April 24: Brewers 5, Astros 2
April 25: Brewers 9, Astros 8 [11 innings]
April 26: Astros 3, Brewers 2
"Slowest. Game. Ever."
That was the tweet from Alyson Footer during the seventh inning of today's game. Her game writeup on Astros.com started out: "This wasn't the quickest game in team history, nor was it the prettiest." She explained that comment on Twitter as well: "'This wasn't the quickest game in history, nor was it the prettiest,' actually means, 'the game was so slow i wanted to gouge my eyes out.'" Wow, that's pretty slow.
But was it really the slowest game ever?
Maybe Alyson just had a hot date, or an appointment to have her hair straightened, or some other good reason to be in a rush to get out of Minute Maid Park? So I took a look at the numbers. At 3:26, today's game was almost a full hour shorter than last night's 11-inning ping-pong game. Just for grins, I compared the game length to the other NL games today:
2:35 : Pittsburgh's 8-3 win over the Padres: 6 pitchers, 282 pitches
2:36 : Atlanta 8-2 win over Reds: 6 pitchers, 258 pitches
2:42 : Rockies 10-4 over the Dodgers: 7 pitchers, 282 pitches
2:52 : Nats 8-1 win over Mets: 8 pitchers, 312 pitches
2:57 : Cubs 10-3 win over Cards: : 9 pitchers, 317 pitches
3:22 : Phillies 13-2 win over Marlins: 8 pitchers, 371 pitches
3:26 : Astros 3-2 win over Brewers: 10 pitchers, 320 pitches
3:45 : Arizona 5-4 win (12 innings) over Giants: 11 pitchers, 358 pitches
Okay, it was a long game, only 19 minutes shorter than the 12 inning game in Arizona. Notably, there were significantly fewer total runs scored in the Astros' game (5) than in all the others - no other NL game today had less than 9 combined runs. Perhaps long games with lower scoring just seem even longer? An exception might be when one of the teams has a starting pitcher with a great game going; who'd get bored during a no-hitter? In this case, the Astros used 5 relievers over 4 innings, which may be less compelling. (The exception, of course, would be the Astros' 7-pitcher no hitter against the Yankees.) On top of the relatively high pitch count in the Astros-Brewers game, there were 13 pickoff attempts (12 by Milwaukee pitchers), including 9 in the bottom of the eigtht just trying to get Pence on first. All of which slow down the game...
So there may be reason to complain that the game went long. However, it was not the "Slowest. Game. Ever." I know that for a fact, because I was at the Astro's Slowest Game Ever: It was April 15, 1968, when the Astros and Mets went at it for 24 innings, with the score tied 0-0. Alyson was not actually at that game, since she wasn't born yet. (Jeff Bagwell wasn't born until a month later.) The game was so slow that after about 16 innings, the lightbulbs that made up the Astrodome's wonder-of-the-world scoreboard started flashing funny messages, like:
THE JUDGE WANTS TO GO TO BED (referring to owner Judge Roy Hofheinz, who had an apartment in the Astrodome)
And my favorite, after the 3rd out of the 17th or so:
I THINK I'M GOING TO THROW UP.
Understand, this was in the tamer days before Wayne and Garth's 100 terms for vomiting, and we kids laughed our heads off to see a reference to spewing on the scoreboard.
Since we were young kids, my dad made us leave at midnight after 18 innings. So we were not actually there to see the biggest event of the evening, when Bob Aspromonte's ground ball went through the Mets' shortstop's legs, scoring Norm Miller from third. My mom was pretty pissed off when we got home so late on a school night. But - even though this was surely the Astros' Slowest. Game. Ever - we didn't want to leave. We were having a great time.
I am not generally impatient for the game to be over, especially on the few occasions that I'm actually there in person. Usually it's just the opposite - the games seem to be over so quickly. Maybe when the Astros are playing on the West Coast, and I'm up till 1 AM Eastern time, falling asleep at the computer. But for normal games, like today's, I don't really mind slow games - at least when the Astros are winning.
For my anniversary present in 2006, I requested that my husband (a Hebrew poet from Lubbock - don't ask) give me a unique gift: A Hebrew translation of Take Me Out to the Ballgame that was true to the rhyme and the rhythm (so I could sing it at games) and the sense of the song. Knowing how much I enjoyed watching games for hour after hour, he translated "I don't care if I never get back" as "Inshallah yiyu sham meah sivuvim" - I hope there will be 100 innings. Okay, it's an exagerration, and a bullpen nightmare. But it rhymed well and the basic idea is there: A long game is a good thing. (One has to assume that the lyracist Jack Norworth did not mean that he'd "never get back" because he'd be mugged on the subway coming home from the game.)
So, sorry Alyson, hope you weren't late for your evening plans, but I enjoyed the s...l...o...w game today, especially because the Astros won.
How they did it: Astros starter Russ Ortiz pitched 5 innings, giving up 2 runs on 4 hits, 4 walks, and striking out 3. Not a long start, but enough to qualify for the win. He was backed up by a terrific quintet from the bullpen: Wright, Sampson, Brocail (welcome back!), Hawkins, and Valverde. One night after blowing a save by giving up a two run homer to Fielder, Valverde was back on the mound, visibly limping from his injury last week. But this time he was on target, and it ended with Fielder making the last out of the game.
The Astros scored all 3 of their runs in the first 4 innings, and that was all they could muster. One run came from a fielding error (we'll take it!), another from Lee's RBI single. The go-ahead run was courtesy of Pudge's fourth inning solo shot. Pudge also looked good behind the plate, throwing out two Brewer runners who had the audacity to attempt base thefts. Blum celebrated his 36th birthday by going 2 for 4. Berkman went 0 for 4 (when do we get to call it a "slump"?).
So the Astros pulled one out of the hat today, avoiding a sweep by the Brewers. Friday night's game, which I missed because of the Sabbath, was one of those gloomy games where the Astros get behind and just can't come back. (But at least it had a quick 2:14 game time - it wasn't slow!) The Astros had a short-lived 2-0 lead, thanks to Lee's 2-run homer in the fourth inning. Astros' starter Paulino got off to a good start for the first 4 innings, then the wheels came off in the fifth when he gave up 4 runs on 6 singles. But his teammates couldn't seem to do much else offensively. The notable play of the game had this innocuous line on the pitch-by-pitch:
J.J. Hardy:Ball, Strike looking, Ball, Hardy singled to right, Cameron out at home.
It looked a whole lot worse on the video: Pence did a great job with an outfield assist from right, shooting the ball to Quintero well upline from the plate. Q was there with the ball in hand to tag Mike Cameron, who came barrelling into him, knocking him flat. Quintero held on to the ball for the out, but it cost him a trip to the DL. (The fair-haired JR Towles was called up from Round Rock to fill in.)
I tuned into Saturday night's game as soon as the Sabbath ended - just in time to see the Astros blow a 4-1 lead on Bill Hall's 3-run homer in the sixth. The Astros had taken the lead in the fourth inning on Lee's 2-run home run, followed by starting pitcher Hampton's RBI single. Bourn added one more in the fifth with a solo homer, his first of the year.
The game stayed in a tie until the bottom of the eighth, when Hawkins gave up a pair of runs on a walk, three singles, and a sac fly. That's when it turned into a ping pong game. The Astros came right back in the bottom of the inning to score 3 - the first of which was JR Towles' (fresh up from the farm) RBI single. Matsui hit a 2-RBI double to retake the lead, 7-6.
But Valverde - who does not really look okay after his injury last week - blew the save opportunity, giving up a 2-run homer to Prince Fielder in the top of the ninth. The Astros came back again in the bottom of the inning, when Berkman (who had gotten on after being hit by a pitch) scored on a throwing error that should have ended the game. All tied up at 8-8 - extra innings.
The Astros loaded the bases in the tenth, but failed to score. Geary, who had pitched a scoreless 10th stayed in for the 11th with less luck. He gave up a leadoff double, followed by a single to put the Brewers ahead 9-8. Geary went on to load up the bases with no outs, but worked his way out of the mess without any additional damage.
That brought the Astros to the bottom of the inning, down by one. Pence led off with a single, Smith failed to advance him attempting unsuccessfully to bunt, and the game ended, as the poet said, not with a bang but a whimper.
