Houston Astros Struggle Down the Stretch

Making his first career Major League start the Astros Aneury Rodriguez pitched five scoreless innings, allowing only a one-out triple in the third and a two-out walk in the fourth. Four relievers then pieced together the next three innings and carried a 2-0 lead into the ninth, when Brandon Lyon took over.

Things started out poorly for Lyon as he walked the Reds leadoff hitter of the inning (Drew Stubbs) on four pitches, and it didn't get any better after that. Chris Heisey, Joey Votto and Brandon Phillips followed the walk with consecutive singles to tie the game, and Jay Bruce shot a double down the right-field line to score Votto and give the Reds the dramatic walk-off win.

The blown save by Lyon was the fourth time he's done so in his lats eight chances, giving him a 3 and 2 over-all record on the season. Meanwhile in other notable game tidbits teammate and first baseman Brett Wallace went 0-for-4 from behind the plate, snapping his career best 11-game hitting streak.

Houston and the Reds' will play the final of a three game series tomorrow from the Great American Ball Park with first pitch scheduled for 11:35 a.m.