Pence: Hill of a triple
(c) Associated Press
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How cold are the St. Louis batters? This homestand in Houston: zero runs, five hits, no runners past second base in 18 innings which, naturally, also means two Cardinal losses. Of course, J.A. Happ deserves some credit for that with his two-hitter Monday but Wandy Rodriguez was equally tough Tuesday night as he tossed seven shutout innings in a 3-0 whitewash of the Redbirds.
Rodriguez gave up two hits and struck out five to keep the Cardinal bats in the freezer. Wandy's ERA has shrunk to 3.71 as he chalked up his team-leading 11th victory. Tim Byrdak, Wilton Lopez and Brandon Lyon took it the rest of the way with Lyon earning his tenth save after fanning Randy Winn with two aboard to close it out.
Hunter Pence supplied the offense when he jumped on Chris Carpenter's hanging curve in the fourth and bounced it up Tal's Hill and around the flag pole for a triple while Michael Bourn and Angel Sanchez scored ahead of him. Chris Johnson picked him up one out later with a lined single over the drawn-in infield for the final run. Bourn and Pence combined for four of Houston's seven hits.
The victory wrapped up a 17-12 August for the Astros, who are now 30-23 since July 1st and back within a game of the Brewers for third place. Sensational starting pitching has been the key as Houston has been in nearly every contest due to their stingy hurlers.
The Astros have announced five call-ups for the final month, including outfielder Brian Bogusevic. The others are catcher Brian Esposito, infielder Matt Downs and pitchers Wesley Wright and Henry Villar.
September opens with the series finale as the Astros look for the sweep in a 1:05 Central matinee. Jeff Suppan (1-6) will pitch for the Redbirds against Nelson Figueroa (3-2) who has allowed one earned run in each of his three starts since joining the Houston rotation.
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