The other entertainment in this game was the Astros' annoyance with the way home plate ump Mark DiMuro was calling balls and strikes. After several players (notably Berkman, who's having serious woes at the plate) complained, Pudge got into a spat when he was catching. He was ejected and Cooper, to be supportive, got himself tossed out too.
Coming from behind is a good thing, and the Astros' being able to do it a couple of times in Saturday night's game gives me hope. But a loss is a loss. In the end of the season, it will just be another April loss that contributed to a big hole that the Astros dug. Let's hope they don't wait until August this year to start digging themselves out!
Sunday, April 26, 2009
Friday, April 24, 2009
GAMES 14-16: Raison de Twetre
April 21: Astros 8, Dodgers 3
April 22: Astros 6, Dodgers 5
April 23: Dodgers 2, Astros 0
Last year ago I was doing a little personal research on Web 2.0 technologies that might be useful in building future systems for my company's government customers. In the process, I signed up for a free account on Twitter, got a friend and one of my sons to do the same, and played around with it a bit. It took me about 10 minutes to get bored - basically with no one to talk to, I didn't really get the point. So I abandoned Twitter and went back to IM and Facebook and email and blogs and the myriad other ways that you can interact with people without ever having to actually encounter them.
Last week when I saw a mlblogs comment about all the baseball bloggers who were on Twitter, I decided to give it another try. I resurrected my forgotten password, and logged in during a ballgame - and suddenly I get it. After years of sitting at home watching games by myself, with no one to talk baseball, all of a sudden I'm not alone. Other people are sitting by themselves watching the game with me. I have finally found my raison de twetre.
It's changed my baseball-watching world. I'm so used to my friends and family making a joke about my love of baseball and of the Astros that I'd almost bought in to their marking me as a smart and amiable weirdo. Since Spring Training, I have made three discoveries.
1. Other people go to Astros Spring Training every single year, and are just as crazy about it as I am. Some stay the whole time - still only a dream for me in this working-stiff phase of my life. Spring Training is way more fun when you actually meet some of these people. Even better, you can sit next to them and talk baseball for the whole game, even if your spouse or traveling partner doesn't know what RISP spells. (For that matter, do the Astros?)
2. Writing my game-by-game baseball diary since 2005 has been an entertaining personal activity, but there are also other civilians who write about baseball - some of them quite seriously. After being put off by some of the mean-spirited nonsense that people spew on press-sponsored blogs (like those on chron.com), I wrote a blog of my own entitled "What I Hate About Baseball Blogs." Then I discovered the blogs of RoundRock15 and Austin and other people who love to write about baseball and the Astros. I found out that I don't hate baseball blogs - I just hate stupid commentors.
3. A computer and high-speed Internet and $79 bucks a year for mlb.tv gets you a seat at every Astros game of the season (except for the ones here in Washington, which I will attend in person). Add some good food and a bottle of wine, and it's quite an enjoyable experience. But add some friends on Twitter (including RoundRock and Austin and new ones who are starting to pop up), and it's really sweet. Or should I say, Tweet.
With all this new-found social life, I have actually not had time to do what I normally do during a game - write up notes for what I later fill in to be game-blog entries. So now, despite having watched the Dodgers series live, I'm three games behind on my blog. This entry is probably long enough as it is, and you can just read the pitch-by-pitch and box scores for the details, so I'll just cover some of the high points.
Biggest high point: A series win against a good team! A team that came into the series on an eight-game winning streak. A team that has more wins than the Astros has losses! We're not just talking about the Pirates here.
Second best high point: Continued solid pitching (mostly) by Astros starting pitchers. It wasn't as hot as it was in the previous few games (most of which we lost, by the way). But we got reasonably solid starts from Ortiz, Oswalt, and Wandy. Ortiz threw 5 innin
gs, giving up 3 runs on 3 hits and (uh oh) 5 walks. The Astros scored 6 on his watch, setting Ortiz up for his first win of the season (first since 2007, actually). In Game 2, Oswalt threw 5 excellent shutout innings and 1 inning that reeked. After giving up hits to the first 2 batters, he was terrific until the sixth inning, when he gave up 4 runs on 3 homers. He did a metamorphasis into the Ray Oswalt who kept giving up homers at the start of last season - causing the press bloggers and commenters to speculate that he was injured. Or perhaps, the real Roy O was kidnapped by aliens and replaced by the Kissimmee Beer Guy Evil Twin. In Game 3, Wandy threw a beaut - 6 innings, giving up only 1 run on 5 hits and 2 walks, striking out 4. He lowered his ERA to 1.80, earning the loss for his efforts as his teammates failed to score (see Biggest low point).
Other high points: The Astros hit a season high 8 runs in Game 1. Pudge went 2 for 3 in Game 1, scoring 3 times. Tejada went 2 for 5 with 3 RBI, and Lee went 2 for 4 with a homer. The Astros came from behind in Game 2, with Berkman's eighth inning solo homer and Pudge's RBI single to take the lead. Pence also got a 2-run homer in Game 2. LaTroy Hawkins closed out the game, with Valverde out (see other biggest low point), with a perfect ninth. Wesley Wright has also been doing some very nice work in relief.
Of course, it wasn't a sweep, so all was not all sweetness and light.
Biggest low point: Being shut out in Game 3. Even though it was down to the last pitch (a single would have tied the game), it's still bummer losing a shutout. This wasn't one of those games where the Astros were smacking the ball around but couldn't find home plate - they got as many walks and hit-batters as hits (4).
Other big low point: Valverde got the save in Game 1, after getting himself quite banged up on a heroic attempt to throw out a runner at first base. To add insult to injury, the replay looked like the ump got it wrong when he called the runner safe. Like last year, when he completed the game after being smacked in the head by a hard liner, Valverde limped back to the plate and finished the game. Frankly I can't figure out why Coop let him - he wasn't really throwing strikes on his gimp leg, and could have exacerbated the problem. But Valverde is Valverde - he even managed to strike out the last 2 batters to get the save. On the other hand, he's been out recuperating from the injury for the past two days.
I could nitpick and find other things to whine about, but hey, we won a series against a hot team. If I want to complain about the team's performance, I should go do it on Richard Justice's blog, not mine. Meanwhile, it's Friday. Gotta go cook for the Sabbath (South Indian vegetarian), and shut down before the game. Be back Saturday night, after the Sabbath, sometime in the middle of the game. You can look for me on Twitter. Tweet!
April 22: Astros 6, Dodgers 5
April 23: Dodgers 2, Astros 0
Last year ago I was doing a little personal research on Web 2.0 technologies that might be useful in building future systems for my company's government customers. In the process, I signed up for a free account on Twitter, got a friend and one of my sons to do the same, and played around with it a bit. It took me about 10 minutes to get bored - basically with no one to talk to, I didn't really get the point. So I abandoned Twitter and went back to IM and Facebook and email and blogs and the myriad other ways that you can interact with people without ever having to actually encounter them.
Last week when I saw a mlblogs comment about all the baseball bloggers who were on Twitter, I decided to give it another try. I resurrected my forgotten password, and logged in during a ballgame - and suddenly I get it. After years of sitting at home watching games by myself, with no one to talk baseball, all of a sudden I'm not alone. Other people are sitting by themselves watching the game with me. I have finally found my raison de twetre.
It's changed my baseball-watching world. I'm so used to my friends and family making a joke about my love of baseball and of the Astros that I'd almost bought in to their marking me as a smart and amiable weirdo. Since Spring Training, I have made three discoveries.
1. Other people go to Astros Spring Training every single year, and are just as crazy about it as I am. Some stay the whole time - still only a dream for me in this working-stiff phase of my life. Spring Training is way more fun when you actually meet some of these people. Even better, you can sit next to them and talk baseball for the whole game, even if your spouse or traveling partner doesn't know what RISP spells. (For that matter, do the Astros?)
2. Writing my game-by-game baseball diary since 2005 has been an entertaining personal activity, but there are also other civilians who write about baseball - some of them quite seriously. After being put off by some of the mean-spirited nonsense that people spew on press-sponsored blogs (like those on chron.com), I wrote a blog of my own entitled "What I Hate About Baseball Blogs." Then I discovered the blogs of RoundRock15 and Austin and other people who love to write about baseball and the Astros. I found out that I don't hate baseball blogs - I just hate stupid commentors.
