Myers retires 17 in row in win over Dodgers
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Brett Myers pitched a four-hitter and retired 17 consecutive batters in the first complete game by Houston's staff this season, leading the Astros to a 7-3 victory over the Los Angeles Dodgers on Friday night.
Myers (3-6) struck out six, allowing a first-inning sacrifice fly by Matt Kemp and a two-run homer in the ninth by Andre Ethier after an error by first baseman Brett Wallace.
The right-hander, facing the Dodgers for the first time since the 2008 NL championship series with Philadelphia, threw 98 pitches and went the distance for the 11th time in 231 career starts — after going 1-6 with a 6.16 ERA in his previous 10 outings.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}It was the first complete game victory by an Astros pitcher since Aug. 30, 2010, when J.A. Happ beat St. Louis 3-0 with a two-hitter at Houston.
It came in just their fourth game since pitching coach Brad Arnsberg was fired and replaced with Doug Brocail, who began the season as a special assistant to general manager Ed Wade.
Myers' streak of consecutive outs was sandwiched by a pair of James Loney singles, one in the first and the other in the seventh. Aaron Miles singled for the other Los Angeles hit. The Dodgers lost their fourth straight and are nine games under .500 for the first time since 2005, when the team finished with a 71-91 record.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Ted Lilly (5-6) was charged with six runs — five earned — and eight hits over 5 1-3 innings in his 300th major league start. The 35-year-old left-hander, pitching on five days rest after an 11-7 victory at Colorado last Saturday, has yet to win consecutive starts this season.
The Astros snapped a 1-1 tie with five runs in the sixth. Carlos Lee had a go-ahead RBI single and Clint Barmes drove in two more with an opposite-field double that landed just inside the right field line with the bases loaded.
Rookie John Lindblom relieved Lilly with the bases full after an intentional walk to Carlos Corporan, and two more runs scored when second baseman Miles smothered Jason Bourgeois' single toward the middle and tried for the force at second, but threw wildly past shortstop Dee Gordon as Barmes scored behind Wallace.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Myers walked his first batter on four pitches, and Dee Gordon scored on Kemp's sacrifice fly. The Astros tied it in the fourth on Chris Johnson's RBI double. Johnson also singled during Houston's big sixth inning.
Notes: Both teams were swept in their previous series, the Dodgers by Cincinnati and the Astros by Pittsburgh. ... Dodgers manager Don Mattingly planned to huddle with struggling RHP Chad Billingsley and pitching coach Rick Honeycutt to discuss the reasons for Billingsley's 11.19 ERA over his previous three starts. "There's too many balls in the middle of the plate," Mattingly said. "The other day, he was just firing — and that's what I was upset about. Bills is one of those guys who throws harder and harder when he's struggling instead of throwing quality pitches. But there's days when you don't have that good stuff, so you've got to make an adjustment and pitch a little differently. I mean, the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different result." ... Lee and Bourgeois both stole second against Dodgers backup C Dioner Navarro, improving the Astros' major league-best stolen base percentage. Opponents are 5 for 16 against Navarro, who threw out Lee in the seventh.