Unable to push their winning streak to three games, the Houston Astros came up short on Tuesday night against St. Louis in a series-opening loss at Busch Stadium, 4-1.
Houston starter Fernando Abad tossed five innings of three-run ball before exiting with six strikeouts, but still took the loss to drop to 0-4 on the season. Along with holding Astros hitters to just four hits over seven innings of work, St. Louis right-hander Kyle Lohse also managed to help his own cause by smacking an RBI double in the fifth inning to pad his team's lead.
Aside from a Brett Wallace RBI single that plated shortstop Jimmy Paredes in the eighth inning, the Astros were hard-pressed to get much going offensively to kick off the series. Youngster Matt Dominguez did manage to push his meager hitting streak to five games with a 1-4 performance, but it's clear the Astros will need to pick up much more across the board in order to pull out a series victory in their last trip to St. Louis as a National League team.
Now with 100 losses on the season, the Astros have a mere 14 games remaining in their forgettable 2012 campaign. Lucas Harrell, one of the biggest bright spots in a down year for Houston's pitching staff, will take the ball in Game 2 on Wednesday to face St. Louis' Lance Lynn.
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