Well, what do you know? Happ gets another Disaster Start and the Astros lose 8-1 to Milwaukee.
*That's four straight losses against Milwaukee, and drops them to 3-7 on the season vs. the Brewers.
*The loss is the 13th time in the last 14 series that the Astros have dropped the series opener.
*Happ threw yet another Disaster Start (Equal to or More ER than IP) with 4IP, 7H/6ER, 2K:3BB. It's his sixth Disaster Start in 22 outings, and the fifth time he hasn't made it to the 5th inning. It's the seventh time in his last eight starts that he has allowed 5+ ER.
*Happ allowed 3ER in the 1st inning. So in 22 1st inning IPs, Happ has allowed 19ER.
*Happ has allowed 10+ baserunners in seven starts, and was spared from a 9-game streak by a 2.2IP outing where he allowed nine baserunners at Texas on June 20.
*In his last 72 batters faced (315 pitches), Happ has recorded 17 swinging strikes.
*Aneury Rodriguez allowed 2H/1ER in 2IP, David Carpenter threw a perfect 7th, Wilton Lopez walked a batter, and Enerio Del Rosario allowed 2H/1ER, 0K:2BB in the 9th.
*Wilton Lopez' walk struggles are well-documented. After walking five batters in 67IP in 2010, Lopez has walked 15 batters in 50.1IP in 2011. But that's showing signs of evening out. Lopez walked 12 batters in his first 22IP of the season (through May 31), and three batters in 28.1IP since.
*The Astros managed no extra-base hits on the game, and only walked once - the 36th time this season that has happened.
*They got five hits, or, two fewer than Ryan Braun. It's the 17th time this season the Astros have recorded five or fewer hits (1-16).
*Big congratulations to J.B. Shuck, who got a single in his first AB, and also his first stolen base. The stolen base ties him for 3rd on the team in SBs.
*Which brings up a good point. With the removal of Bourn and Pence, Jason Bourgeois has 22 steals, and the next highest SB total is Carlos Lee and Angel Sanchez, with 3SBs.
*Carlos Lee got a hit in his first PA, snapping a 25PA hitless streak.
*Man of the Match: Guh. J.B. Shuck
*Goat of the Game: J.A. Happ
We didn't come out here to play tiddlywinks, son.
-Hal Smith
