GAME 66 - June 11: All Pissed Off

Milwaukee 10, Houston 6

Quote of the Day: "I would have loved it... I'm not saying I would have done well or anything." (Wiggington, on the possibility that he might have had to catch)

If Tuesday's win was an example of how the Astros should do everything right, Wednesday's loss was the counter-example. Even good things in this game seemed to have their tarnished silver lining.

I got home from work just as the third inning was ending, with the Astros having just taken a 3-2 lead on solo homers by Tejada and Lee. But the trouble started right away. Not to be outdone, the Brewers hit three home runs in the next inning. Backe only lasted four innings, leaving the game with the Astros behind 5-3; he gave up the five runs on just 7 hits, 2 walks, and a pair of strikeouts. Byrdak didn't do much better - he gave up a 2-run homer in the fifth, putting Milwaukee ahead 7-3.

But the game wasn't over: For about ten minutes in the sixth inning, the Astros set up the poor fan-in-exile to hope that they were returning to their can-do cowboy spirit. Berkman, leading off, was hit by a pitch. Lee doubled to score Berkman on a mad dash home. But there was that tarnished silver lining: Lee blundered in his base-running and was caught in a run down at second for the first out. The loss of that base runner and gain of that out would come back to haunt the Astros on the very next play - WIggington hit what could have been a two-run homer, but was only a solo. Then Abercrombie (in his first start as an Astro) and Ausmus hit back to back doubles to bring in another run. The score was 7-6 when Erstad and Pence grounded out to end the inning. That extra base runner at second base with no outs could have made the inning look quite different; it would have been a tie game, or with an extra out, perhaps the Astros could have taken the lead.

Coulda, woulda... No matter. They didn't take the lead, and instead of being pumped up, the team just seemed stressed out. In the seventh inning, Wright came in to pitch, striking out the first two batters. Then Cooper brought in Sampson to face Mike Cameron . On a 2-2 count. Cameron appeared to swing - or did he? The first base umpire said he checked his swing, full count, but Ausmus disagreed - very strongly. The first base ump threw him out of the game. Quintero took his place behind the plate just in time for ball 4, and Cameron walked.

Things got worse from there. Sampson tried a couple of times to pick him off. The first time the umpire called the runner safe got boos from the crowd. But the second time, Berkman jumped up and down in anger, and Cooper ran out to intercede. He threw his hat to the ground. The first base ump said that Coop hit him with the hat, and threw him out too. The batter flied out to end the inning, but by now the crowd was beyond restless and the Astros were looking furious. Sampson left the mound screaming at the umpire. He wasn't ejected, but maybe he should have been: He gave up three more runs in the next inning, and that was too much for the Astros to overcome.

That wasn't the end of the drama though. While the Brewers were in the midst of that run spree, a foul ball bounced off of Quintero, knocking him to the ground in pain, where he remained for several minutes. (While the reporters were discrete about the nature of his injury, in the slo-mo replay, the ball appeared to hit Q right in the cup. YEEEOOOWWwww!) Well, great - Ausmus ejected, and Quintero on his back. Now what? Wiggington and Blum are the emergency catchers, but neither have ever caught in a major league game. Blum was getting his never-used emergency catchers gear together when Q staggered to his feet and went back to work.

Nothing else worth writing about happened. The Astros went down in order for the rest of the game. Back to .500.