Houston 8, Washington 7
When: 8:05 PM ET, Tuesday, June 1, 2010
Where: Minute Maid Park, Houston, Texas
Temperature:
Indoors
Umpires:
Home -
Gary Darling, 1B -
Bruce Dreckman, 2B -
Paul Emmel, 3B -
Bill Hohn
Attendance:
25249
By SportsDirect Inc.
The Houston Astros twice blew a lead, but Lance Berkman’s walk-off single in the bottom of the ninth lead Houston to an 8-7 victory over the Washington Nationals Tuesday night.
Houston went into the bottom of the ninth trailing 7-6 after blowing leads of 4-0 and 6-4. Pedro Feliz reached on an error by Ryan Zimmerman and then Cory Sullivan doubled with one out. An intentional walk to Michael Bourn and groundout by Jeff Keppinger left Berkman with the bases loaded, two outs and trailing by a run.
Berkman took a 2-2 fastball from Washington closer Matt Capps into left field to score two and seal the comeback. Capps (0-2) took the loss by giving up two runs – both unearned – on two hits and a walk in 2/3 of an inning.
Berkman finished the game 3-for-5 with five RBIs.
Wilton Lopez (2-0) got the win for Houston by pitching 2/3 of an inning of relief.
Houston needed their final at-bat because closer Matt Lindstrom couldn’t hold a 6-5 lead in the top of the ninth. Nyjer Morgan led the inning off with a single against Lindstrom, followed by walks to Ryan Zimmerman and Adam Dunn. Josh Willingham struck out but back-to-back singles by Ian Desmond and Roger Bernadina gave Washington their first lead of the game.
The Astros wasted a strong outing by starter Brett Myers who went seven innings while allowing four runs – one earned – on four hits and three walks. He struck out 10.
Houston opened the scoring when Lance Berkman opened the scoring with a two-run double in the first inning off Nationals starter Craig Stammen. He scored two batters later on a Geoff Blum groundout to make it 3-0.
A Pedro Feliz sacrifice fly in the third inning made it 4-0 until the Astros blew the lead two innings later, fuelled by errors from Geoff Blum and Berkman.
Hunter Pence hit a solo shot in the bottom of the frame to restore Houston’s lead and Berkman tallied his third RBI in the sixth to give them a two-run cushion.
Stammen gave up five runs on nine hits and three walks in five innings.
Top Game Performances
Starting Pitchers
Washington |
|
Houston |
Craig Stammen |
Player |
Brett Myers
|
No Decision |
W/L |
No Decision |
5.0 |
IP |
7.0 |
4 |
Strikeouts |
10 |
9 |
Hits |
4 |
9.00 |
ERA |
1.29 |
Hitting
Washington |
|
Houston |
Wil Nieves | Player |
Lance Berkman
|
2 |
Hits |
3 |
0 |
RBI |
5 |
0 |
HR |
0 |
3 |
TB |
4 |
.667 |
Avg |
.600 |
Team Stats Summary
Team |
Hits |
HR |
TB |
Avg |
LOB |
K |
RBI |
BB |
SB |
Errors |
Washington
|
8 |
0 |
9 |
.222 |
24 |
13 |
5 |
7 |
0 |
1 |
Houston
|
15 |
1 |
21 |
.385 |
25 |
5 |
8 |
6 |
0 |
2 |