Major League Baseball

Astros 3, Cubs 2

Published Sep. 19, 2011 12:56 a.m. ET

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Astros manager Brad Mills was pretty certain the review would go his way.

''When I saw it, the ball got mixed up somehow in the ivy,'' Mills said. ''If the ball went over the fence and then came back, there's no way gonna hit the ivy. It's an impossibility.''

Brett Myers benefited from a reversed homer call to beat the Cubs again and Clint Barmes had a two-run single to help the Houston Astros to a 3-2 victory over Chicago on Sunday.

With Chicago down by a run in the eighth and Starlin Castro on first, Carlos Pena hit a drive to left that was initially ruled a two-run homer. The call was overturned after umpires reviewed video of the play.

Pena was given a double and Castro was put on third base, then Marlon Byrd flied out to end the threat.

The inning started off in strange fashion when Darwin Barney's medium-depth fly to right was missed by Brian Bogusevic in right field and rolled to the warning track. Barney reached third standing up on a three-base error.

After Castro walked, pinch-hitter Aramis Ramirez hammered a drive to the right-field wall that Bogusevic tracked down with a nice running catch, scoring Barney.

''Bogie lost that one ball in the lights, but he came back and made a great play on Ramirez's sac fly,'' Mills said.

Myers struck out Bryan LaHair before Pena hit a flyball to left that was originally ruled a two-run homer after appearing to strike the wall behind the basket in front of the fence and bounce back onto the field.

After Mills protested, the umpires reviewed video of the play and determined that Pena's ball struck the front of the basket.

Cubs manager Mike Quade ran onto the field to argue and was eventually ejected by third base umpire Marty Foster. Quade admitted that the umpires were correct in reversing the home run, but felt that Castro should have scored on the play.

''Marty's got the decision on whether it's a home run or not, and he's also got the decision on where the runner is,'' Quade said. ''I'm sure they got the technique correct, I just wonder how you can see both things.''

Byrd flied out against reliever Mark Melancon to end the inning.

''When you get a break, you've to be able to take advantage of it. Mark did a great job of doing it,'' Mills said.

Meanwhile, as deliberations before and after the replay dragged on, the rain continued to fall and puddles began to form around the infield. The tarp was brought out and there was a rain delay of 1 hour, 7 minutes after the eighth.

''That last inning before we got off the field and they pulled the tarp, it was starting to puddle up,'' Barmes said. ''It wasn't very good. I definitely couldn't have seen us going any further.''

Once the game resumed, Melancon returned for the bottom of the ninth and struck out the Cubs in order for his 18th save.

''(Melancon) wanted this,'' Mills said. ''He threw the ball extremely outstanding.''

Myers (6-13) held Chicago to two runs - one earned - over 7 2-3 innings under a steady drizzle on a cool day at Wrigley Field. He improved to 13-3 lifetime against the Cubs.

''I take it as another game really,'' Myers said. ''I did have my major league debut here and I did grow up watching the Cubs and Braves a lot. I don't know, I don't think that has anything really to do with it. I think it has to do with going out there and trying to execute pitches.''

Myers outpitched Ryan Dempster (10-13), who overcame a shaky start to throw seven solid innings. Dempster held the Astros to two runs and seven hits but lost his season-high fifth straight decision.

Coming off a 128-pitch, six-walk start in his previous outing, Dempster struggled through a 33-pitch first inning. Martinez hit an RBI single and Barmes singled home two runs in Houston's three-run opening frame. Dempster gave up three hits and walked two in the inning.

''The two pitches they hit were both 0-2 pitches that were balls and they did a good job of putting the bat on the ball,'' Dempster said. ''It's unfortunate because those runs right there were what ended up costing us the game.''

NOTES: Castro doubled to lead off Chicago's first, becoming the first Cubs shortstop to reach safely in 31 straight games since Woody English, who had streaks of 34 games in 1929 and a 32 games in 1930. ... DJ Lemahieu's second-inning error gave the Cubs 127 miscues on the season, one more than last season and the team's most since they had 139 errors in 1999. Entering Sunday's game, the Cubs have committed at least seven more errors than every other team in baseball. ... Casey Coleman will look to snap a five-game losing streak when he starts Chicago's series opener against Milwaukee's Chris Narveson on Monday night. ... Houston's J.A. Happ try to avoid moving into a tie for the NL lead with 16 losses when he starts Monday's series opener in Cincinnati.

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