Sep 17, 2007, 15:11 GMT
- The Milwaukee Brewers will send out Yovani Gallardo and his 13 scoreless innings streak tonight in the opener of a three-game series with the Houston Astros at Minute Maid Park.
Gallardo is coming off back-to-back shutout performances against the Astros and Pirates. Versus Houston on September 5, the 21-year-old twirled seven shutout frames, working around six hits and striking out five in his first career start against the club.
Gallardo then limited the Pirates to six hits over six scoreless frames on Tuesday while fanning seven. The right-hander has won his last three starts while pitching to a 0.90 earned run average in that span, upping his season numbers to 8-4 with a 3.99 ERA.
Milwaukee has won two straight to remain one game behind the Chicago Cubs for first place in the National League Central standings. After besting the Reds, 5-2, on Sunday at Miller Park, the Brewers begin a seven-game road trip tonight.
Carlos Villanueva tossed seven scoreless innings and Joe Dillon drove in a career-best four runs on Sunday. Villanueva (8-4) scattered six hits over his quality outing while striking out four and walking three.
Prince Fielder added an RBI in a winning cause, his 110th of the season.
The Brewers have owned Houston so far this year, winning 11 of the 15 meetings with the club. That includes four wins in six encounters at Minute Maid Park.
The Astros will try to keep swinging a hot bat and play the role of spoiler tonight. The club routed the Pirates 15-3 on Sunday, as Josh Anderson had a career-high five hits and drove in three runs.
Chris Burke had three hits -- including a two-run homer -- and finished with four RBI for the Astros, who earned back-to-back wins for the first time this month. Cody Ransom and Ty Wigginton also homered, and Wigginton finished 3- for-5 with two runs scored as the Astros pounded out a season-best 22 hits.
Brandon Backe (1-1) earned his first win in more than a year, allowing just two runs and three hits with a pair of walks and two strikeouts over six innings. Backe had Tommy John surgery September 6 of last season.
Tonight's starter for Houston, Matt Albers, has lost his last two outings to fall to 4-8 on the season with a 5.79 ERA. He took a loss against Gallardo and Milwaukee on September 5 after getting rocked for seven runs on six hits and three walks over just three innings of work.
He returned to the hill on Wednesday, and the righty gave up three runs on seven hits over six frames of a setback to the Chicago Cubs.
Albers is 0-1 with an 8.10 ERA in three games (two starts) lifetime against Milwaukee.
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