Hartsville's Jordan Lyles fell to 0-5 after a 5-2 loss to the Washington Nationals on Monday night at Minute Maid Park. Lyles had his longest outing of his major league career throwing 8.1 innings with 6 Ks. Lyles threw three perfect innings to start and four shutout innings before giving up a solo HR to Michael Morse in the 5th inning. After the Astros took a 2-1 lead, Lyles gave up a home run to Ryan Zimmerman to tie the game at 2. Lyles entered the 9th inning over 100 pitches and gave up a bloop single and an RBI to Zimmerman to make it a 3-2 game. Lyles was charged with four runs to drop to 0-5.
Since getting a no decision in his MLB debut (a 7-3 Houston win over the Cubs), the Astros have scored just 22 runs in eight games that Lyles has pitched (2.75 runs per game).
“We’ll put it all together one game,” Lyles said in an article on UltimateAstros.com. “It will come sooner or later. Just have more outings like I had tonight, and it will come sooner or later.”
"I feel sorry for him losing that ballgame," Nationals manager Davey Johnson said of Lyles. "He pitched a great ballgame. Pitched his heart out."
"If I continue to have more outings like I did today, they will come often and a lot," Lyles said in the AP recap. "I have to continue to get better and keep making good pitches like I did tonight."
