GAME 74 - June 20: Red Letter Day: W!

Houston 4, Tampa Bay 3

Quote of the Day: "It's nice to hear loud voices in the clubhouse. It's nice to smile, for crying out loud." (Brocail, on finally winning a game)

While I knew that the Astros were not really going to lose all the rest of the games of the season, I had stopped expecting them to win. So it was a halfway nice surprise, when I turned on my computer after the Sabbath ended, to see that they had actually won a game on Friday night. I say "halfway" because I also saw that they had lost the Saturday game - but that's for the next entry. So I watched the winning game on the archive late that night.

It was the Good Oswalt this time, pitching his usual game, which is not so common this season. He pitched into the eighth, giving up 2 runs on 7 hits and 2 walks, striking out 5. Happily, neither of the runs were homers - Oswalt has returned to his old style of pitching, which is not as conducive to home runs as his new game.

The Astros offense scored just enough runs to squeak through, with half of them coming in the first inning. After 2 quick outs to start the game, Tejada got on with an infield single. (Cooper's admonitions to quit sliding head-first must have some effect; Tejada came in feet-first.) Berkman moved him over with a walk. Then Lee's double past the center fielder scored them both, as Berkman hustled to cross the plate before the throw. Pence hit another infield single to put runners on the corners, but Erstad flied out to end the fun.

In the bottom of the inning, Oswalt gave back one of the runs on three consecutive singles, which would have given me kind of a stomach ache if I hadn't already read the box score before watching the game. Then he settled in to stymie the Rays for the next 6 innings.

The Astros picked up their other two runs in the fifth inning. Bourn started it off with a 1-out single and scored on Matsui's double. Tejada's infield single put runners on the corners. Berkman survived a terrific 11-pitch battle with the pitcher, finally connecting for a long fly ball to the left-field corner; Matsui tagged and jogged home to make it 4-1.

Despite the cloud of depression that seems to be hovering over the team, the Astros did put some energy into this game. They were aggressive on the base paths. Sometimes it worked out - like Berkman's first-inning dash from first to third to score on Lee's double. Other times it didn't: Tejada was thrown out trying to stretch a single into a double in the third inning, and Pence was caught stealing in the fourth. They were also helped out defensively by using Lee as a DH in this inter-league game. Erstad, a superior fielder, made a tremendous leaping catch to end the second inning, saving what would have surely been extra bases.

It was Classic Roy O up until the eighth, when he gave up a bunt single to the lead-off batter. He struck out the next batter, and then he got the ground ball, but the Astros could only get the runner at first, advancing the runner. The next batter blooped the ball into shallow center; Bourn managed to glove it on a diving catch, but couldn't hold the ball, and the runner scored from second. After Oswalt walked the next batter, Cooper called it a night. Brocail came in with 2 on and 2 outs; he threw exactly one pitch to end the inning with a ground out.

Valverde came in with a two-run lead to pitch the ninth. After two poor outings in Baltimore, resulting in a blown save and a tenth-inning walk-off home run loss, he needed a good showing. He got the first out on a fly ball. But - perhaps to add a bit of drama - he gave up a home run to the second batter. Now, with a one-run lead to protect, he was apparently revved up enough to pitch. He got the next two batters out with 7 very nasty pitches, 6 of them strikes topping out at 98 MPH.

Game over. Finally, a win! It would have been nice to see some jumping for joy, ritual helmet bashing, ecstatic high-fives, but all that I saw on the Rays' TV coverage was a momentary shot of some relieved-looking guys in the Astros dugout. Perhaps they were in shock that they didn't manage to lose another one in the last inning.

They saved that for Saturday night.