Lima, Astros Latest to Add to Brave Woes

The Atlanta Braves aren’t used to being in a pennant race or in a losing stretch late in the season.

Moises Alou homered and drove in two runs as Jose Lima pitched the Houston Astros past slumping Atlanta, 3-2, Friday night, as the Braves remained behind the New York Mets in the NL East.

“We’re beyond frustrated, we were frustrated two weeks ago,” Atlanta third baseman Chipper Jones said. “This is bordering on insanity. We’ve been slumping for so long.”

The Braves lost for the sixth time in seven games against a team that is going nowhere.

“We’ve had bad slumps before, but it seems like this is one that’s never going to end,” Jones said. “You just come out and play every day and hope that today is the day it ends and eventually, maybe it will be.”

The Braves, who have won eight consecutive division titles, trail the Mets by a half-game.

“We want to win this division, we don’t want to go into the playoffs as the wild card,” outfielder Reggie Sanders said. “I don’t see us as panicking. The stats show that we haven’t produced with runners in scoring position but we’ve still got 27 games left. We’ve got time to turn it around.”

Astro catcher Tony Eusebio separated his right shoulder when he toppled over a railing into the Houston dugout chasing a foul ball by Javy Lopez in the eighth.

Eusebio fell while a couple of teammates stood nearby, watching to see if the ball would be caught. Eusebio was unable to make the play, and left the game after a brief delay.

Alou hit his 26th homer of the season in the second inning. The Astros took a 3-2 lead in the fourth on an RBI single by Alou and a sacrifice fly by Chris Truby off John Burkett (8-6).

“I’m glad we’re playing the way we are,” Alou said. “We’re just trying to show our fans that we’re going to be for real next year and also show the front office the players they can count on. This team’s got a lot of character.”

The Astros have won 12 of 17 games.

After Truby’s sacrifice fly, Lima singled to load the bases with two out. Roger Cedeno took a called third strike to end the inning.

Lima (6-15) pitched six innings and allowed six hits and two earned runs.