GAME 65 - June 10: Back on Track

Houston 6, Milwaukee 1

Word for the Day: Harmony. A pleasing or congruent arrangement of parts.

Ahhhhhh, the world is back in a harmonic balance. The Astros won with a great start from Roy O, lights-out work from the bullpen, and plenty of runs - 5 of them credited to the Puma. What could be more perfect, from a baseball perspective at least?

It didn't look quite so easy when I turned on my computer after the Shavuot holiday ended tonight. After six innings, the Astros had a fragile 2-1 lead, thanks to Berkman's 2-run homer in the first inning. But that was it for Houston hitting through six. Meanwhile, it was the old Classic Oswalt on the mound - a few scattered hits, lots of strikeouts, great control. By the seventh inning stretch, he had only given up one ER on a solo home run in the third, on 5 hit, no walks, and 10 strikeouts. WIth Oswalt coming up third in the bottom of the inning, he was likely to be lifted for a pinch hitter - would a one-run lead be enough to get him a win?

This time it was Houston's turn for a Big Inning, as the Astros beat up on their old rival Julian Tavares. (Remember the time he smashed his pitching hand on a water cooler in the playoffs? That Tavares.) Bourn led off the inning with his new trick: The bunt single. Even if the Brewers' pitcher and catcher had managed to field the ball, there was no way to catch Bourn. Then Ausmus followed with a sac bunt, but was safe on first on Taveres' throwing error; Bourn went to third. Erstad, pinch hitting for Oswalt, singled to score Bourn. The Astros lead was doubled to two runs, 3-1. Pence struck out for the first out. Matsui singled to left to load up the bases. Tejada popped a foul ball to first, bringing up the Big Puma with a full house - two out and three on. Two pretty ugly swings later, it wasn't looking too good. But the next pitch went right over the leaping center fielder, and rolled up Tal's Hill for a base-clearing triple. Lee flied out to the right field warning track. Five runs scored in the seventh, Astros lead 6-1. I would guess that Roy O was feeling a little better about his chances right about then.

No problem. The bullpen came in and did what it's been doing pretty consistently lately - Brocail took down the side in the eighth on 9 pitches, then Wright finished them off 1-2-3 in the ninth.

Heroes of the game: Berkman looked a lot like he did a month ago - he went 3 for 4, with a home run, triple, and single, and 5 RBIs. Oswalt looked a lot like he did in his previous seasons. It was his first W in a month.

I read that Ed Wade came in the clubhouse to have a little chat with the players today. It was a private conversation - as he said, if he wanted the press to hear what was said, he would have invited them. At any rate, the team played a very fine game, absent the clunky moves that have cost them some of their recent games. Back to a game over .500 - back to being a winning team. Keep up the good work!