Every Astros fan who ever complained about Brett Myers this season needs to sit down and write him a letter of apology. At least it took Myers 19 tries and almost three months to earn his second blown save; Francisco Cordero clearly works more quickly than that. CoCo blew his second save in as many tries, in less than a week with the Astros, and for the second straight night, Houston loses in crushing fashion. 5-3 final, the losing streak is at 9, and the overall record sits now at 34-65.
*Bud Norris still hasn't won a game since May 21, but tonight he hurled his third quality start in his last four games, so hopefully he's turning it around. He was great by every measure tonight, with a 7 IP / 5 H / 1 R / 1 ER / 1 BB / 7 K line. EDR walked his only hitter in the 8th, then Xavier Cedeno (called up to take Wandy's spot for now) and Fernando Rodriguez allowed the run to score, but a bizarro Houston rally in the bottom of the inning turned the score in their favor. Then Cordero came on, and once again gave up three runs in two-thirds of an inning to gift wrap the game and the sweep for his former team. Fernando Abad let in one of those runs on an inherited runner before getting the final out.
Observations:
*We can and should all be pissed at CoCo tonight, but the Astros actually had plenty of opportunities to win the game even in spite of his awfulness - 8 runners LOB, and 2 for 15 as a team with RISP.
*Jose Altuve is officially on fire again, going 3 for 4 with a double tonight for his fourth multi-hit game in his now five-game hitting streak. He also had a run scored and a walk.
*J.D. Martinez was almost Houston's hero, with a game-tying RBI double in the 8th, then he made it all the way home for the go-ahead run when Cincinnati made two separate throwing errors on the play. J.D. was 2 for 4 with a run scored and a strikeout.
*Scott Moore also had an RBI double in the 8th, preceding J.D.'s, to go 1 for 3 with a run scored, a walk, and 2 K.
*Chris Snyder had a double as a pinch hitter in the 9th against monster closer Aroldis Chapman, which brought the tying run to the plate. But as was the story for most of the night, Houston just couldn't get it done.
Turning Point:
Drew Friggin' Stubbs. AGAIN. After Cordero gave up a leadoff double to Xavier Paul in the 9th, he sandwiched two strikeouts around a walk. That brought up Stubbs, who doubled to center on a 1-0 pitch, driving in both Reds runners.
Man of the Match:
Bud Norris. It was already tough that he left the game in line for the loss. The Astros' 8th inning saved him from that, but it was even tougher how the loss actually occurred.
Goat of the Game:
Francisco Cordero. AGAIN. Do you realize that he now has a 23.14 ERA as an Astro? TWENTY THREE POINT ONE FOUR. Small sample size, I know, but his stats in Toronto (5.77 ERA, 3 BS in 5 chances) weren't exactly great either. As Greg Lucas pointed out, we've seen nothing to indicate that Cordero isn't just done for good.
