Valverde: No fist-pumping.
(c) Associated Press
|
Two outs away from a hard-fought 3-2 victory, Jose Valverde imploded. When the dust settled Monday night, Pittsburgh had scored seven runs on three homers and stunned the Astros, 9-3.
Jason Bay started the carnage with a solo shot off Valverde to tie the game but, before the Houston fans could settle into the thought of going extra innings, Astro-killers Xavier Nady and Adam Laroche had singled and homered, respectively, to give the Pirates a 5-3 advantage. And they weren't finished. Another run crossed and then, with two more runners aboard, Valverde got the hook and Tim Byrdak came on to give up a three-run blast to Freddy Sanchez.
The Astros, who had let great scoring chances get away from them seemingly all night, could register just three single tallies. Two runs came on separate singles by Carlos Lee. Kaz Matsui and Brad Ausmus also had multihit games. It looked like that would be enough until the ninth-inning meltdown.
Jack Cassel (1-0) makes his third call-up of the season, starting in place of Roy Oswalt Tuesday night in a 7:05 start. Lefty Paul Maholm (6-6) will pitch for the Bucs.
|