W: Bud Norris (2-0)
L: Carlos Villanueva (2-9)
S: Jose Valverde (14)
HR: Jason Kendall (!!), Jason Michaels 2 (3), Miguel Tejada (10)
MVP: Jason Kendall (+.189)
LVP: Carlos Villanueva (-.202)
Win Expectancy Graph
SBNation Coverage
Yes, you read that right. Jason Kendall hit a home run tonight, prompting Tom Haudricourt to tweet this:
Jason Kendall and I are no longer tied for number of HRs. He just hit No. 1 in his 368th plate appearance.
Unfortunately, that wasn't the only unlikely event tonight, as Jason Michaels, who has hit a home run roughly once every 42.3 at bats in his career, took Carlos Villanueva and Mark DiFelice deep tonight. In fact, the Astros entered tonight's game with two hitters in their lineup (Darin Erstad and Jason Michaels) batting under .200, and the Brewers gave up three extra base hits to them in the first six innings. All told, Villanueva allowed four runs on six hits and a walk in 5.1 innings of work for his ninth loss. He hasn't won since May 25, and has now lost six straight decisions.
He was followed to the mound by Mark DiFelice, who allowed one inherited runner and two others to score on Michaels' second home run. After a scoreless inning from Claudio Vargas, the crowd in Houston was treated to the Brewer debut of Jesus Colome, who allowed a leadoff single to Carlos Lee (who was promptly thrown out trying to take second), a pop up that fell into short left for Geoff Blum, then got Ivan Rodriguez to ground into a double play in his only inning of work.
The Brewers managed just three runs despite having 14 men on base including six walks, two each for Craig Counsell (who was on base three times), Prince Fielder and Mike Cameron. Frank Catalanotto went 0-for-4 and struck out three times.