3. A computer and high-speed Internet and $79 bucks a year for mlb.tv gets you a seat at every Astros game of the season (except for the ones here in Washington, which I will attend in person). Add some good food and a bottle of wine, and it's quite an enjoyable experience. But add some friends on Twitter (including RoundRock and Austin and new ones who are starting to pop up), and it's really sweet. Or should I say, Tweet.
With all this new-found social life, I have actually not had time to do what I normally do during a game - write up notes for what I later fill in to be game-blog entries. So now, despite having watched the Dodgers series live, I'm three games behind on my blog. This entry is probably long enough as it is, and you can just read the pitch-by-pitch and box scores for the details, so I'll just cover some of the high points.
Biggest high point: A series win against a good team! A team that came into the series on an eight-game winning streak. A team that has more wins than the Astros has losses! We're not just talking about the Pirates here.
Second best high point: Continued solid pitching (mostly) by Astros starting pitchers. It wasn't as hot as it was in the previous few games (most of which we lost, by the way). But we got reasonably solid starts from Ortiz, Oswalt, and Wandy. Ortiz threw 5 innin
gs, giving up 3 runs on 3 hits and (uh oh) 5 walks. The Astros scored 6 on his watch, setting Ortiz up for his first win of the season (first since 2007, actually). In Game 2, Oswalt threw 5 excellent shutout innings and 1 inning that reeked. After giving up hits to the first 2 batters, he was terrific until the sixth inning, when he gave up 4 runs on 3 homers. He did a metamorphasis into the Ray Oswalt who kept giving up homers at the start of last season - causing the press bloggers and commenters to speculate that he was injured. Or perhaps, the real Roy O was kidnapped by aliens and replaced by the Kissimmee Beer Guy Evil Twin. In Game 3, Wandy threw a beaut - 6 innings, giving up only 1 run on 5 hits and 2 walks, striking out 4. He lowered his ERA to 1.80, earning the loss for his efforts as his teammates failed to score (see Biggest low point).Other high points: The Astros hit a season high 8 runs in Game 1. Pudge went 2 for 3 in Game 1, scoring 3 times. Tejada went 2 for 5 with 3 RBI, and Lee went 2 for 4 with a homer. The Astros came from behind in Game 2, with Berkman's eighth inning solo homer and Pudge's RBI single to take the lead. Pence also got a 2-run homer in Game 2. LaTroy Hawkins closed out the game, with Valverde out (see other biggest low point), with a perfect ninth. Wesley Wright has also been doing some very nice work in relief.
Of course, it wasn't a sweep, so all was not all sweetness and light.
Biggest low point: Being shut out in Game 3. Even though it was down to the last pitch (a single would have tied the game), it's still bummer losing a shutout. This wasn't one of those games where the Astros were smacking the ball around but couldn't find home plate - they got as many walks and hit-batters as hits (4).
Other big low point: Valverde got the save in Game 1, after getting himself quite banged up on a heroic attempt to throw out a runner at first base. To add insult to injury, the replay looked like the ump got it wrong when he called the runner safe. Like last year, when he completed the game after being smacked in the head by a hard liner, Valverde limped back to the plate and finished the game. Frankly I can't figure out why Coop let him - he wasn't really throwing strikes on his gimp leg, and could have exacerbated the problem. But Valverde is Valverde - he even managed to strike out the last 2 batters to get the save. On the other hand, he's been out recuperating from the injury for the past two days.
I could nitpick and find other things to whine about, but hey, we won a series against a hot team. If I want to complain about the team's performance, I should go do it on Richard Justice's blog, not mine. Meanwhile, it's Friday. Gotta go cook for the Sabbath (South Indian vegetarian), and shut down before the game. Be back Saturday night, after the Sabbath, sometime in the middle of the game. You can look for me on Twitter. Tweet!
Tuesday, April 21, 2009
GAME 13: RISP is a Four Letter Word
April 20: Reds 4, Astros 3
Back in my Houston childhood, girls did not play baseball. At the little league field, we ate Frito Pies and fluorescent Sno Cones, got sunburned, and cheered for our brothers. So, having never actually played ball, I generally don't second guess the big league managers. Even so...
I just knew that the Astros, down 4-3, would retake the lead in the eighth when Jason Michaels led off with a double, with the top of the order coming up. But I was stymied when Matsui sac bunted him to third. Why have him bunt? He's not a pitcher, he's a lead-off hitter. Let him hit to right, and at least have a chance to get a base out of it. The SABR guys can duke it out over the real and perceived value of sacrifice bunts, but my gut feeling was that we wasted a precious out.
I won't go through the gory details of how we got all the way to bases loaded, with two outs, and Pence at the plate with a full count. You just know that the kid has "patience, patience" running through his head like a mantra, telling himself no wild swings at balls in the dirt, a RBI walk ties the game... And then he's called out on a borderline pitch at the knees, looking stunned.
As long as I'm breaking with habit and questioning managerial decisions: I wasn't happy to see Hampton replaced in the seventh. A lead-off single followed by a sac bunt put a runner on second with one out. Hampton, at 100 pitches, got the hook. After some problems in the first inning, resulting in the Reds' 2 runs, the bulldog had been pitching well, and I thought that he could get out of it and finish off the seventh. I'll give Cooper the benefit of the doubt - he's out there and knows his guys; maybe Hampton was gassed. Or maybe Coop's just thinking of the long season and wanting to make sure that the elderly Hampton can endure for the long haul.
At any rate, the decision to replace Hampton with Geary and then Byrdak - the same duo that gave us yesterday's blown game - didn't work out well. Willie T hit an infield to put runners on the corners, and Hairston walked to load the bases. Enough fun for Geary. Byrdak came in to face the Votto, who hit a 2-run double to give the Reds a 4-3 lead. Hmmm. (Sound familiar?) Bourn played the ball well in center, getting it quickly to Tejada, who passed it on to Pudge to nail Hairston trying to score. Geary got his second "L" in two days.
Oh, did I mention that Berkman and Lee had back-to-back homers in the sixth? That should have been right up at the top of this game recap, where I should have been reviewing all the great things that helped the Astros win this one. Quality start by Hampton, pair of dingers in the sixth - and a crooked number in the eighth... that didn't happen.
Well, as we keep rationalizing, it's early yet. But Astros history would indicate that we'll be sorry about all these early-season losses when we get to the last week of September and pull up a game or two short. This team should be winning games - good starting pitching, solid bullpen (recent fumbles notwithstanding), enough base runners to sustain them - but zip with RISP.
Tonight: The Dodgers are in town. It will be weird to see Ausmus in opposing duds.
Back in my Houston childhood, girls did not play baseball. At the little league field, we ate Frito Pies and fluorescent Sno Cones, got sunburned, and cheered for our brothers. So, having never actually played ball, I generally don't second guess the big league managers. Even so...
I just knew that the Astros, down 4-3, would retake the lead in the eighth when Jason Michaels led off with a double, with the top of the order coming up. But I was stymied when Matsui sac bunted him to third. Why have him bunt? He's not a pitcher, he's a lead-off hitter. Let him hit to right, and at least have a chance to get a base out of it. The SABR guys can duke it out over the real and perceived value of sacrifice bunts, but my gut feeling was that we wasted a precious out.
I won't go through the gory details of how we got all the way to bases loaded, with two outs, and Pence at the plate with a full count. You just know that the kid has "patience, patience" running through his head like a mantra, telling himself no wild swings at balls in the dirt, a RBI walk ties the game... And then he's called out on a borderline pitch at the knees, looking stunned.
As long as I'm breaking with habit and questioning managerial decisions: I wasn't happy to see Hampton replaced in the seventh. A lead-off single followed by a sac bunt put a runner on second with one out. Hampton, at 100 pitches, got the hook. After some problems in the first inning, resulting in the Reds' 2 runs, the bulldog had been pitching well, and I thought that he could get out of it and finish off the seventh. I'll give Cooper the benefit of the doubt - he's out there and knows his guys; maybe Hampton was gassed. Or maybe Coop's just thinking of the long season and wanting to make sure that the elderly Hampton can endure for the long haul.
