Why They Won
The Astros took advantage of a pretty bad outing by Kyle Lohse - and two more errors by Brendan Ryan (who now has four errors in these two games against the Astros) - and Wandy was effective enough to get a win.
Astros Pitching
| Name | IP | H/ER | K:BB | Pit-Str | CS/SS |
| Wandy | 6 | 5/4 (5R) | 3:2 | 94-58 (61.7%) | 12/6 |
| Sampson | 1 | 1/0 | 0:1 | 21-13 (61.9%) | 2/0 |
| Lopez | 1.2 | 2/1 | 2:0 | 23-17 (73.9%) | 0/0 |
| Lindstrom | 0.1 | 1/0 | 0:0 | 4-3 (75%) | 0/1 |
Wandy only threw a first-pitch strike to eight of the 26 batters he faced, but the Cardinals fouled a lot of his pitches off. Of Wandy's 94 pitches, the Cardinals fouled off 21 of them. For comparison, the Astros fouled off 16 pitches all night.
But let's talk about Chris Sampson right quick. Sampson gave up an earned run against the Giants back in G1. And a run against the Braves on May 1. And that's it. So in 15 appearances this season Sampson has faced 58 batters, recorded 44 outs, and allowed two baserunners to score.
Astros hitting
Congratulations to Pedro Feliz, whose infield single in the second was the 1000th time he had been able to get to first base before the ball.
The Astros spotted the Cardinals a run on Keppinger's error in the 1st, but Carlos Lee's sac fly scored Wandy to tie it up in the 3rd, and broke it open in the 4th. Thanks to Brendan Ryan's error, Quintero was safe at first base following up Feliz' second hit of the night. With two outs in the 4th, Keppinger hit a bases-clearing double and Berkman hit a 2-run homer to right - his second homer this series. These five runs were unearned for Mr. Lohse. All of these were unearned runs - and the Astros have scored nine unearned runs in the last two games.
That said, the Astros were still 3x13 w/RISP - with three hits coming from Bourn, Keppinger, and Berkman.
Pitch Count Hero: Quintero (1x5) and Manzella (0x4, BB) - 22 pitches in five PAs
Pitch Count Punk: Lee (1x3, BB) - 9 pitches in four PAs
Man of the Match: Lance Berkman. He had the home run, but also walked four times, getting on base in all five plate appearances, raising his OBP from .293 to .338.
Goat of the Game: Tommy Manzella. Come on, man. An 0x4 night (albeit with a walk) means that he's now hitting .190/.233/.250. And two of those ABs came with runners in scoring position, and he left five on base by himself.
