Tony LaRussa was ready to turn the closing duties over to Mitchell Boggs, but he stumbled in the ninth inning as he allowed two runs to score giving the Houston Astros a 6-5 win Tuesday night.
The Cardinals were up 5-4, thanks to Lance Berkman’s RBI double in the ninth. Boggs came on and gave up four hits, plus was charged with a fielding error. After giving up a lead off single, a passed ball moved the runner to second and then Boggs misplayed Michael Bourn’s sac bunt giving Houston runners on first and third. Boggs then uncorked a wild pitch tying the game which was followed by back to back singles to load the bases. Boggs got Carlos Lee to pop up, but Bill Hall singled into left to end the game.
Lance Berkman was 2 for 5 in his first game back in Houston where he spent 11.5 years and was set for the game winning RBI. Former Cardinals first round draft pick Brett Wallace went 3 for 4 with an RBI.
Daniel Descalso went 3 for 3 and drove in three runs for the Cardinals. Two of those runs came in on his fourth inning triple after the Cardinals touched up Houston starter Bud Norris with three unearned runs in the fourth, all coming after two outs and an error by shortstop Angel Sanchez.
Hunter Pence homered to lead off the bottom of the fourth off Jaime Garcia, and then Houston took a 4-3 lead scoring three more in the sixth. Garcia was chased after giving up the RBI single to Wallace which made the score 3-2. Miguel Batista was called on and gave up a two run single to Chris Johnson before he worked out of the inning.