At any rate, the decision to replace Hampton with Geary and then Byrdak - the same duo that gave us yesterday's blown game - didn't work out well. Willie T hit an infield to put runners on the corners, and Hairston walked to load the bases. Enough fun for Geary. Byrdak came in to face the Votto, who hit a 2-run double to give the Reds a 4-3 lead. Hmmm. (Sound familiar?) Bourn played the ball well in center, getting it quickly to Tejada, who passed it on to Pudge to nail Hairston trying to score. Geary got his second "L" in two days.
Oh, did I mention that Berkman and Lee had back-to-back homers in the sixth? That should have been right up at the top of this game recap, where I should have been reviewing all the great things that helped the Astros win this one. Quality start by Hampton, pair of dingers in the sixth - and a crooked number in the eighth... that didn't happen.
Well, as we keep rationalizing, it's early yet. But Astros history would indicate that we'll be sorry about all these early-season losses when we get to the last week of September and pull up a game or two short. This team should be winning games - good starting pitching, solid bullpen (recent fumbles notwithstanding), enough base runners to sustain them - but zip with RISP.
Tonight: The Dodgers are in town. It will be weird to see Ausmus in opposing duds.
Sunday, April 19, 2009
GAME 12: Wrong Outcome
April 19: Reds 4, Astros 2
This game just came out upside down. The Astros should have won it. They should have scored at least 6 runs. There's just no way that this came out right. Tilt. Does not compute... With all the holidays and day games, I've gotten so used to watching games after the fact, knowing the outcome, that watching a live game just seems weird. I kept thinking that there was supposed to be a happy ending, but there wasn't.
So let's just recap the good, the bad, and the ugly.
The good: Felipe Paulino. Shunted up to the big leagues straight from Round Rock to fill in for Moehler, Paulino pitched six shutout innings. After a kind of shaky start - a leadoff single to Willie T, followed by a hit batter - he settled in and threw a terrific start. He gave up only 3 hits and 2 walks, striking out 6. And just for good measure, he got his first major league hit, a two-out single in the fourth inning.
The bad: The RISP. The Astros stranded runners right and left, many of them in scoring position. This was not one of those games where the opposing pitchers were lights out: The Reds allowed 7 hits and 8 walks, not to mention 3 errors. Reds starter Volquez may have been an All Star last year, but he gave the Astros plenty of chances today - they just failed to captialize on them. The Astros left runners on the corners in the first inning. They loaded the bases with one out in the third and fifth (see "ugly," below), and didn't score. They left runners on second and third in the eighth, and on first and second in the ninth. And it wasn't the bottom of the lineup (three guys who came into the game with a cumulative 0.00 batting average) - Berkman, Lee, Pence, and Blum all had ample opportunities for heroism, and missed the chance.
The ugly: It wasn't all their fault though. The Astros had a little help from second base ump Joe West, who flat out blew a call, costing the Astros at least one run. With the bases loaded and one out in the fifth inning, the second baseman appeared to "tag" Pence as he ran by, then threw to first to complete the double play, ending the inning. However, in the replays, it wasn't even close; the "tag" didn't come within a couple of feet of Pence, who should have been safe at second, while Berkman scored, with two outs. Nor did Pence appear to have run outside the baseline to avoid the tag. The Astros may or may not have been able to score any additional runs in the inning, but that run was just stolen by a sloppy call. These things happen in baseball, but with a close game like this one, it's a shame that the umpire might have affected the outcome.
A bit more good: Tejada. People love to beat up on Tejada - the drug thing, the cost of the trade to get him, the fact that he's past his prime. But it's not his fault that the Astros gave up five young players to get him. And even if he's past his prime, he's been performing this month. Batting second, he went 3 for 5 today, with his first RBI of the season. He may not be a Golden Glove contender this year, but he's made some pretty slick plays at short, today included.
More not-too-good: After such a nice performance by Paulino, the bullpen looked sloppy. Byrdak walked his one batter in the seventh on a full count, before Geary came in and let things fall apart. He allowed a single, then made a throwing error that scored a runner and left two in scoring position. The Reds then brought in pitcher Micah Owings to pinch hit for their starter. Owings, a very good batter, promptly smacked a double to give the Reds a 3-1 lead. Geary then hit Taveras with a pitch before retiring the side on a strikeout and double play. Fulchino pitched a harmless eighth. Sampson, who apparently is fine following his tumble making a play at first last night, gave up a run on a triple, followed by a sac fly.
Faces in the crowd: Quintero made a rare start behind the plate. Getting so little playing time is not helping him as a batter: He went 0 for 3 in this game to maintain his perfect 0.00 average. Jason Smith started again at second, covering for Matsui. Despite his hot time in Spring Training, he's now 0 for 17 for the season, after going 0 for 3 with a sac bunt today. Matsui, who's been out for several days with a sore back, came in to pinch run and stayed in at second. That put him in the lineup in the ninth, when he ended the game with a fly ball to right, leaving the tying runners stranded. The only guy left on the bench today was Keppinger, who's also got a sore back. It seems to be contagious. The Senior Bushes were in the stands, in their customary spot behind home plate.
This game just came out upside down. The Astros should have won it. They should have scored at least 6 runs. There's just no way that this came out right. Tilt. Does not compute... With all the holidays and day games, I've gotten so used to watching games after the fact, knowing the outcome, that watching a live game just seems weird. I kept thinking that there was supposed to be a happy ending, but there wasn't.
So let's just recap the good, the bad, and the ugly.
The good: Felipe Paulino. Shunted up to the big leagues straight from Round Rock to fill in for Moehler, Paulino pitched six shutout innings. After a kind of shaky start - a leadoff single to Willie T, followed by a hit batter - he settled in and threw a terrific start. He gave up only 3 hits and 2 walks, striking out 6. And just for good measure, he got his first major league hit, a two-out single in the fourth inning.
The bad: The RISP. The Astros stranded runners right and left, many of them in scoring position. This was not one of those games where the opposing pitchers were lights out: The Reds allowed 7 hits and 8 walks, not to mention 3 errors. Reds starter Volquez may have been an All Star last year, but he gave the Astros plenty of chances today - they just failed to captialize on them. The Astros left runners on the corners in the first inning. They loaded the bases with one out in the third and fifth (see "ugly," below), and didn't score. They left runners on second and third in the eighth, and on first and second in the ninth. And it wasn't the bottom of the lineup (three guys who came into the game with a cumulative 0.00 batting average) - Berkman, Lee, Pence, and Blum all had ample opportunities for heroism, and missed the chance.
The ugly: It wasn't all their fault though. The Astros had a little help from second base ump Joe West, who flat out blew a call, costing the Astros at least one run. With the bases loaded and one out in the fifth inning, the second baseman appeared to "tag" Pence as he ran by, then threw to first to complete the double play, ending the inning. However, in the replays, it wasn't even close; the "tag" didn't come within a couple of feet of Pence, who should have been safe at second, while Berkman scored, with two outs. Nor did Pence appear to have run outside the baseline to avoid the tag. The Astros may or may not have been able to score any additional runs in the inning, but that run was just stolen by a sloppy call. These things happen in baseball, but with a close game like this one, it's a shame that the umpire might have affected the outcome.
A bit more good: Tejada. People love to beat up on Tejada - the drug thing, the cost of the trade to get him, the fact that he's past his prime. But it's not his fault that the Astros gave up five young players to get him. And even if he's past his prime, he's been performing this month. Batting second, he went 3 for 5 today, with his first RBI of the season. He may not be a Golden Glove contender this year, but he's made some pretty slick plays at short, today included.
More not-too-good: After such a nice performance by Paulino, the bullpen looked sloppy. Byrdak walked his one batter in the seventh on a full count, before Geary came in and let things fall apart. He allowed a single, then made a throwing error that scored a runner and left two in scoring position. The Reds then brought in pitcher Micah Owings to pinch hit for their starter. Owings, a very good batter, promptly smacked a double to give the Reds a 3-1 lead. Geary then hit Taveras with a pitch before retiring the side on a strikeout and double play. Fulchino pitched a harmless eighth. Sampson, who apparently is fine following his tumble making a play at first last night, gave up a run on a triple, followed by a sac fly.
Faces in the crowd: Quintero made a rare start behind the plate. Getting so little playing time is not helping him as a batter: He went 0 for 3 in this game to maintain his perfect 0.00 average. Jason Smith started again at second, covering for Matsui. Despite his hot time in Spring Training, he's now 0 for 17 for the season, after going 0 for 3 with a sac bunt today. Matsui, who's been out for several days with a sore back, came in to pinch run and stayed in at second. That put him in the lineup in the ninth, when he ended the game with a fly ball to right, leaving the tying runners stranded. The only guy left on the bench today was Keppinger, who's also got a sore back. It seems to be contagious. The Senior Bushes were in the stands, in their customary spot behind home plate.
