Wandy: 8IP, 5H, 0ER, 7K:0BB
LaHawk: 1IP, 1K
Give it up. That was the pitching performance the Astros needed to go from here. Is this the turnaround for a season? I don't know about that, but when the Astros needed a break, four pitchers had the chance to spell the bullpen, and Wandy came up huge. The Wandy and LaHawk came up for eight strikeouts and zero walks. That's huge. Michael Bourn also made some pretty amazing plays in center.
Wandy's:
First-pitch strikes: 16
First-pitch balls: 13
Wandy. Can't get enough. We're seeing a pitcher come into his own. Because, let's be honest. Things aren't going well for the Astros pitching staff, or hitting, or the team in whole. But who gets up for the game? Wandy. He gave up five hits, and two of those in the first inning. That means 7IP of 3H/0ER ball. Three of Wandy's strikeouts started out with a first-pitch ball and got 16 straight Padres at one point.
| Pitcher | Pit/Str | Strike% | BF/Outs | Efficiency% | GB/FB/K |
| Wandy | 116/82 | 70.7% | 29/24 | 82.8%% | 5/12/7 |
| LaHawk | 11/7 | 63.6% | 3/3 | 100% | 2/0/1 |
| Total | 127/89 | 70.1% | 32/27 | 84.4% | 7/12/8 |
Once again, the Astros' offense didn't do much - five hits. Four of them from Pence and Lee, the other from Matsui. However, Pence got the two runs on a bloop single to right that scored Pudge and Matsui.
Longest AB of the night: 7 pitches by Darin Erstad
Man of the Match:
Pence provided all the offense with one swing of the bat. But I think you, I, and Coop would take a loss if it meant not using eight relievers to get through a game. So the Man of the Match goes to Wandy. ERA under 2.00. No walks. Let the Astros score 2 runs and win.
Goat of the Game:
I really thought about giving the Goat to Tejada. 0x4 with 3LOB. However, someone has to call out Erstad. The only Astro playing fairly regularly with a worse average than Berkman. In his first start at first-base, Erstad went 0x3 to lower his average to .161. We're talking about Darin Erstad. A career .283 hitter. With five hits on the season, one extra-base hit and two RBI.
