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Major League Baseball
BOXSCORE | RECAP
Houston 8, Atlanta 3
When: 8:05 PM ET, Monday, April 9, 2012
Where: Minute Maid Park, Houston, Texas
Temperature: 79°
Umpires: Home - Gary Darling, 1B - Jerry Meals, 2B - Sam Holbrook, 3B - Paul Emmel
Attendance: 17095

Astros 8, Braves 3: J.A. Happ pitched six strong innings and drove in the early go-ahead run, helping Houston deal Atlanta its fourth straight loss to open the season.

Happ (1-0), who finished the 2011 season with an ugly 6-15 record, started the new year on the right track, striking out five and walking one.

Happ’s two-out single to right off Brandon Beachy (0-1) in the fourth scored Marwin Gonzalez, giving the Astros a 4-3 lead. In the sixth, Houston pieced together four singles to score two more runs and build a 6-3 advantage. J.D. Martinez’s pinch-hit single scored Jason Castro, and then Jose Altuve brought Gonzalez home with a sacrifice fly.

A season that started with a lot of promise has gotten off to a rocky start for Atlanta, which actually led 3-0 early in the game.

The Braves are the only 0-4 team in the National League. Dan Uggla and Brian McCann went a combined 1-for-8 and are now just 3-for-28 on the season.

GAME NOTEBOOK: Braves center fielder Michael Bourn, making his first appearance at Minute Maid Park since being traded from the Astros last July, went 0-for-4 … Houston is 3-1 after starting last season 0-5 … Astros outfielder Justin Maxwell had a pinch-hit home run to deep left field on his first at-bat of the season in the eighth.

Top Game Performances
Starting Pitchers
Atlanta   Houston
Brandon Beachy Player J.A. Happ
Loss W/L Win
5.0 IP 6.0
3 Strikeouts 5
4 Hits 6
1.80 ERA 4.50
Hitting
Atlanta   Houston
Martin Prado Player Marwin Gonzalez
2 Hits 3
0 RBI 0
0 HR 0
3 TB 4
.500 Avg .750
Team Stats Summary
 
Team Hits HR TB Avg LOB K RBI BB SB Errors
Atlanta 7 0 8 .206 10 8 3 1 0 4
Houston 11 1 16 .314 12 6 8 3 0 0