GAMES 10-11: Roy O and Wandy Deliver
April 17: Reds 2, Astros 1
April 18: Astros 7, Reds 0
Nice work from the starting rotation, as Roy Oswalt and Wandy Rodriguez both delivered quality performances to kick off the series with the Reds. I managed to catch the tail end of Saturday evening's game after the Sabbath, then watched both games on the mlb.tv archive on Sunday morning.
Friday night Roy O finally had a start that should have earned him his first "W" of the season. With his crazy 23-1 record against the Reds, this should have been his night, and he gave it a good battle. It really was a battle - it took him 108 pitches to get through 6 scoreless innings, giving up 5 hits and 3 walks and striking out 4. For the first four innings, Oswalt had base runners in every frame, working his way out of trouble to keep the shutout intact. His easiest innings were the fifth and sixth, nice quick 1-2-3 innings. Geary and Hawkins kept the shutout going in the seventh and eighth innings.
With all the hard work from the pitching staff, the Astros lineup squandered the chance to pull off an easy win. This was not another Cy Young quality performance they were up against: Reds starter Johnny Cueto walked six in less than five innings. But the Astros only managed to get 2 actual hits off of him, eking out only a single run. They had their chances: They had runners on second and third with one out in the fourth inning, but failed to score. Then, with 2 outs in the fifth, Oswalt and Bourn walked, and Tejada singled to load the bases. Berkman, who has terrorized the Reds over the course of his career, walked to score Oswalt. Bases still loaded, El Caballo grounded out to end the opportunity.
The weak offense put the game in the hands of the closers, as the Astros took a 1-0 lead into the ninth. Valverde lost his end of the duel, giving up a walk, followed by a 1-out home run to Ramon Hernandez. With the Reds ahead 2-1, Reds closer Francisco Cordero gave the Astros one last chance, allowing one-out singles by Blum and Pudge. But Jason Smith, starting at second for the still-ailing Matsui, grounded into a double play to end the game in a bitter loss. Hard luck for Oswalt, who battled hard from the mound and even scored the Astros' only run. It was his best start of the season, but his first win still eludes him.
Saturday night, the Astros won their first shutout of the year, behind another excellent start for Wandy. His teammates
provided plenty of the run support that they denied Roy O the night before, starting with a pair of runs on 4 singles in the first inning. But the extra fire power wasn't needed, as Wandy mystified the Reds over 7 innings, holding them to 2 hits and 2 walks, and striking out 10. In his first trip throught the Reds' lineup, Wandy struck out 6 of 9, with 5 Ks in a row in the second/third innings. His only hint of trouble came in a 28-pitch seventh, with a pair of two-out walks, but he managed to strike out the next batter to end the inning. This game is just another example of why I am beating the drum for Wandy this year - if he can just keep off the DL, I am looking to him for a career year. His stuff really looks sharp.
The Astros' have had their share of batting and scoring woes this season - making many opposing pitchers look like CY winners. But against Aaron Harang, who was coming off of a 3-hit shutout in his last outing, they did just fine on Saturday. The fun started in the first inning, when Tejada, Lee, Pence, and Blum combined for a pair of runs on 4 singles. They got the running game going also, with successful steals by Tejada (first) and Pence (third).
In the fifth, Bourn led off with a single and promptly stole second. From there it was an easy trip home on Lee's two-out double, giving the Astros a 3-0 lead. The Astros threatened again in the sixth, getting runners on second and third with no outs, but failed to score. That's where things stood as I tuned in after the Sabbath ended, in the top of the seventh inning with two Reds on base and two outs. Facing the potential tying run at the plate, Wandy struck out Laynce Nix to end the threat, allowing himself an emphatic bilateral pumping of fists as he left the mound.
With Wandy's pitch count over 100, his teammates apparently decided not to leave the outcome of the game to Valverde again. They batted around in the bottom of the inning, plating 4 more runs. The action started when Harang plunked leadoff hitter Tejada in the back. A wild pitch later, Tejada was standing on second. Harang then walked Berkman on 4 pitches, prompting a pitching change. Reliever Jared Burton, noting that El Caballo already had 3 hits in the game, didn't want to take any chances - he loaded the bases on a 4-pitch walk. I was jumping up and down, wanting to see Pence hit a grandslam, but he stuck out on three pitches for the first out. The Reds were hoping to see a double play, but back-to-back 2-run doubles by Blum and Pudge instead gave the Astros a rare Big Inning.
With a 7-run lead, Wandy got the rest of the night off, Chris Sampson pitched a hitless eighth. He made the third out of the inning with an athletic play at first, then rolled to the ground and stayed there for a few moments. Hopefully he didn't twist or turn anything. Fulchino threw a perfect ninth inning for a very nice Astros' debut.
Besides the great pitching, it was great to see some offense in this game. In particular, Carlos Lee had a big game, going 3 for 3, with an RBI and a pair of runs. Lee had a dreadful spring, and had come into this game hitting .189. Blum also had a great game, going 3 for 4 with 3 RBIs. Pence and Pudge each contributed a pair of hits.
Nice to See: The Bushes were in their customary spots behind home plate on Saturday. It was nice to see Barbara looking good after her recent heart surgery, keeping up on her scorecard. It was also nice to see Willie T, who's now playing for the Reds.
Fashion Statements: The Astros wore the home whites for the Saturday game. In an unfortunate equipment failure, Washington's Dunn and Zimmerman appeared for several innings in jerseys with "NATINALS" emblazoned across their chests. Perhaps a comment on the quality of the DC Public Schools?
In Other MLB News: The Astros big 4-run sixth on Saturday night was a big deal for a team who has had little offensive punch this year. But it was puny next to the Indians' 14-run second inning against the Yankees Saturday, on their way to a 22-4 win. The Tribe was one batter short of batting around twice. Chien-Ming Wang was the starting goat, although he had plenty of help from a hapless bullpen. Although I don't normally have time to watch the other teams' games, I had to watch that inning just to enjoy hearing the Yankee's announcers' angst. The NY crowd began booing after the 4th run. Wang is now 0-3 with an ERA over 34. Poor reliever Anthony Claggett, gave up 8 runs (including a grand slam) in his Yankee's debut. The crowds were begging for center fielder Swisher to pitch by the end of the inning. Total damage in the 37- minute half inning: 14 runs on 13 hits (just one shy of the AL record) on 89 pitches. Sorry, Josh (my Yankee-loving son) - your team sucks.
Exile Experiences: I think I finally figured out how to avoid the constant freezes in the streaming on mlb.tv. After consulting the help FAQ and users groups, and trying various options for the Flash settings, I finally considered the possibility that my 5-year-old laptop might be part of the problem. Deciding that continuous action is more important than good video quality, I tried knocking down the video quality a notch. That worked - I now get good streaming of a somewhat less than excellent video.
April 18: Astros 7, Reds 0
Nice work from the starting rotation, as Roy Oswalt and Wandy Rodriguez both delivered quality performances to kick off the series with the Reds. I managed to catch the tail end of Saturday evening's game after the Sabbath, then watched both games on the mlb.tv archive on Sunday morning.
Friday night Roy O finally had a start that should have earned him his first "W" of the season. With his crazy 23-1 record against the Reds, this should have been his night, and he gave it a good battle. It really was a battle - it took him 108 pitches to get through 6 scoreless innings, giving up 5 hits and 3 walks and striking out 4. For the first four innings, Oswalt had base runners in every frame, working his way out of trouble to keep the shutout intact. His easiest innings were the fifth and sixth, nice quick 1-2-3 innings. Geary and Hawkins kept the shutout going in the seventh and eighth innings.
With all the hard work from the pitching staff, the Astros lineup squandered the chance to pull off an easy win. This was not another Cy Young quality performance they were up against: Reds starter Johnny Cueto walked six in less than five innings. But the Astros only managed to get 2 actual hits off of him, eking out only a single run. They had their chances: They had runners on second and third with one out in the fourth inning, but failed to score. Then, with 2 outs in the fifth, Oswalt and Bourn walked, and Tejada singled to load the bases. Berkman, who has terrorized the Reds over the course of his career, walked to score Oswalt. Bases still loaded, El Caballo grounded out to end the opportunity.
