CINCINNATI - The Cincinnati Reds had less of a chance than a spare hunk of chocolate in an orphanage, even though the Houston Astros have grown older than a leisure suit hidden in the back of a closet.
Closer Coco Cordero, brought into the ninth inning of a tie game, gave up three straight hits and three runs and the Reds lost 4-1 on Monday, April 27. It was pre-ordained, written in the wind, beyond karma.
It starts with Houston pitcher Roy Oswalt, 23-1 for his career against the Reds when the night began, a guy the Reds couldn't beat if he were a blanket dangling on a clothes line and the Reds were swinging rug-beaters.
He didn't get the win, but he held the Reds to one run and six hits over seven innings.
"It has to be a psychological thing on Oswalt's part and ours, too," manager Dusty Baker said.
Then mix in the fact that the Astros were 14-1 in their last 15 games in Great American Ball Park (16-1 now) and owned nine straight victories (10 now).
And then there is Lance Berkman, who has more red on his hands than a barn painter.
His home run in the sixth inning off Johnny Cueto broke a 0-0 tie, Berkman's 20th in GABP, six more than the next most by a visiting player (Jason Bay, 14).
It was all the Astros got off Cueto, who gave up one run and seven hits over seven innings.
It was 1-1 when the ninth began and Cordero gave up a broken-bat bloop single to Carlos Lee and a two-strike single to Miguel Tejada. Hunter Pence doubled for two runs and took third on Jay Bruce's error, enabling Pence to score on Geoff Blum's sacrifice fly.
