Astros manager Cecil Cooper was furious that right-hander Dave Borkowski gave up a two-run, game-tying, pinch homer to Arizona pitcher Micah Owings in the sixth inning of Wednesday's 8-7 loss to the Diamondbacks.
"If we can't get the stinking pitcher out, we're in trouble," he said. "My goodness. Two-run lead and we can't even get out of the stinking inning. That's unacceptable, and it won't happen again. I promise you that. "You get these guys down 4-0, 6-2, and we let them back in the game. It won't happen again. It definitely won't happen again."
Trailing 7-5 entering the bottom of the seventh, Arizona's Stephen Drew doubled off reliever Wesley Wright, who came back to record two outs. Borkowski came in to face Owings, a career .346 hitter who belted four homers last year in 60 at-bats.
"We knew he was a good (hitter)," said catcher Brad Ausmus, who went 3-for-4. "We extremely rarely ever go over a pitcher in a meeting when we talk about how to approach the opponents' hitters.
"We went out of our way to discuss him and talk about how to pitch him because we knew he could hit and knew he had power. That being said, he still hurt us."
Owings blasted the first pitch to the opposite field and over the wall in right for a game-tying homer. Chris Young followed with a double high off the wall in center and scored on Eric Byrnes' single to put Arizona ahead 8-7.
"It's extremely stunning," Borkowski said. "He's certainly not your typical hitting pitcher. We know he can swing it, but still for him to come out first-pitch hacking and hit an opposite-field home run, it will be hard to shake that one off."
Especially for Cooper.
DIAMONDBACKS 8, ASTROS 7: The Astros scored four runs in the first inning against Randy Johnson, including a three-run homer by Carlos Lee, and led 6-2 after two innings before losing the finale of the road trip. Brad Ausmus had three hits in a rare start, but Dave Borkowski gave up a two-run, game-tying, pinch homer to pitcher Micah Owings in the sixth inning.
