Oswalt: bruise left pen battered
(c) Associated Press
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Well, that didn't go as planned. Roy Oswalt's march to a 144th career victory instead ended early with injury and a 9-0 blowout loss Sunday in Pittsburgh. Paul Maholm tossed a complete-game three-hitter while the tired Astros bullpen again melted down after an early entrance.
Oswalt allowed two runs in the second and took a comebacker off his left ankle. Two innings later, he was taken out of the game and was tagged with an 11th loss instead, tying Wandy Rodriguez for the team lead in that department.
It wouldn't have mattered who was pitching since the bats stayed quiet under Maholm's spell. Angel Sanchez had two singles and was rubbed out by double plays both times. Chris Johnson had a late single for Houston's only other hit.
Garrett Jones bashed a two-run homer off Chris Sampson, notable because the Pirates hadn't gone deep with a runner on base in over a month, while Ronny Paulino had four hits and nemesis Ryan Doumit added three in the 19-hit Pirate attack.
Wandy (6-11) will need to go deep in the game Monday night at Wrigley when he faces Carlos Silva (9-3) and the Cubs in a 7:05 Central start. With call-up Wesley Wright slated to start Tuesday, the bullpen could be exhausted if Rodriguez can't last seven innings.
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