Two Homers by Dominguez wasted by Humber’s meltdown

Astros 3B Matt Dominguez connected for his first two homeruns of the season to stake the Astros to a 3-1 lead against Yu Darvish and the Rangers tonight. But Philip Humber‘s inability to retire left-handed hitters wasted both Dominguez’s big night and a solid performance by Astros starter Erik Bedard.

Bedard took the mound to start the sixth inning with a 3-1 lead. But former Astro Lance Berkman‘s seeing eye single on the lefty’s 90th pitch of the game ended Bedard’s evening. Humber came in from the bullpen and promptly coughed up the lead, ending Bedard’s chances of picking up his first win of the year.

Matt Dominguez became the first MLB player ever to homer twice in the same game against Yu Darvish (Brett Davis-USA TODAY Sports)

Bo Porter sat and watched as Ron Washington employed a pair of left-handed pinch hitters and the Rangers plated six runs before Humber could get out of the inning. Humber was mercifully removed with two outs in the inning but the damage was already done.

Jose Cisnero pitched the final 3 & 1/3 innings, allowing one run on a solo homer by Berkman. That run would turn out to be huge as the Astros battled back, scoring a run in the eighth and three more in the ninth.

It was nice to see the team keep competing when it looked like the game was out of hand. Trevor Crowe threw out Ian Kinsler at the plate to end the top half of the ninth. Crowe also delivered a run-scoring single in the bottom of the inning to bring the Astros within striking distance. Robbie Grossman coaxed  a 2-out walk against Rangers’ closer Joe Nathan allowing Porter to send Chris Carter to the plate as the potential winning run. Carter popped out to end the game but Rangers fans got a scare after they had already chalked this one up in the #wincolumn.

I put this loss on Porter for leaving Humber in the game to take a beating. It seemed like Bo gave up on his group of youngsters who never gave up on themselves.