Oswalt: Curse of the novelty caps
(c) Associated Press
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Combine two very good starting pitchers with two very poor offenses and what do you get? A scoreless match deep into the game, that's what. Such was the case Friday night in San Diego where Mat Latos and Roy Oswalt squared off in a honey of a pitcher's duel for 7-1/2 innings.
But when Oswalt was lifted for the usually-reliable Brandon Lyon, the Padres jumped on Lyon for three runs in the bottom of the eighth and took a 3-0 decision to even the four-game series.
Lyon got the first two outs before Tony Gwynn Jr. rapped a base hit then David Eckstein cracked a double into the left field corner and Gwynn raced all the way from first with the winning run. After the next two batters walked to load the bases, Scott Hairston dumped a two-run single into left to give San Diego some insurance they did not have to cash in.
Heath Bell set down the Astros in order to collect his 22nd save, closing out a combined four-hit whitewash. Latos went eight innings, allowing four hits and walking none while striking out seven. Oswalt almost matched that, working seven shutout innings on three hits and two walks with seven strikeouts.
Carlos Lee contributed a pair of singles. The other two Houston hits were a bloop by Jeff Keppinger and a base hit from the newest Astro, Angel Sanchez, who arrived from the Boston Red Sox the day before.
The series continues Saturday with a 7:35 Central contest as Bud Norris (2-5) competes with Kevin Correia (5-6) at Petco Park. If I'm dyin', I'm Lyon.
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