HOUSTON -- Hard to say which was the bigger disaster Monday night: Jason Jennings' four-inning, six-run flameout against Washington or the poor guy who proposed to his girlfriend on camera during the sixth inning only to watch her emphatically decline -- throwing popcorn his way for emphasis -- before storming out of the ballpark.

At least the would-be groom, who also stuck around longer than the Astros' starter, got a little sympathy applause from the fans. Jennings, however, lost his ninth contest as the Nationals shut out Houston on Monday at Minute Maid Park, winning 7-0.

"If it was an act she put on a good one," Astros manager Phil Garner said of the reluctant fiancee. "She was totally surprised and then totally mad. We couldn't even get a proposal right here tonight. We lead the league in marriage proposals and we couldn't get that one right tonight."

Not much went right for the home lads this night. They were held to seven hits and blanked by a former Astro, Tim Redding, who pitched well but the Astros helped out by stranding eight baserunners.

Jennings fell to 2-9 with a 6.45 ERA and the boo birds were out for the right-hander, who has given up 31 earned runs in his last six appearances (a 12.13 ERA).

"He's really struggling to get some consistency on the mound and Dmitri's been tough on him," Garner said of Dmitri Young, who hit a three-run homer. "[He] makes a pretty decent pitch on a slider, Dmitri goes down and gets it and hits it out of the ballpark. Little things that kind of snowballed.

"He had trouble with making his pitches tonight. He looked good on some guys and then he'd go into this mode where he just couldn't get the ball where he wanted to. On the flip side on a night when we had a chance to make a game of it early on and get back in it we just didn't. We had a chance to do something and we just didn't do it. It was painful on both sides."

Jennings had a chance to help the Astros move to within seven games of first place in the National League Central, a height they last reached on June 12. But once again the 28-year-old ran into trouble the second time through the lineup, a familiar pattern for the Baylor University product since the Astros acquired him last winter.

In the third Jennings gave up a one-out single to Felipe Lopez and a two-out walk to Ryan Zimmerman. He then came within a strike of getting out of the inning trailing only 1-0, but Young belted his 1-2 pitch over the wall in the right-field corner for a three-run homer.

"It would have hit the ground if he wouldn't have hit it," Jennings said. "I guess I could bounce it in the grass and see if he can hit it out. He's 10-for-15 off me lifetime, I don't know, maybe I should bounce it."

There was more damage to come in the inning in the form of a walk to Austin Kearns, an RBI double by Ryan Church and a run-scoring single by Wily Mo Pena. In the span of a dozen pitches Jennings' 1-0 hole became a 6-0 crater and the fans weren't shy about voicing their displeasure.

"It's been a battle all year long arm wise, even after I came off the DL," Jennings said. "I feel like I'm throwing the ball better these last couple starts than I have in a month or two, but with no results to show for it."

Jennings struck out Kearns and Church in quick fashion to start the second, but found too much of the plate on an 0-1 pitch to Pena and the Nationals left fielder crushed it for his second home run since joining the Nationals to give Washington a 1-0 lead.

The Astro batters couldn't manage much of an attack against Washington starter Redding (3-3), a former Astro who was traded to San Diego after going 5-7 with a 5.72 ERA for Houston back in 2004.

"Tim has good stuff, we've seen him and we know he has good stuff," Garner said. "I thought we were aggressive tonight, maybe overly aggressive. He made some decent pitches for the double plays on others I thought we were overly aggressive. He was going deep in the count, we got ourselves out a few too many times."

Compared to Jennings' current stats, Redding's last season as an Astro doesn't look so bad. Which makes you wonder whether Jennings' time in the rotation may be coming to an end.

With Roy Oswalt skipping his next start because of injury, however, Jennings is probably safe.

"If he continues to say he's healthy we'll have to leave him in there probably," Garner said. "He's been saying he's healthy."