Bud Norris shines as Houston Astros defeat San Diego Padres 1-0 – MLB Update
In the first of their fourth scheduled meetings, the National League Central franchise Houston Astros overpowered the league rival San Diego Padres 1-0 on Thursday, April 14 at Minute Maid Park in Texas.
Michael Bourn singled the only run to snatch a triumph in pitchers’ dominated outing.
Astros’ starter Bud Norris made inspiring appearance and tossed six shut-out innings to achieve his first win of the season. The right-hand hurler, making his third start, struck-out seven batters and allowed just two hits and three walks. Norris acted as
per the expectations of the Houston’s veteran ace Brett Myers, who preached Norris to concentrate at one-pitch-at-a-time.
Norris after hurling a brilliant spell answered Myers and said, "Giving up a hit is not the end of the world, but making sure that you can get out of that jam and leave that guy on base is the biggest part of it.”
It was a surprise outing for the Astros’ manager Brad Mills, who regarded it as focused outing. Although, Norris threw some wrong pitches, yet he made strong comeback and tossed untouchable pitches, according to Mills.
Dustin Moseley, making his third start for Padres, pitched another expensive outing allowing seven hits in just over six innings. It also made his third-consecutive loss of the season. The last hurler to receive a shut-out in three-straight starts to begin
a season was the Detroit Tigers’ Kenny Rogers in 2008. The 29-year-old ball thrower made just two strike-outs and consumed only one run in game.
"It's frustrating, but you go out there and do your job, and you leave the rest up to the team, and hopefully guys pull through," Moseley said. "Through the first three it hasn't happened, but it's a long year. I mean, these guys can start scoring 10 a game
for me."
Padres’ manager Bud Black has different views than Moseley as he considered it a job to get strike-outs in order to earn wins.
Relievers’ Cory Luebke and Luke Gregerson maintained their ace pitches and finished the outing remaining scoreless.
The game was scoreless until sixth inning when the Houston’s catcher Humberto Quintero landed the plate and touched a led off single. This might have awarded the Astros more runs as Norris bunted and Bourn singled, but Moseley retaliated by getting Carlos
Lee on a grounder with two on.
Padres wasted many easy opportunities. Matt Downs and Quintero made singles and Melancon entered the plate, but could not avail a chance. With two loaded-bases, Melancon get embarrassed and began to walk away after missing swinging strikes realising it was
a third strike-out, but it was the third ball. In the eighth inning, Eric Patterson stole second base, but Orlando Hudson hit a grounder and Peterson was out at the plate.
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