GAMES 83-86 - June 30 - July 3: Back to Gloom & Doom...

Monday, June 30: Houston 4, Los Angeles 1
Tuesday, July 1: Los Angeles 7, Houston 6
Wednesday, July 2: Los Angeles 4, Houston 1
Thursday, July 3: Los Angeles 5, Houston 2

Quote of the Day: "I hope it ain't too bad." (Roy Oswalt, about his injury, not the season)

Still in Proposal Fugue, I barely have time to watch the Astros' games, let alone write them up, so I'm continuing to write up whole series at a time. The current proposal I'm working on has delayed its due date to mid-July, which may make the proposal manager happy, but there may be a problem if anyone thinks I'm going to work on Sunday, July 13 - when the Astros are here in Washington.

Meanwhile, this week, I'm not missing much, as the Astros have returned to their series losing ways. This blog entry will be pretty short, considering it covers 4 games - it's just not worth talking too much about more of the same...

I'll give the most attention to Monday's game, which was a nice solid game, with only one big problem. Roy Oswalt pitched his best start of the year - 6 innings, 1 run on 6 hits, no walks, and 9 strikeouts. After a kind of wacky first inning, when he gave up a double, hit two consecutive batters, and then a sac fly, it was the ol' Roy O. For the next 5 innings, he really shut down the Dodgers. Then he came to the mound in the 7th, drew a tight little audience of trainers and coaches, and left with an unspecified injury. It was later identified as some kind of strain in his hip, an he's day to day. Losing the ace, who's finally pitching like an ace, would be crushing for a team that doesn't have a whole lot of confidence in its rotation.

Chris Sampson came in to warm up on the mound, with Ausmus out there reminding him to take all the time he needed. He pitched an inning and change, Wright finished up the eighth, and Valverde took the ninth, all of them combining for a nice save of Oswalt's terrific start. Happily, the big guy didn't try to make it interesting for a change; he just got out there and finished the game.

The Astros didn't take too long to tie it up. Berkman hit a solo homer in the second inning to make it 1-1. In the fourth, Loretta's bases-loaded single pushed across another run. Ausmus followed with a 2-out single to score 2 more, giving the Astros the 3-run lead that they carried through to the end.

Monday's game was definitely the high point of the series. Tuesday's got off to a lousy start, with Wandy at the center of the trouble. The two-run homer he gave up in the first inning was just a shadow of what was to come; he gave up single runs in the third, fourth, and fifth, before he was lifted for a pinch batter in the bottom of the fifth. But this wasn't one of those high-scoring lucky-Wandy games; the Astros only eked out one run on his watch, a Bourn-Pence combo in the first inning. Villareal continued the tradition in the sixth, allowing another single run, leaving Houston down 6-1.

Then, for a while, things got interesting. In the bottom of the sixth, Berkman walked and Tejada singled, setting the table for Wiggington's two-out three-run homer. In the seventh, Bourn and Berkman walked, setting up for Lee's two-out two-run double, to tie the game at 6-6. The score stayed there through the ninth, tenth, and into the eleventh inning - a rare extra-innings game this year - when ex-Astro Jeff Kent homered off of lefty Wright. The Astros went down 1-2-3 i the bottom of the inning, losing 7-6. But at least they were in the game.

No such luck in the following two games. Wednesday, the Astros were helpless against Dodgers' pitcher Hiroki Kuroda, who was just back from the DL. I guess they fixed him: The Astros didn't score a run until El Caballo's solo homer in the ninth inning. But too little, too late. Runelvys (what a terrible name) Hernandez gave up 4 runs in his 5 innings, with Jeff Kent figuring strongly in the trouble again. Hernandez was relieved in the sixth by a familiar Astros, just returned to the Bigs from Round Rock. Dave Borkowski is back (yay!), called up to replace Oscar Villareal. Another one of Ed Wade's acquisitions bites the dust -- the Astros admitted failure with the disappointing Villareal and designated him for assignment. Borkowski pitched two scoreless innings; Brydak and Sampson eached pitched a hitless inning. Good bullpen, but the combination of mediocre starting pitching and invisible bats is not a recipe for success.

I'm not going to write much about Thursday's afternoon loss to break the Astros' successful series streak. After quickly retiring the first two batters of the game, Backe went on to give up 3 runs in the first inning -- and the game was over. The Astros got a couple of runs across - both courtesy of newly returned JR Towles - but that's all she wrote. A sign of the stress the team is under: Brocail was ejected in the ninth for arguing a ball 4 call.

Bad Stat Department: After his home run in Monday's game, Berkman did not get another hit in the series.

Giving up runs early and often, while not scoring many yourself, is not the way to get to the playoffs. I am just hoping that the Nats continue to play worse than the Astros, so I can get to see a win while they're here next week.