2.2 innings and only allowed one hit, one run (zero earned) with one strike out. It was nice to see Martinez put together a nice outing in the long relief role tonight.
Lo pitched a scoreless 8th inning and came out again with the score tied for the 9th. Unfortunately things did not go as well in the ninth. Lo got things started with a single off the bat of Moreland, and a Profar walk to put runners at first and second with no outs. After retiring Gentry on a foul pop Lo walked Martin to load the bases with one out. Next up was Elvis Andrus who hit a sac fly to left to score the winning run.
Offensively the Astros were able to score four runs tonight. Jason Castro got the scoring started in the second inning by leading things off with his 15th home run of the season.
The seventh inning looked promising for the good guys as Jason Castro got things started with a single, and Chris Carter and Matt Dominguez both followed with walks to load the bases with no outs. The rally took a blow when Max Stassi grounded into a double play to score Castro and advance Carter to third, but give the Rangers two big outs. Brett Wallace drew a walk to keep the inning alive, but Marwin Gonzalez officially killed it with a ground out to third.
The Astros struck again in the top of the eighth thanks to a bout of wildness by relief pitcher Tanner Scheppers. With two outs Altuve got things started with a single to right. Jason Castro followed with a walk, and then scored on a Chris Carter single. Scheppers then hit Dominguez and Stassi (in the face) to score Jason Castro and tie the game 4-4. The rally was ended with a Jason Frasor strike out of Brett Wallace.
Offensive standouts included LJ Hoes (2-4, BB), and Jason Castro (2-3, HR, BB) with Grossman, Altuve, Carter, and Gonzalez each adding a hit.
Both Robbie Grossman and Marwin Gonzalez committed errors that led to unearned runs tonight.
The Astros enjoy an off day tomorrow before hosting the Blue Jays at home this weekend.
More from Crawfish Boxes:
- Astros Injury Report: Max Stassi Hit In The Face
- Wednesday's Three Astros Things
- Houston Astros Minor League Recap: 8/20/13
- The Tale of Two Wally's
- Back to School: The 2013 Astros Season