Milwaukee, WI (Sports Network) – Chris Johnson went 4-for-4 with a two-run double and Wandy Rodriguez threw seven strong innings, as the Houston Astros earned a 5-1 decision over the Milwaukee Brewers in the rubber match of a three-game set at Miller Park.
Lance Berkman chipped in with an RBI double and Geoff Blum reached base four times with two hits, a pair of walks and scored three runs for the Astros, who had dropped three of four coming into the contest.
“It’s pretty cool. I don’t know how to explain it,” Johnson said about his four-hit game. “I’m just trying to have good at-bats. We all tried to make the pitchers work in this series. It’s nice to win a series on the road.”
Rodriguez (5-10) scattered seven hits and allowed one run with a walk and fanned six. The lefty upped his record to 6-6 lifetime against Milwaukee in 16 games and improved to 2-6 in nine road starts this season. He also knocked in a run with a squeeze bunt.
Jonathan Lucroy drove in the lone run for Milwaukee, which won seven of nine coming in.
Dave Bush (3-6) was tagged with the loss for yielding two runs on five hits with five walks in six innings. The righty finished with three strikeouts.
“Bush kept us in the game and only gave up two runs on a squeeze and a wild pitch, but we had seven walks today by our pitchers and that’s far too many,” Milwaukee manager Ken Macha said. “We only had a couple of chances to score and we didn’t get it done.”
Lucroy’s groundout to short in the second scored Ryan Braun, who led off the inning with a double, giving the Brewers the early lead.
Rodriguez pitched out of trouble in the third and Houston tied it in the fourth. A double, single and walk loaded the bases with one out. After Rodriguez was called out on strikes, Bush uncorked a wild pitch to score Blum.
Houston put runners on the corners with one away in the sixth before Rodriguez’s squeeze bunt plated Blum to put the visitors in front 2-1.
The Astros tacked on three more in the seventh off the Milwaukee bullpen. Carlos Villanueva took over for Bush and promptly served up back-to-back doubles, the latter to Berkman that scored a run. The right-hander retired the next two batters before he walked Blum and Johnson followed by lacing a two- run double to left to make it a 5-1 game.
Brandon Lyon worked a scoreless eighth and Matt Lindstrom threw perfect ninth to polish off the victory.
Milwaukee took two of three from the Astros earlier in the season…Bush fell to 1-4 in eight home starts this season and dropped to 6-2 in 15 lifetime meetings with Houston…Casey McGehee went 2-for-3 with a walk for Milwaukee…The Astros went 3-for-14 with runners in scoring position and stranded 10, while the Brewers finished 1-for-10 with RISP and left eight.