Why They Lost
The Astros were supposed to win games based on pitching and defense. They got one of those last night in a gem from Brett Myers, and then Tommy Manzella nearly single-handedly cost the Astros a win with two ridiculous errors.
Astros Pitching
| Name | IP | H/ER | K:BB | Pit-Str | CS/SS |
| Myers | 7 | 4/1 (2R) | 7:2 | 111-68 (61.3%) | 19/10 |
| Lyon | 0.2 | 1/0 | 0:0 | 18-11 (61.1%) | 2/0 |
| Byrdak | 0.1 | 0/0 | 0:0 | 3-2 (66.7%) | 1/0 |
Can't underestimate how dominant Myers was. He threw 7+IP and allowed 1ER for the first time since September 14, 2008, when he threw a complete game against the Brewers. After the Astros gave him the briefest of leads, Myers walked Schumaker, gave up singles to Ludwick and Pujols, got Holliday to ground into a double play. 1-1, 2 outs. Rasmus hits a grounder right at Manzella, who Buckners it and Ludwick scores to give the Cardinals their lead, which would last all night. So, 1st inning: Cardinals were 3x5, w/a BB and an ROE. The next five innings: 0x15, 5K:1BB. In the 7th, Myers gave up a leadoff single to right, Molina grounded into what should have been a double play, if Manzella hadn't thrown the ball to St. Charles. After both runners are moved over, Myers struck out Stavinoha and Schumaker. Yet he still gets the loss, because the offense is awful.
I think what irritates me the most about this game is that Myers/Lyon kept Pujols-Holliday-Rasmus to a 1x12 night.
Astros hitting
Screw this. The Astros got four hits, and Michael Bourn got two of them (and a walk - oh yeah, the Astros drew two walks!). They held a lead for approximately six minutes. They were 0x4 with RISP, and Kaz Matsui was personally 0x3 w/RISP, including an 8th inning AB, where the bases were actually loaded, and Matsui grounded right out to Brendan Ryan (who, in fairness, played very well. MLB.com's Matthew H. Leach said: "Against a lot of shortstops, Matsui would have two hits tonight.")
But instead, Matsui was 0x4, and his average is .118. Lee was 0x4 (.097), Pence was 0x4 (.103), and J.R. Towles was 0x2 (.056). Amazing. The Astros have two guys in the starting lineup who are hitting under .100.
Brad Penny got 12 groundball outs (5 flyball). In the Astros' 27 uneventful outs, 15 were by groundball, eight by flyball, and four were by strikeout.
Pitch Count Hero: Michael Bourn (2x3) - 19 pitches in four PAs.
Pitch Count Punk: Carlos Lee (0x4) - 9 pitches in four PAs.
Man of the Match: Brett Myers. Did everything he had to do to win this game, and got the loss instead.
Goat of the Game: Tommy Manzella. 0-fer, and two errors that led to the winning run crossing the plate.