The weak offense put the game in the hands of the closers, as the Astros took a 1-0 lead into the ninth. Valverde lost his end of the duel, giving up a walk, followed by a 1-out home run to Ramon Hernandez. With the Reds ahead 2-1, Reds closer Francisco Cordero gave the Astros one last chance, allowing one-out singles by Blum and Pudge. But Jason Smith, starting at second for the still-ailing Matsui, grounded into a double play to end the game in a bitter loss. Hard luck for Oswalt, who battled hard from the mound and even scored the Astros' only run. It was his best start of the season, but his first win still eludes him.
Saturday night, the Astros won their first shutout of the year, behind another excellent start for Wandy. His teammates
provided plenty of the run support that they denied Roy O the night before, starting with a pair of runs on 4 singles in the first inning. But the extra fire power wasn't needed, as Wandy mystified the Reds over 7 innings, holding them to 2 hits and 2 walks, and striking out 10. In his first trip throught the Reds' lineup, Wandy struck out 6 of 9, with 5 Ks in a row in the second/third innings. His only hint of trouble came in a 28-pitch seventh, with a pair of two-out walks, but he managed to strike out the next batter to end the inning. This game is just another example of why I am beating the drum for Wandy this year - if he can just keep off the DL, I am looking to him for a career year. His stuff really looks sharp.The Astros' have had their share of batting and scoring woes this season - making many opposing pitchers look like CY winners. But against Aaron Harang, who was coming off of a 3-hit shutout in his last outing, they did just fine on Saturday. The fun started in the first inning, when Tejada, Lee, Pence, and Blum combined for a pair of runs on 4 singles. They got the running game going also, with successful steals by Tejada (first) and Pence (third).
In the fifth, Bourn led off with a single and promptly stole second. From there it was an easy trip home on Lee's two-out double, giving the Astros a 3-0 lead. The Astros threatened again in the sixth, getting runners on second and third with no outs, but failed to score. That's where things stood as I tuned in after the Sabbath ended, in the top of the seventh inning with two Reds on base and two outs. Facing the potential tying run at the plate, Wandy struck out Laynce Nix to end the threat, allowing himself an emphatic bilateral pumping of fists as he left the mound.
With Wandy's pitch count over 100, his teammates apparently decided not to leave the outcome of the game to Valverde again. They batted around in the bottom of the inning, plating 4 more runs. The action started when Harang plunked leadoff hitter Tejada in the back. A wild pitch later, Tejada was standing on second. Harang then walked Berkman on 4 pitches, prompting a pitching change. Reliever Jared Burton, noting that El Caballo already had 3 hits in the game, didn't want to take any chances - he loaded the bases on a 4-pitch walk. I was jumping up and down, wanting to see Pence hit a grandslam, but he stuck out on three pitches for the first out. The Reds were hoping to see a double play, but back-to-back 2-run doubles by Blum and Pudge instead gave the Astros a rare Big Inning.
With a 7-run lead, Wandy got the rest of the night off, Chris Sampson pitched a hitless eighth. He made the third out of the inning with an athletic play at first, then rolled to the ground and stayed there for a few moments. Hopefully he didn't twist or turn anything. Fulchino threw a perfect ninth inning for a very nice Astros' debut.
Besides the great pitching, it was great to see some offense in this game. In particular, Carlos Lee had a big game, going 3 for 3, with an RBI and a pair of runs. Lee had a dreadful spring, and had come into this game hitting .189. Blum also had a great game, going 3 for 4 with 3 RBIs. Pence and Pudge each contributed a pair of hits.
Nice to See: The Bushes were in their customary spots behind home plate on Saturday. It was nice to see Barbara looking good after her recent heart surgery, keeping up on her scorecard. It was also nice to see Willie T, who's now playing for the Reds.
Fashion Statements: The Astros wore the home whites for the Saturday game. In an unfortunate equipment failure, Washington's Dunn and Zimmerman appeared for several innings in jerseys with "NATINALS" emblazoned across their chests. Perhaps a comment on the quality of the DC Public Schools?
In Other MLB News: The Astros big 4-run sixth on Saturday night was a big deal for a team who has had little offensive punch this year. But it was puny next to the Indians' 14-run second inning against the Yankees Saturday, on their way to a 22-4 win. The Tribe was one batter short of batting around twice. Chien-Ming Wang was the starting goat, although he had plenty of help from a hapless bullpen. Although I don't normally have time to watch the other teams' games, I had to watch that inning just to enjoy hearing the Yankee's announcers' angst. The NY crowd began booing after the 4th run. Wang is now 0-3 with an ERA over 34. Poor reliever Anthony Claggett, gave up 8 runs (including a grand slam) in his Yankee's debut. The crowds were begging for center fielder Swisher to pitch by the end of the inning. Total damage in the 37- minute half inning: 14 runs on 13 hits (just one shy of the AL record) on 89 pitches. Sorry, Josh (my Yankee-loving son) - your team sucks.
Exile Experiences: I think I finally figured out how to avoid the constant freezes in the streaming on mlb.tv. After consulting the help FAQ and users groups, and trying various options for the Flash settings, I finally considered the possibility that my 5-year-old laptop might be part of the problem. Deciding that continuous action is more important than good video quality, I tried knocking down the video quality a notch. That worked - I now get good streaming of a somewhat less than excellent video.
Friday, April 17, 2009
Batting Stance Guy
I was heating up the last of the Passover leftovers for our Sabbath dinner and watching yesterday's archived win over the Pirates, when I got a call from my cousin Bill the Reds Fan. Bill lives in Dayton, and is all decked out head to toe (or so he tells me) so that he can watch the Reds beat the Astros tonight (or so he tells me). He just called to let me know. I actually won't know the outcome of tonight's game until after the Sabbath ends tomorrow night, due to religious observance. (Sigh - I am really getting tired of watching the Astros play in reruns during this extensive holiday season!)
Anyway, in conversation he asked me if I'd ever seen the Batting Stance Guy do the Astros? I never heard of the BSG, but immediately googled him. What a hoot! Am I the last baseball fan in America not to have heard of this guy, who bills himself as having the "least marketable skill in America"? Just in case you have missed this, check it out. NOW!
Shabbat Shalom, Bill - and thanks. Enjoy the game, but not too much!
Anyway, in conversation he asked me if I'd ever seen the Batting Stance Guy do the Astros? I never heard of the BSG, but immediately googled him. What a hoot! Am I the last baseball fan in America not to have heard of this guy, who bills himself as having the "least marketable skill in America"? Just in case you have missed this, check it out. NOW!
Shabbat Shalom, Bill - and thanks. Enjoy the game, but not too much!
GAME 9: First Series Win of the Season
April 16: Astros 6, Pirates 3
Last day of Passover, and the Astros give me reason to celebrate with another win. It took me several days, after the holiday ended, to find time to piece together this game on the mlb.tv archives. But given the bad scheduling - between holiday, day games, and off days - I just can't pass up watching the Astros win. It is hard to get a sense of it as a game, though, since I watched it in 3 segments over 4 days.
In his first regular season start since 2007, Russ Ortiz came within one out of getting his first win, giving up 3 runs on 5 hits and 2 walks, and striking out 2. Ortiz left the game with the score tied 3-3 and two outs in the fifth, after walking Freddy Sanchez. Wesley Wright came in to retire Nate McClouth to end the inning, making him the pitcher of record in the sixth when Berkman hit a three-run homer that put the Astros ahead for good.
If Berkman's at bat was the most momentous in shaping the outcome, the second most interesting at bat had to be Freddy Sanchez's battle against reliever Chris Sampson in the seventh inning. With two runners on and one out, here's how the pitch-by-pitch ran: Ball, Ball, Foul, Foul, Foul, Foul, Ball, Foul, Foul, Foul, Foul, Foul, Foul, Foul, Foul, Foul, Sanchez flied out to center, Morgan to third. Seventeen pitches, but Sampson was victorious.
Other notable events in this game:
In the bottom of the first inning, Miguel Tejada speared a hard line drive for a fabulous play, ending the Pirates' two-run opening.
