Pence: Half of Houston's hits
(c) Associated Press
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With only two hits on the afternoon and facing the fifth-leading closer of all time, the Astros scrapped out a run to tie Atlanta in the bottom of the ninth on Wednesday. But the joy was short-lived as the Braves blew out Brandon Lyon in the tenth for a 8-2 decision that was Houston's sixth loss in their last seven outings.
Hunter Pence led off the ninth with a single and Carlos Lee followed that with his own base hit, moving Pence to third. From there, Chris Johnson got Pence home with a sacrifice fly to deadlock the game at 2-2.
Before that, the Astros' only outburst against young Tommy Hanson happened in the fourth when Michael Bourn beat out an infield hit, stole second and third then came home on a single by Pence. Hanson recovered from that with his own RBI single off Wandy Rodriguez in the fifth to put Atlanta back ahead, 2-1.
It looked like that would be enough until the Astros tied it in the bottom of the ninth. In the 10th, however, three walks wrapped around a double by Omar Infante and a single by Alex Gonzalez put the Braves up by two. Jeff Fulchino came in for Lyon and Brian McCann ended any doubt to the game's outcome with a grand slam into the right field seats to turn a close game into an 8-2 blowout.
After a day off Thursday, the homestand continues with a Friday-the-13th nightmare against the Pirates at 7:05 Central. Brett Myers (8-7) will try to break the hex when he pitches against Austin's own Russ Ohlendorf (1-9). No longer worried about fighting the Bucs for last in the division, the Astros are hoping to hang onto fourth place over the fading Cubs.
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