The wheels came off in a wild 7th inning for Wandy Rodriquez and the Astros on Sunday. Leading 3-0 and cruising along against the Cardinals, the Astros self destructed in a five run inning for St. Louis who took advantage of every Houston miscue.
It didn’t look good early on. The Astros scored three in the third inning as hot hitting Lance Berkman took Kyle Lohse (7-2) deep for a three run homer. For Berkman, it was his 18 th homer on the year. Berkman has been tearing up NL pitchers hitting .372 this season.
Heading into the 7 th innings, Rodriquez had limited the Cardinals to just two hits. Ryan Ludwick was hit to lead off the inning and Troy Glaus reached on a fielder’s choice error. Yadier Molina singled to load the bases and Brian Barton brought in the first run with a sac fly. Cesar Izturis pinch hitting for Lohse got hit with a pitch and the Cards reloaded the bases. Rodriquez battled back to get Aaron Miles on a strikeout, but with two outs, Rodriquez threw a wild pitch to score another run and then Brendan Ryan delivered a clutch single to drive in two to give the Cardinals the 4-3 lead. That was all for Wandy, but the Cards got another run on a fielding error by CF Michael Bourn.
Bourn would bunt for a hit and score on Brad Ausmus’ double, but Russ Springer would work out of the 7 th holding a 5-4 lead. Chris Perez and Randy Flores would hold in the 8 th as Ryan Franklin would grab his 8 th save striking out the side around a base hit.