No Run Support For Norris, Astros Lose 1-0

Dioner Navarro hit a solo shot against Wilton Lopez in the eighth inning to break a scoreless tie, and the offense wasted a magnificent pitching performance by Bud Norris.

Norris shut down the Dodgers for six scoreless innings, and it looked as if he was in complete control on the mound this afternoon. He ended up throwing 99 pitches while allowing only one hit and striking out five. It was great to see Bud continue his recent success, and he now has a 0.85 ERA over his last three starts. With Wandy's nice start last night and Brett Myers' complete game on Friday, the starting pitching has been phenomenal lately (21 total innings and three earned runs).

Norris also laid out for a foul pop-up in the sixth, and it was quite an acrobatic display that you don't often see from a pitcher. It's a shame that he didn't get any run support as Hiroki Kuroda threw a very good game and locked up the Houston bats for seven innings. This game came down to the bullpen for both teams, and Wilton Lopez's mistake pitch proved to be the difference.

The offense only accounted for three hits, with two of them coming on doubles from Chris Johnson. Please come back soon Hunter.

As miserable as these last couple weeks have been, I think Dodger fans might have it worse. While they do sport a better record than our Astros, their future looks pretty bleak with their ongoing financial saga and ownership questions.

After the rough Pittsburgh series earlier this week, these last three games have generated a little bit of optimism. Let's hope our starting pitchers keep dealing in Arlington tomorrow night.