GAME 55 - May 29: Short and Sour

St Louis 3, Houston 2

Quote of the Day: "I still ain't throwing shutout all the way through it. But it's not easy to throw seven shutout, especially when people expect you to..."" (Roy Oswalt, sounding a bit frustrated)

Roy Oswalt pitched a quality start (not at all a given this season), but the Astros offense was on vacation again tonight, leaving Roy O holding the bag for the loss. After 2 consecutive poor outings, Oswalt pitched well, once he got out of the first inning. He got the first out quickly, before allowing a single and a pair of walks to load the bases, and then a single to score 2 runs. It looked like the Cards were going to get a huge inning, but Oswalt shut them down to end it. After that, only a solo homer by Pujols interrupted his 7 innings of solid pitching.

Unfortunately, much like the previous night, the Astros offense wasn't up to even this minor challenge. It amounted pretty much to a pair of solo homers, one by Lee in the seventh and the other by Berkman in the ninth. Berkman also had a double but was left stranded. Brocail pitched a perfect eighth, in another good performance by the bullpen.

All in all, a bit more of a whimper than a bang, as the Astros lose 3-2, and give the series to the Cards. But it's a long season, and we'll see plenty more of the Cardinals before it's over. One item of good news in this series: No bench-clearing brawls, or even signs of ill will, like the events that spoiled the last trip to St Louis. No little chats between Pujols and Backe (who didn't pitch in this series). Hopefully that's all over now, and the contention between these two teams can go back to the sportsmanship and respect that has been seen in the past.

Next stop: Milwaukee. Friday's game is in the evening, and Saturday's game will likely end before the Sabbath does, so I will have my weekly opportunity to demonstrate that I actually do have priorities in life: The Sabbath takes precedence over baseball. At 9:15, we'll make Havdalah to separate the Sabbath from the rest of the week, i.e., baseball. At 9:20, I'll be watching Friday night's game on the mlb.tv archive.