Recap: It was all about the long ball in Houston’s Wednesday night loss to the Milwaukee Brewers. The Astros hit a total of three home runs from players Miguel Tejada, Carlos Lee and Ty Wiggington.

However, the Brewers managed to rough up Brandon Backe early and send him to his third strait loss. Backe has been hit extremely hard in his last three starts, going 0-3 with an 8.40 ERA. The Brewers combined for a total of 5 homeruns against the Astros struggling pitching. The Astros now lead the league in surrendering long balls to opposing teams.

Wednesday’s game also feature some fireworks when both Cecil Cooper and catcher Brad Ausmus were tossed from the game for arguing a series of very questionable calls from first base umpire Angel Campos.

Note: The Astros most recent call-up Reggie Abercrombie took advantage of his first time being inserted in the starting lineup going 2 for 4.

Next Up: It doesn’t get any easier for the Astros as they go up against Milwaukee’s ace Ben Sheets (6-1) in Thursday afternoon’s rubber match. The Astros will be sending Brian Moehler to the hill (3-2) to counter.

RECAP: Brandon Backe got the call to start tonight’s game and didn’t disappoint the sellout crowd, tossing 7 and 1/3rd excellent innings to pick up his fourth win of the year. Backe dominated the powerful Phillies lineup, striking out six while walking only one. The one run he gave up came off a solo homer from Pat Burrell early in the game. Doug Brocail relieved Backe in the 8th inning, getting two key outs while working his way through the Phillies most dangerous hitters to hold Philadelphia scoreless that inning. Astros closer Jose Valverde entered the game in the 9th inning and, in a frightening moment, was struck on the side of his face by a liner off Pedro Feliz’s bat. Valverde was down for several minutes but stood up and, amazingly, stayed in to finish the game. He gave up two earned runs, one due to the liner he took to the face, but induced a fly ball to center to nail down the save, giving the Astros a hard-fought 4-3 win.

At the plate, Ty Wigginton had his second multi-hit game in a row, knocking a single and a double. J.R. Towels recorded his first hit of the series and later scored on a Michael Bourn single. Lance Berkman ripped a triple into the right-field corner and scored on a sac-fly off the bat of Carlos Lee. While Backe contributed at the plate with an infield single and a sacrifice bunt, the night’s biggest offensive star was Hunter Pence, who smacked a pair of homers, one to far right field and the second a titanic blast that banged off the facade over the Landry’s Crawford Boxes in left field.

THOUGHTS: The Astros combined stellar pitching with timely hits and aggressive base running to take this second game. Seeing Bourn and Towels both record clutch hits late in the game is a great sign, keep your eyes on them in the coming games.

PLAYER OF THE GAME: Brandon Backe; 7 & 1/3rd IP, 1 ER, 1 BB, 6 K, 1 hit at the plate.

ASTROS RECORD: 28-22 (.560)

The Houston Astros were going for the three game sweep against the Washington Nationals but they came up short on Thursday night.  The Nationals avoided the sweep as they beat the Astros 8-3.

Brandon Backe took the loss to drop to 2-4 on the season.  Backe pitched six innings and gave up six hits and four runs in the game.  Oscar Villarreal gave up three runs while Wesley Wright gave up another run.

Carlos Lee, Hunter Pence, and Ty Wigginton all had one rbi each for the Astros.  The Astros weren’t ablt to string together three or four hits in a row to have a big inning and that is why they lost the game in my opinion.  They just couldn’t come up with that big hit when they needed it as they left 21 runners on base.

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The Houston Astros gave up four runs in the eigth inning to let the San Diego Padres back in the game, but then they quickly came right back and got those four runs back and went onto beat the Padres 11-7 on Tuesday night.

Kaz Matsui had a single in the eigth inning that scored the go ahead runs as he finished with two RBI on the night.  Miguel Tejada, Lance Berkman, and Hunter Pence all had two RBI as well.  Darin Erstad, Carlos Lee, and Geoff Blum all had one RBI.  Blum and Pence both hit long balls for the Astros.

On the mound for the Astros, Jose Valverde picked up the win to improve his record to 3-1 on the season.  It was nice to see Valverde not blow a game!  Brandon Backe had started the game and pitched seven innings while giving up four hits and three earned runs.  Doug Brocail sucked it up as he gave up four hits and four earned runs while only recording one out in relief of Backe.

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The Houston Astros got hammered by the Philadelphia Phillies on Thursday afternoon by the score of 10-2.  The Astros fell behind 3-0 after the first inning and were already down 6-1 after the fourth inning.  Once a team gets in a big hole like that, it takes a lot out of them and they have a hard time coming back.  That is exactly what happened to the Astros against the Phillies.

Brandon Backe only lasted three innings as he gave up ten hits, six runs (five were earned), two walks and two strikeouts.  Oscar Villarreal and Jose Valverde both gave up two earned runs as well.  I don’t think Valverde’s head is in the right place as he has really sucked it up the last two games.

Miguel Tejada and Carlos Lee both went deep for the Astros.  Both home runs were solo shots and that was the only offense that the Astros could come up with.

** It was also mentioned that Miguel Tejada is actully 33 not 31 like most teams had thought.  ESPN.Com is reporting that they have seen his real birth certificate that states he is 33.  Tejada told the Astros the truth, that he really is a couple years older then he had told teams before.**

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