"Brett Myers walked off the mound muttering to himself and shaking his head in disgust.

He'd allowed one run without the Florida Marlins getting the ball out of the infield. He'd allowed another run by letting a Marlin hit the ball out of the park. He'd worked only two innings at that point, and he was running out of ways to not stop the Marlins.

Things got worse for Myers without getting better Saturday night. With Myers suffering his earliest knockout since the 2008 season, the Astros were powerless to prevent a 6-1 beating at Sun Life Stadium.

A crowd of 20,402 saw Myers end a streak of 51 starts as an Astro in which he worked at least five innings. Myers lasted 41/3 innings, allowing six runs (five earned) on four hits and walking four to raise his ERA to 4.88 — or 1.74 higher than last season. After his earliest exit since going 4 1/3 innings in a Sept. 24, 2008, start for the Philadelphia Phillies, the righthander couldn't — or wouldn't — recall the nature of his impromptu talk with himself.

"I don't know," Myers (3-9) said. "I usually talk to myself because I'm kind of a messed-up individual, I guess. I have a loose screw sometimes, especially when I cross the lines.

"I don't know what I was saying to myself. I can't even think about it."

The Astros are having the sort of season that lends itself to players willing amnesia on themselves. Marlins righthander Ricky Nolasco (6-5) needed only 106 pitches to go the distance for the sixth time in his career, allowing seven hits while striking out eight and walking one. With three consecutive defeats to the Marlins by a combined 17-4, the Astros (30-61) dropped to more than 30 games below .500 for the first time since the final day of a 65-97 season in 1991.

"It's something not a lot of us have been through before," said Astros third baseman Chris Johnson, who went 2-for-4 and scored his team's only run. "I've never been on a team that's struggled like this.""