Astros Lose To The Marlins In Extra Innings Affair

It's always tough to lose in extra innings, and this one was no exception. The Astros lost another one-run game as well, which was a trend that I was hoping was starting to even out. This one turned out to be a battle of the bullpens, one that the Marlins would ultimately win, though the Marlins bullpen did falter first which allowed the game to go into extra innings. Chris Johnson hit a homerun off of Josh Johnson in the second, but that was all they would get off of Marlins starter Josh Johnson. The Astros did not get on the board again until the ninth when Bogusevic got a two-out RBI single to send the game into extra innings. The bullpen kept a good offense down after starter Lucas Harrell exited the game until the top of the 12th where Carpenter allowed the Marlins to go ahead for good.

Pitching

Lucas Harrell had another "meh" outing tonight. It took him 107 pitches to complete his 5.1 inning outing. Overall he allowed six hits, three runs, two of them earned, on three hits and four strikeouts. From there the story lies with the bullpen which did a fantastic job of keeping the game where it was at the rest of the way. Emilio Bonifacio hit a one out double that chased Harrell from the game in the sixth. Wilton Lopez came in and struck out John Buck and Josh Johnson to escape the inning. From there Lopez, Wright, Fernando Rodriguez, Rhiner Cruz, Brett Myers, and David Carpenter combined for 5.2 innings of shutout relief.

Things unraveled in the 12th with David Carpenter on the mound. Logan Morrison started things off with a sharp single to right, and then Carpenter walked Stanton to put two on with nobody out. He then got Greg Dobbs to groundout to first which Matt Downs and Jed Lowrie almost turned into a double play but Carpenter couldn't keep his foot on the bag. Carpenter got a crucial strikeout of Bonifacio, and looked like he was going to escape the inning by getting ahead in the count on Infante before giving up a two-run single to center to put the Marlins ahead 5-3. After intentionally walking Jose Reyes, Carpenter struckout pitcher Ryan Webb to end the inning, but the damage was already done.

Offense

On offense Jordan Schafer had a much needed big game going 4-5 with two doubles to breakout of a slump. Schafer also stole a run from the Marlins in the bottom of the first on a wild pitch and a throwing error from the Marlins. Chris Johnson also had a notable night hitting his fourth homerun of the season and also drew two walks. Other than that only Lowrie, Lee, and Bogusevic were able to get into the hit column, and only Carleo Lee's was an extra base hit with a triple.

Down 3-2 in the ninth, The Astros rallied with a one-out triple by Carlos Lee. Travis Buck struckout, which brought up Chris Johnson who walked, and brought up Bogusevic who singled to left to score pinch runner Marwin Gonzalez from third. Chris Johnson came close to ending the game in the bottom of the 11th hitting a shot that went just to the right of the Crawford Boxes.

All said it was a tough loss, but a successful homestand. The Astros have an off day on Thursday before Bud Norris takes on the Pirates and James McDonald on Friday.