Normally, when your team loses or goes through a rough stretch, optimism (and the obvious) says you can't win them all. But with the Astros this season, the theory is in reverse. Can they "win them all?" Certainly not. More importantly here, though: they can't lose them all either.
That's what we come away with after the Stros dropped three out of four games at Petco Park against the San Diego Padres. Houston took the first game of the series on Monday, grabbing its 10th road victory of the season behind the pitching of J.A. Happ and Brett Myers.
After that, the Stros were outscored 18-6 in the following three games, leaving that series opening victory back in the distant memory. It's back to business as usual for Houston, lacking enough talent in the batting lineup to be competitive night in and night out, while also not having the veteran leadership to help withstand the struggles that come with being a bad team.
This was a series in which Wandy Rodriguez continued his decline that can be traced all the way back to May. Lucas Harrell showed that he's the most consistent Houston pitcher at the moment, and even his better than decent performance on Thursday night wasn't enough to get the Astros over the hump. Harrell gave up just one run on four hits and struck out six in his seven innings of work. But his teammates couldn't come up with a single run.
There were brief moments of brilliance from Matt Downs in Wednesday's defeat, in which the first baseman hit a pair of home runs.
Outside of Downs' home runs and that series opening victory, there wasn't much to brag about for the Stros - story of the season. But at least they got that road win, right?
Read more on the Astros at The Crawfish Boxes and SB Nation Houston. Head over to Gaslamp Ball for more on the Padres and head over to Baseball Nation for additional news and analysis around Major League Baseball.