Okay, bullpen, that's about enough out of you. The Cardinals put up a nine-spot in the 6th inning, and the Astros lose 11-7.
*Of course, the nine runs in one inning is a season-high allowed by the Astros. That happened last year, too.
*Figueroa had a passable outing, throwing 5IP, 6H/4ER, 2K:3BB, and one of those runs came courtesy of Abad, who had a terrible outing himself. More on that in a minute.
*Figueroa only threw a first-pitch strike to seven of the 22 batters he faced, and was actually able to throw more strikes than balls this time around - 50 to 41.
*Fernando Abad allowed 3H/4ER, 0K:1BB in 0.2IP - although we can take it easy on him, as this was the 3rd outing (out of 14) where he had allowed an earned run.
*Jose Valdez had a nice night, allowing one hit on 2IP.
*The Cardinals scored 11 runs on 15 hits. Astros pitching has allowed double-digit hits in six straight games, and seven of their last eight.
*In this series, the bullpen had the following line: 11IP, 22H/13ER, 8K:4BB
*Lance Berkman was 4x5 with 2HR/5RBI. He was 8x14 in this series. The last time he had four hits in a game was May 13, 2009 at Colorado, and this was his 2nd 2HR game of the season.
*Carlos Lee snapped an 0x17 streak with a hit, and got a two-run double in the 8th. He raised his OPS 21 points last night.
*Brett Wallace continued his streak with two doubles on the night, it's his 5th straight multi-hit game, and his 8th straight game with a hit. Wallace's OPS was .722 when the streak started. Now it's .959.
*Chris Johnson hit a two-run homer in the 2nd inning. It was his first extra-base hit in 20PAs. Johnson hasn't drawn a walk in 41PAs.
*Man of the Match: Nope. Not tonight.
*Goat of the Game: Fernando Abad.
We didn't come out here to play tiddlywinks, son.
-Hal Smith