Hunter Pence hit a homer into the left field stands for the Astros' first run in the second inning.
Michael Bourn easily stole his first base of the season in the third inning, as the catcher's throw to second ended up in center field. Bourn went to third on Tejada's ground out. After Berkman walked, Bourn scored the Astros' second run on Lee's fielders choice.
Keppinger continues to make Ed Wade look good - he hit his first triple of the season in the fourth inning. His .467 batting average down in the 8 spot in the lineup is kind of a shock for opposing pitchers.
I love it when pitchers help themselves at the plate. Ortiz became the first Astros' pitcher to break a 0.00 batting average, when he singled in Kepp from third to tie the game. Ortiz moved up to second on Bourn's walk, then to third when Tejada made a big swing - and hit the ball about 40 feet for an infield single. That brought up Berkman with two outs and the bases loaded - and he flied out harmlessly to center field. Happily, Berkman's homer in the sixth was ample penance for that missed opportunity.
Great work by the bullpen: Wright, Sampson, Byrdak, and Hawkins combined for 4 1/3 innings of scoreless work. Hawkins earned the save.
Valverde was not available to pitch because he's out with what appears to be a contagious case of back soreness. Matsui is also out with this ailment.
Enough of this Passover game! The Passover dishes are already put away for next year! It's time to move on to some real LIVE baseball games!
Last day of Passover, and the Astros give me reason to celebrate with another win. It took me several days, after the holiday ended, to find time to piece together this game on the mlb.tv archives. But given the bad scheduling - between holiday, day games, and off days - I just can't pass up watching the Astros win. It is hard to get a sense of it as a game, though, since I watched it in 3 segments over 4 days.
In his first regular season start since 2007, Russ Ortiz came within one out of getting his first win, giving up 3 runs on 5 hits and 2 walks, and striking out 2. Ortiz left the game with the score tied 3-3 and two outs in the fifth, after walking Freddy Sanchez. Wesley Wright came in to retire Nate McClouth to end the inning, making him the pitcher of record in the sixth when Berkman hit a three-run homer that put the Astros ahead for good.
If Berkman's at bat was the most momentous in shaping the outcome, the second most interesting at bat had to be Freddy Sanchez's battle against reliever Chris Sampson in the seventh inning. With two runners on and one out, here's how the pitch-by-pitch ran: Ball, Ball, Foul, Foul, Foul, Foul, Ball, Foul, Foul, Foul, Foul, Foul, Foul, Foul, Foul, Foul, Sanchez flied out to center, Morgan to third. Seventeen pitches, but Sampson was victorious.
Other notable events in this game:
In the bottom of the first inning, Miguel Tejada speared a hard line drive for a fabulous play, ending the Pirates' two-run opening.
Hunter Pence hit a homer into the left field stands for the Astros' first run in the second inning.
Michael Bourn easily stole his first base of the season in the third inning, as the catcher's throw to second ended up in center field. Bourn went to third on Tejada's ground out. After Berkman walked, Bourn scored the Astros' second run on Lee's fielders choice.
Keppinger continues to make Ed Wade look good - he hit his first triple of the season in the fourth inning. His .467 batting average down in the 8 spot in the lineup is kind of a shock for opposing pitchers.
I love it when pitchers help themselves at the plate. Ortiz became the first Astros' pitcher to break a 0.00 batting average, when he singled in Kepp from third to tie the game. Ortiz moved up to second on Bourn's walk, then to third when Tejada made a big swing - and hit the ball about 40 feet for an infield single. That brought up Berkman with two outs and the bases loaded - and he flied out harmlessly to center field. Happily, Berkman's homer in the sixth was ample penance for that missed opportunity.
Great work by the bullpen: Wright, Sampson, Byrdak, and Hawkins combined for 4 1/3 innings of scoreless work. Hawkins earned the save.
Valverde was not available to pitch because he's out with what appears to be a contagious case of back soreness. Matsui is also out with this ailment.
Enough of this Passover game! The Passover dishes are already put away for next year! It's time to move on to some real LIVE baseball games!
Thursday, April 16, 2009
GAME 8 - Wishes and Dishes
April 15: Astros 4, Pirates 1
I got my wish - that the Astros would do something good while I was offline for the end of Passover. They won both of the games I missed. That meant that I had the pleasure of watching a winning game from last night as I packed up all of the Passover dishes for another year. Now I'm sitting in a very clean kitchen, having just finished watching yesterday's game, and trying to decide if after midnight's too late to watch the game from today. (It is.)
Excellent game all around, starting with the Astros getting on the board right away with a pair of runs in the first inning. Bourn, leading off, took a four-pitch walk. Tejada, batting second, hit an infield single - the first of his three hits of the game. Berkman followed with a single to load the bases with no outs. After shutouts in the two previous games, it would have been a travesty if the Astros could not convert a full house with no outs into something on the scoreboard. No worry: Back-to-back sac flies by Lee and Pence plated the first two runs.
The Astros scored two more runs in the third inning. Tejada led off with a single and Berkman doubled to put two runners in scoring position with no outs. Lee then doubled to drive them both in, bumping his RBIs for the game to 3. (A nice improvement on the 1 RBI he had logged in the 7 previous games together.) Pence singled to put runners on the corners, still with no outs, making it look like it could be a big inning. But unfortunately they were stranded. After this early inning action, the Astros didn't manage to score any other runs in the game.
Scoring any runs at all was newsworthy, but it wouldn't have counted for much without good pitching. The Astros got excellent help from the mound, as Hampton threw 6 innings of shutout ball, allowing only 4 hits and 1 walk, and striking out 8. A very nice performance, one that set him up for his first regular-season win in an Astros uniform since 1999. Hampton was followed by Geary, who worked his way in and out of trouble, but did not allow a run. Hawkins pitched a scoreless eighth. The Pirates did not score until the bottom of the ninth, when Valverde allowed a lead-off homer to LaRoche. But that was it for Pirate runs. Game over. The losing stread ends at 5 games as the Astros win 4-1.
In addition to a handful (almost) of runs and great pitching, the Astros looked good out on the field. In particular, Berkman made a nice leap to spear a line drive for an out. And Pudge nailed an attempted theft with a perfect throw to Tejada. Keppinger started at second in this game, while Matsui is sidelined with back stiffness. Meanwhile, Kepp hit a double to extend his hitting streak to 6 games.
Only one complaint: I don't know if it was my computer or network or ISP, or if it was mlb.tv, but the streaming of the archived game was extremely choppy. Every few seconds I'd get a freeze of both video and audio. Made the game frustrating to watch - and much longer than it actually was.
Fashion Statement: All the players on both teams wore #42, to honor the 62nd anniversary of Jackie Robinson's breaking the color barrier in baseball.
Moves: Moehler's knee sprain put him on the DL, and the Astros have brought up Arias to fill his roster spot. Not clear who's going to start in Moehler's stead. Fulchino, up to fill in for the injured Brocail, can start but Cooper apparently talked about using him out of the pen. In other news, the Astros sent Drew Sutton to the Reds, to complete the trade for Keppinger.
I got my wish - that the Astros would do something good while I was offline for the end of Passover. They won both of the games I missed. That meant that I had the pleasure of watching a winning game from last night as I packed up all of the Passover dishes for another year. Now I'm sitting in a very clean kitchen, having just finished watching yesterday's game, and trying to decide if after midnight's too late to watch the game from today. (It is.)
Excellent game all around, starting with the Astros getting on the board right away with a pair of runs in the first inning. Bourn, leading off, took a four-pitch walk. Tejada, batting second, hit an infield single - the first of his three hits of the game. Berkman followed with a single to load the bases with no outs. After shutouts in the two previous games, it would have been a travesty if the Astros could not convert a full house with no outs into something on the scoreboard. No worry: Back-to-back sac flies by Lee and Pence plated the first two runs.
The Astros scored two more runs in the third inning. Tejada led off with a single and Berkman doubled to put two runners in scoring position with no outs. Lee then doubled to drive them both in, bumping his RBIs for the game to 3. (A nice improvement on the 1 RBI he had logged in the 7 previous games together.) Pence singled to put runners on the corners, still with no outs, making it look like it could be a big inning. But unfortunately they were stranded. After this early inning action, the Astros didn't manage to score any other runs in the game.
