HOUSTON _ There was nothing sexy about the Tuesday night performance of Bartolo Colon, who got folded, spindled and saw his ERA further mutilated by the Astros as rough times continued for the Braves and the pitcher known as "Big Sexy."
Houston scored five runs in the first inning and cruised to an 8-3 win in the opener of a two-game interleague series at Minute Maid Park, handing the Braves their fifth consecutive loss and seventh in eight games since a four-game winning streak.
Just 30 games into the season, the Braves (11-19) already have three losing streaks of five or more games and Colon (1-4) already has half as many losses as he had all season in 2016, when the 43-year-old former Cy Young Award winner went 15-8 with a 3.43 ERA for the Mets and made his fourth All-Star team.
Colon gave up five runs before recording his first out Tuesday _ and somehow stuck around for 5 2/3 innings. He finished with an ugly pitching line _ 5 2/3 innings, eight hits, eight runs, three homers allowed _ that pushed his ERA to 7.22.
The 20-year veteran has a 9.55 ERA in his past four starts, allowing 36 hits and 23 earned runs in 21 2/3 innings in that woeful stretch.
After former Braves pitcher Charlie Morton needed just four pitches to get three outs in the first inning, Colon gave five hits before the first out in the bottom of the inning, a flurry capped by consecutive home runs from Carlos Correa and Carlos Beltran. Correa's three-run homer to straightaway center caromed high off the batter's eye backdrop and was estimated at 438 feet, and Beltran's reached the second seating deck in right field, pushing the lead to 5-0.
After the first inning Colon had allowed 33 hits and 20 runs over a span of 17 innings.
The portly right-hander settled in for a while and didn't give up another run until Josh Reddick's longer homer in the fifth, but the damage was already largely done. The closest the Braves got was 6-3 after scoring three runs in the sixth, and the Astros answered that with two more in the bottom of the inning.
Colon had never lost in Houston before Tuesday, going 4-0 with a 1.38 ERA in four starts including 3-0 with a 1.50 ERA in three at Minute Made Park. But these aren't your dad's Astros, and Colon, who might be as old as your dad _ the oldest active player in baseball and the only one to have to pitched in the old Astrodome will turn 44 in two weeks _ is not what he was not long ago.
After allowing only four runs and two homers in his previous four games in Houston, Colon allowed five runs and two homers Tuesday before recording an out.
He gave up three consecutive singles to start the game, with Jose Altuve getting the third of those to drive in the first run. In stepped Correa, who hit not a single but a three-run blast. Beltran followed with another, which brought pitching coach Chuck Hernandez from the dugout for a mound conference with Colon.
Whatever was said, Colon responded. He reeled off 13 outs in the next 14 batters with former Braves catcher Brian McCann the only batter to reach base in that stretch and doing so on a dropped pop-up error by Dansby Swanson. But Reddick homered in the fifth inning to push the lead to 6-0 before the Braves finally got to Morton for three runs in the sixth when the right-hander appeared to tire and his control abandoned him.
The Braves got run-scoring singles from Matt Kemp and Nick Markakis in the sixth and a bases-loaded walk by Swanson, who was nearly hit by the ball-four pitch from Morton. Reliever Chris Devenski replaced him at that point and struck out Braves newcomer Danny Santana with bases loaded to end the inning.
The Astros didn't take long to push their lead back to a comfortable margin, getting two runs in the sixth including a leadoff double from Beltran and a two-out triple from Alex Bregnan that ended Colon's night.
