GAME 64 - June 8: Back Down to .500

St Louis 5, Houston 4

Quote of the Day: "S*** happens."

Right up until the weird stuff started to happen in the seventh inning, this looked like a carbon copy of Wandy's last start: Great control, few base runners, a win in the making. And his buddies gave him a few runs to work with. Not a lot - all were scored on Berkman's third inning monster of a home run - but enough for a 3-0 lead. With a line like this, it looked like another nice start for Wandy: 6 2/3 innings, 0 ER, 4 hits (all singles), 1 BB, and 7 K.

But the wheels fell off in the seventh inning: By the time they got to "Take Me Out to the Ballgame," Houston trailed 5-3, and all five of the runs were unearned. The Cards more than batted around, and their only hits were a pair of singles. Everything else was just trash defensive and bad luck.

Here's how it went down: Wandy hit the first batter on a 1-2 count. The next batter hit what appeared to be a double play ground ball, but Wiggington bobbled it, and everyone was safe. The first single loaded the bases with nobody out. A sac fly scored the first run, leaving runners at first and third with one out. Still very achievable to get out of the inning on a double play. But with a 1-2 count, Wandy hit the next batter to load the bases again. One might be wondering why Cooper didn't pull him already, but he wasn't really pitching badly - the HBPs came on inside pitches that the batter didn't really get out of the way of, and Wandy was throwing strikes. He struck out the next batter - his seventh K of the game. A wild pitch scored the runner from third, and then a single (again on a 1-2 pitch) scored two more to give the Cards a 4-3 lead. At that point, Cooper made a move - he brought in Brocail to pitch. A simple fly ball to center field appeared to end the inning, but Bourn and Pence crossed wires and no one caught the ball - scoring the 5th unearned run of the inning. Brocail finished off the inning without any further damage.

This bad turn seemed to energize the Astros a bit. Bourn led off the bottom of the inning with a bunt single, and Ausmus whacked a double to score him. But then he was left stranded as Loretta, Pence, and Matsui failed to advance him. Again in the eighth inning, the Astros had their chance to tie it: With 2 outs, Lee hit a long single. Cooper replaced him with Abercrombie, a very fast runner just up from Round Rock. Erstad hit a pinch double to right, but Romero put up the stop sign on Abercrombie, holding him at third, although it looked like he could have scored. Not the kind of aggressive base running that characterized the team when they were hot. Bourn flied out to end the inning. Valverde pitched a scoreless ninth, to keep them in the game. But Franklin, the Cards closer, struck out the side in the ninth to end it as the poet said, "not with a bang but a whimper."

Not the kind of come-from-behind, can't-loss mood that characterized the team when they were hot.

Stupid ugly loss that shouldn't have happened. Sign of a down team, continuing their slide from hottest-team-in-baseball, just a game or so from the top of the division, now back down to fourth place with a .500 record after losing 8 of their last 10.

I'm off for the next two days to celebrate the holiday of Shavuot. Happily, the Astros have the day off tomorrow, so I won't have to worry about what trouble they are getting in until their next game on Tuesday night. The fun resumes with the Brewers, followed by the Yankees, in their first appearance at Minute Maid Park.