Hampton: Good start unrewarded
(c) Associated Press
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I guess Roy Oswalt knew what he was doing Monday by pitching a complete game. Russ Ortiz had a marvelous outing on Sunday only to see Jose Valverde blow the lead in the ninth. On Tuesday, Mike Hampton returned from the Disabled List and allowed just one run and four hits over six innings but Chris Sampson gave up three runs in the seventh then the Padres held on for a 4-3 decision. It was Sampson's first loss of the season.
The offense thought it could get through this with just one inning of work. Michael Bourn had a one-out single in the third off rookie Josh Banks then Miguel Tejada doubled him home from first. Lance Berkman followed with his 17th homer of the season for a 3-0 lead.
The Padres got one run off Hampton in the fourth on Scott Hairston's double and Adrian Gonzalez' triple. When Hampton left, it looked like the weak-hitting Padres would die quietly (particularly after Gonzalez left with a sprained knee) but three straight RBI hits with two outs off Sampson changed all that.
Houston put up one last gasp in the ninth on a pair of two-out walks against closer Heath Bell before Bourn lined out to end the game. With the rest of the NL Central playing poorly, the Astros missed another opportunity to make up ground. Instead, they'll spend another night in fifth place as they fall further behind Milwaukee for the division lead.
Houston tries to re-group Wednesday night with Brian Moehler (4-4) on the hill in a 9:05 Central start, facing 32-year-old rookie Walter Silva (1-0) in a battle of bad ERAs.
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