Astros enter the All-Star break on a low note

Nothing has gone right for the Houston Astros since they left Pittsburgh on Wednesday. They lost four straight to the Florida Marlins, getting outscored 16-8 over that stretch. Today it was Wandy Rodriguez‘s turn to take the mound and had his second consecutive bad start giving up five earned runs over 5.1 innings pitched. He struggled in his last start against the Pirates, where he gave up five runs in that start as well.

The offense once again was non-existent and even Hunter Pence struggled this series going 2-16 with five strikeouts. The All-Star break hopefully can provide the team time to recover from the first half, put it behind them and look at the second half as a new season. The first nine games is not a terribly tough stretch as they have three game series with Pittsburgh, Washington and the Cubbies.