Astros Drop Rough One to Padres, Trail Series 2-1

A "rough one" was probably sugar coating it a little bit, but I didn't want to be all doom and gloom in the headlines. The fact is that the Astros are really in a funk (the rotation, bullpen, offense, and even the defense chimed in today), and judging by the gamethread comments it's taken its toll on the fans. Injuries aren't helping anything right now as the Astros are without their best offensive player, and also without one of their hottest hitters currently. Speaking of Jason Castro, it looks like he could be out longer than originally expected, and that surgery word was even thrown around in an Brian McTaggart article today. Could things get any worse? On to the game.

Pitching

Wandy was unhittable for three innings and looked very sharp, but then the fourth inning happen. Things just slowly started to deteriorate that inning. Amarista led off with a soft single, that was followed by a walk, and that was followed by an infield single to Marwin Gonzalez on a close play to load the bases with nobody out. For those that held out hope that Wandy had a hat trick up his sleeve, no such luck. He threw a wild pitch in the dirt to allow the first run to score, and then walked the next batter to keep the bases loaded with nobody out. Yonder Alonso put the knife in Wandy's back with a double. When the dust settled the good guys were down 5-0, and Wandy's day was done. Wandy's final line was 4 IP, 4 H, 5 ER, 2 BB, and 4 SO's.

After Wandy left Enerio Del Rosario entered, and the results weren't a whole lot better. EDR committed a costly error on a pickoff attempt that was followed by another costly error on an errant throw from Matt Downs. You have to figure that EDR's time with the club is getting closer to coming to an end.After EDR was Brandon Lyon who had an equally rough time though he only gave up one run in his 1.2 innings pitched. Lyon allowed one hit, two walks and one earned run while striking out no one. Rhiner Cruz was the only Astros pitcher to end the day without allowing a run by pitching a perfect 8th inning and also recording a strikeout.

To sum it up, rough day on the mound for Astros pitching.

Offense

The Astros scored four runs, all of them which were driven in by Matt Downs. Downs hit a 3-run homer in the 6th, his seventh of the year. That would be all of the scoring until the ninth inning when low and behold Matt Downs hit another homerun. As a group the offense only had one walk on the afternoon, which was a pinch hit walk by Jordan Schafer in the ninth. Justin Maxwell and J.D. Martinez both had two hits apiece (both singles), Bixler had a double, and Matt Downs went 3-4 with two homeruns and four RBI's. That is all.

Defense

Three errors on the evening, and two of them were on the same play courtesy of Enerio Del Rosario and Matt Downs. J.D. Martinez had the other attempting to try and throw a runner out at the plate.

Lucas Harrell gets to try his luck tomorrow as he takes on Edinson Volquez at 9:05 PM CT. Go Astros