Aneury Rodriguez was everything the Astros could have hoped for, going five innings and allowing just one hit. Houston jumped ahead of the Reds 2-0 with a pair of RBI singles from Jason Bourgeois and Hunter Pence. But after using four relievers to get three scoreless innings, Brad Mills again turned to Brandon Lyon only to watch the embattled reliever go down in flames.
Lyon surrendered a leadoff walk to Drew Stubbs, then gave up four straight hits to end the game. Jay Bruce’s walkoff double ended the game and Lyon left the mound a loser for the second time this season. The reliever has blown four saves already this year and boosted his ERA to 7.15 with this latest meltdown.
The Astros moved to 12-18 on the year, Cincinnati moved within two games of the first-place Cardinals. Left fielder Carlos Lee did not play and probably won’t play tomorrow either. The Astros will close out the series tomorrow at 11:35 A.M. CT. Brett Myers will square off against Homer Bailey in the rubber game.