On Tuesday night, the Houston Astros did something that they generally don’t do—something really, really good, besides defeating the San Diego Padres 11-7.
They not only got hits off of Padres ace Jake Peavey, but they scored runs off him. Peavey in six innings gave up seven hits, four runs, two walks, struck out two and gave up two home runs (Geoff Blum and Hunter Pence, who got his first four-bagger of the season).
Lance Berkman also tripled off of Peavey, and what makes this hitting performance of Houston’s encouraging is that Peavey led active pitchers (minimum of 10 starts) with a career-low 2.32 ERA against Houston (the list also has on it Carlos Zambrano, Greg Maddux [whom the Astros roughed up earlier this season], Chris Carpenter and John Smoltz). What’s really amazing: Peavey gave up those four runs in six innings, and it ballooned his season ERA up to an obese 2.00.
Unfortunately, the Astronauts weren’t able to give Peavey his first loss on the season since Padres hitters hit around as well. Starter Brandon Backe gave up three runs on four hits in seven innings. Doug Brocail had an off-night, giving up four hits and four runs on a third of an inning. Jose Valverde, who started off his appearance by intentionally walking a batter, wasn’t able to save the game for Backe as he gave up a sacrifice fly to tie the game. However, Houston scored four eighth-inning runs and Valverde pitched a perfect ninth to get the win. Those eight runs came on a two-run single by Kaz Matsui and run-scoring doubles by Darren Erstad and Miguel Tejada.
Houston, like San Diego, is now 9-12 on the season as they begin a road series against the Cincinnati Reds. It’ll be the battle of winless pitchers: 0-2 Chris Sampson against 0-2 Bronson Arroyo.
