HOUSTON -- Phil Garner isn't a big fan of the squeeze play, but he'll try it a few times every year when he thinks the time is right.

The time appeared to be right in the seventh inning of Friday's game. It just didn't work, and instead of taking an opportunity and running with it, the Astros limped meekly through the rest of the night and lost to the Cardinals, 4-2, at Minute Maid Park.

That gives the Astros the unenviable distinction of being the only Major League team without a win. They're 0-4 to start the season, the first time they've dropped their first four games in 17 years.

"You always want to get that first win under your belt, just so you can move on from it," Brad Ausmus said. "But I don't think anyone's worried here."

Still, the offense has yet to produce, and the team-wide struggles in that department probably gave Garner reason to try the squeeze. The strategy was correct. One of the Astros' better bunters, Ausmus, was at the plate, and one of the faster runners, Chris Burke, was on third base. The Astros were down by two, and they had runners at the corners and no outs.

Perfect time for a squeeze. Unfortunately for the Astros, Ausmus' bunt skidded in the direction of the mound, where pitcher Adam Wainwright swooped down and scooped the ball to catcher Yadier Molina.

Burke attempted to avoid the tag by snaking in from the right side and tapping the plate with his hand, and although he doesn't recall feeling Molina's tag, the center fielder was called out.

"I didn't think that he tagged me," Burke said. "I thought I got around the play. I'm sure [the umpire] was blocked off by the catcher. Unfortunately, the call didn't go our way."

To add salt to the wound, Molina fired a laser to Albert Pujols at first base, beating Ausmus by several steps to complete the double play. Just like that, the momentum shifted back to the Cardinals and a once-jovial sellout crowd of 43,430 fell relatively silent.

In Garner's viewpoint, the squeeze was the most logical play. Had it worked, it would have pushed a run across the plate while also moving another runner into scoring position.

"It could have been a nice play if we get the run across and we get the runner to second base," Garner said. "Then we accomplished two things, because I'm going to pinch-hit for Wandy [Rodriguez]. As it turned out, it was nothing."

Ausmus said he was "half expecting" the squeeze signal from Garner and felt it was the proper call. Had the bunt moved a few inches to the left or right, the outcome may have been different.

"It wasn't a perfect bunt, don't get me wrong," Ausmus said. "You want to bunt the ball on the ground. And if you can, you want to steer it away from the pitcher, because he's the one that's the closest coming in. But the problem you run into is if you try to steer it too much, you end up fouling it off and missing.

"The most important thing is to get the ball on the ground. Frankly, they made a nice play. I don't think I've ever seen it before. You have to give a lot more credit to them than blame on us."

Add the botched squeeze attempt to the laundry list of things that aren't going well for the Astros in the very early stages of the season. The offense, pegged to be a strength of the team, hasn't produced. The Astros have scored 10 runs in four games. As a team, they're hitting .224. Lance Berkman is 2-for-13. Carlos Lee is 3-for-15.

The next logical question: are the Astros pressing?

"It sure looks that way," Garner said. "These are the dog days of April already. We are just not having good at-bats at all, as a team."

"I think that's as good a reason as any," Burke said. "I know there's a lot of guys in this room that take their jobs very seriously and know that the fans are extremely passionate about our team. We want to put our best foot forward and sometimes that works against us.

"It's frustrating, but nobody's going to feel sorry for you and [the Cardinals] have got a good team. At some point, we're going to have to figure it out and play better. We expect to start winning some games."

But Ausmus, always a calming voice of reason, gave assurances that the club is far from reaching panic mode.

"If we went 0-4 in July, you'd hardly notice the blip," he said. "It's just because our record has a big zero in the 'W' column that people are stressing about it. There's certainly no reason to stress."