Astros lose to the Padres 4-2

The Astros drop another tough one and fall to 4-10 on the season after a 4-2 loss to the San Diego Padres Friday night. J.A. Happ pitched pretty well up until the seventh inning when he gave up three runs. Happ allowed three hits to Nick Hundley, Chris Denorfia, and Ryan Ludwick to open the seventh inning. Ludwick’s ground rule double brought home two of those runs with the third coming from pinch hitter Eric Patterson’s ground rule double.

Before this inning, the Astros were putting together another strong game behind some great pitching and a big double by Hunter Pence in the sixth that brought Michael Bourn home for an Astros’ run. Happ ended up pitching 7.0 innings, giving up the four runs, while striking out three. Happ did a good job of getting ahead of batters, throwing first strikes to 16 of the 28 hitters he faced.

The Astros batters did not do much to help Happ tonight as they only mustered two runs and went 1-9 with runners in scoring position. Hunter Pence had a good game going 1-3 with an RBI and a stolen base as well as Michael Bourn going 2-4 with a run scored and a stolen base. Angel Sanchez is now facing some struggles at the plate after a fast start going 1-12 over the past three games. It will be interesting to see how Sanchez responds to facing some struggles at the plate.

Nelson Figueroa gets the ball tomorrow as he tries to get his first win of the season as he goes up against Padres’ Mat Latos.