Why They Lost
It comes down to hits. The Astros got eight of them, but were only able to score one run. Felipe Paulino certainly wasn't great, but three of the four earned runs he gave up came on a homer by catcher Chris Snyder. The problem are the walks - four of them by Paulino (though two of those were intentional). Gervacio was the only pitcher to not allow a run, and he was only in for five pitches. The Astros were 1x9 w/RISP, so that doesn't help.
Astros Pitching
| Name | IP | H/ER | K:BB | Pit-Str | CS/SS |
| Paulino | 6 | 5/4 | 8:4 | 124-72 (58.1%) | 21/16 |
| Byrdak | 0.2 | 1/2 | 1:2 | 23-8 (34.8%) | 6/0 |
| Gervacio | 0.1 | 1/0 | 0:0 | 5-4 (80%) | 1/1 |
| Moehler | 2 | 5/3 | 1:0 | 44-27 (61.4%) | 11/1 |
So the Astros walked six batters - four by Paulino and two by Byrdak. Byrdak, by the way, had the lowest percentage of strikes thrown of any Astro pitcher this season.
Four of the six batters the Astros walked scored.
Astros hitting
So far the Astros are needing 2.64 hits per run, and we'll compare that to the rest of the League later on this morning. Even more depressing, the Astros are averaging 12.1 plate appearances per run.
Michael Bourn remains the one offensive threat on this team. Walking in the first inning (one of three Astro walks), then stealing second, and coming home on Carlos Lee's 3rd RBI of the season. Bourn got on base three times, with two hits and the aforementioned walk. Cory Sullivan, playing in place of Hunter Pence, got two hits.
Pedro Feliz left some men on base. Let's look:
1st inning: Berkman and Lee on base, 1 out, Feliz GIDPs
5th inning: Berkman on 2nd, 2 out, Feliz grounds out to third
Hey, and so did Keppinger:
1st inning: Bourn on 1st (then 2nd), 0 out, Kep grounds out to short
2nd inning: Bases loaded, 2 out, Kep grounds out to short
7th inning: Bourn on 2nd, 1 out, Kep flies out to right
As a team, the Astros are hitting .249 w/RISP, and .246 with men on.
Pitch Count Hero: Bourn (2x4, BB) - 27 pitches in five PAs
Pitch Count Punk: Lee (1x4) and Quintero (1x4) - 12 pitches in four PAs
Man of the Match: Has to go to Bourn, who got on base three times, and made a pretty great catch in center.
Goat of the Game: I don't even know. Paulino got victimized by Chris Snyder, leading to three earned. So that's one really bad pitch, but is it worthy of a Goat? Tim Byrdak crapped the bed, but since Arizona already had more than one run, were the Astros going to score enough, anyway? Let's give it to Jeff Keppinger, who had three opportunities to get one hit and score a run (or three runs, in the case of the 2nd inning), and...didn't.