Scoring any runs at all was newsworthy, but it wouldn't have counted for much without good pitching. The Astros got excellent help from the mound, as Hampton threw 6 innings of shutout ball, allowing only 4 hits and 1 walk, and striking out 8. A very nice performance, one that set him up for his first regular-season win in an Astros uniform since 1999. Hampton was followed by Geary, who worked his way in and out of trouble, but did not allow a run. Hawkins pitched a scoreless eighth. The Pirates did not score until the bottom of the ninth, when Valverde allowed a lead-off homer to LaRoche. But that was it for Pirate runs. Game over. The losing stread ends at 5 games as the Astros win 4-1.
In addition to a handful (almost) of runs and great pitching, the Astros looked good out on the field. In particular, Berkman made a nice leap to spear a line drive for an out. And Pudge nailed an attempted theft with a perfect throw to Tejada. Keppinger started at second in this game, while Matsui is sidelined with back stiffness. Meanwhile, Kepp hit a double to extend his hitting streak to 6 games.
Only one complaint: I don't know if it was my computer or network or ISP, or if it was mlb.tv, but the streaming of the archived game was extremely choppy. Every few seconds I'd get a freeze of both video and audio. Made the game frustrating to watch - and much longer than it actually was.
Fashion Statement: All the players on both teams wore #42, to honor the 62nd anniversary of Jackie Robinson's breaking the color barrier in baseball.
Moves: Moehler's knee sprain put him on the DL, and the Astros have brought up Arias to fill his roster spot. Not clear who's going to start in Moehler's stead. Fulchino, up to fill in for the injured Brocail, can start but Cooper apparently talked about using him out of the pen. In other news, the Astros sent Drew Sutton to the Reds, to complete the trade for Keppinger.
Tuesday, April 14, 2009
GAME 7: We'd Do Better Against the Somali Pirates
April 13: Pirates 7, Astros 0
There really isn't much to say about the Astros' first game of the season against the Pirates. Just more of the same. Their pitcher is going to get the Cy Young - there wasn't anything we could possible do against him. Well, he'll have to tie with the others who have pitched against the Astros lately. No comment. I didn't even see the game - I was at work and it was all over hours before I left. And, no, I didn't want to watch it on the archive... Too bad that Coop didn't do what the Yankees did yesterday - faced with a huge deficit, they put in their center fielder, Nick Swisher, to pitch. He did really well. Now if Bourn pitched the ninth inning, that would have been worth watching.
I'm just as glad today's an off day.
I'm going to go light my end-of-Passover holiday candles and start my two-days of self-imposed isolation from all things baseball. Hopefully sometime between now and Thursday night, when the holiday ends, the Astros will do something that will be entertaining to watch on the archive.
Happy end of Passover. Hit those matzah balls 400 feet!
There really isn't much to say about the Astros' first game of the season against the Pirates. Just more of the same. Their pitcher is going to get the Cy Young - there wasn't anything we could possible do against him. Well, he'll have to tie with the others who have pitched against the Astros lately. No comment. I didn't even see the game - I was at work and it was all over hours before I left. And, no, I didn't want to watch it on the archive... Too bad that Coop didn't do what the Yankees did yesterday - faced with a huge deficit, they put in their center fielder, Nick Swisher, to pitch. He did really well. Now if Bourn pitched the ninth inning, that would have been worth watching.
I'm just as glad today's an off day.
I'm going to go light my end-of-Passover holiday candles and start my two-days of self-imposed isolation from all things baseball. Hopefully sometime between now and Thursday night, when the holiday ends, the Astros will do something that will be entertaining to watch on the archive.
Happy end of Passover. Hit those matzah balls 400 feet!
Sunday, April 12, 2009
GAME 6: Shut Out and Swept Away...
April 12: Cardinals 3, Astros 0
There was a time at the beginning of last season when it seemed like every opposing pitcher was an ace. Game after game, their pitcher was having a big game, and our guys just couldn't figure him out. Unfortunately, this pattern seems to be recurring in the early days this spring, capped by Kyle Lohse's shutout today, to complete the Cardinals' series sweep. Over the weekend in St Louis, Astros batters were outscored 19-5.
Wandy had a solid start -- not at all terrible, but still just enough to join the other Astros starters in the loss column. He pitched 6 innings, giving up 3 runs on 5 hits and 3 BBs, stiking out 4. The Astros' bullpen was the only really bright spot in this game. Byrdak followed Wandy with a perfect seventh, striking out 2 and fielding the third out himself. Valverde, needing exercise at the end of a very light work week, pitched a scoreless eighth.
After giving up 27 runs in the previous 3 games, the Astros should have been able to overcome a mere 3 run defecit. But from Lohse's first pitch, which Matsui punched into left for a single, up until the ninth inning, when Bourn and Pence singled, he did not allow a single base runner. Three up, three down, three up, three down... the same old depressing pattern we've seen in many April games.
(On the other hand, it wasn't quite as depressing as the way the Mets let down Santana today. He pitched 7 innings, giving up 2 unearned runs on 3 hits and one walk, striking out 13 Marlins - and he lost. Reminded me of what the Astros used to do to Clemens back in '05...)
I'm certainly not giving up on the Astros, or preaching gloom and doom, this early in the season. But today's game was the only one I'm going to be able to watch liveover a 10 day period, due to holiday observance, off-days, and afternoon games. I just wish it had been a bit more FUN.
There was a time at the beginning of last season when it seemed like every opposing pitcher was an ace. Game after game, their pitcher was having a big game, and our guys just couldn't figure him out. Unfortunately, this pattern seems to be recurring in the early days this spring, capped by Kyle Lohse's shutout today, to complete the Cardinals' series sweep. Over the weekend in St Louis, Astros batters were outscored 19-5.
Wandy had a solid start -- not at all terrible, but still just enough to join the other Astros starters in the loss column. He pitched 6 innings, giving up 3 runs on 5 hits and 3 BBs, stiking out 4. The Astros' bullpen was the only really bright spot in this game. Byrdak followed Wandy with a perfect seventh, striking out 2 and fielding the third out himself. Valverde, needing exercise at the end of a very light work week, pitched a scoreless eighth.
After giving up 27 runs in the previous 3 games, the Astros should have been able to overcome a mere 3 run defecit. But from Lohse's first pitch, which Matsui punched into left for a single, up until the ninth inning, when Bourn and Pence singled, he did not allow a single base runner. Three up, three down, three up, three down... the same old depressing pattern we've seen in many April games.
(On the other hand, it wasn't quite as depressing as the way the Mets let down Santana today. He pitched 7 innings, giving up 2 unearned runs on 3 hits and one walk, striking out 13 Marlins - and he lost. Reminded me of what the Astros used to do to Clemens back in '05...)
I'm certainly not giving up on the Astros, or preaching gloom and doom, this early in the season. But today's game was the only one I'm going to be able to watch liveover a 10 day period, due to holiday observance, off-days, and afternoon games. I just wish it had been a bit more FUN.
GAMES 3-5: Bitter Herbs
April 8: Cubs 11, Astros 6
April 10: Cardinals 5, Astros 3
April 11: Cardinals 11, Astros 2
My favorite of the symbolic foods on the Pesach seder plate is the maror, or bitter herb. This vegetable may be horseradish, endive, chervil, or even romaine - any herbaceous food with a bitter flavor. One of the characteristics of the maror is that it might initially taste sweet, before one chews it, breaking down the cell walls to release the bitterness, which may range from mild (romaine) to blow-your-head-off (horseradish). The rabbis compare this to our ancestors' experience in Egypt, which at first was pleasant before enslavement made it harsh and bitter.
I, of course, find a parallel in Astros baseball. My younger son, who has a fantasy baseball team, arrived on Thursday with the news that Astros players had hit 5 homers in the game Wednesday night. Sweet. Since I was in the first day of my Passover-induced baseball isolation, I did not actually know the outcome of the game until one of my seder guests arrived with the sports section of the Post. Bitter: The five dingers accounted for the Astros' 6 runs, but the game was long-since lost on Brian Moehler's early inning meltdown. Moehler's first start was a polar opposite of his Spring Training prep - he gave up 5 runs on 8 hits in 1 2/3 innings. He left a pair of base runners for replacement Russ Ortiz, whose first pitch went over the wall to add another 2 ERs on Moehler's debit card. Five home runs later, the Astros had still not made up for that start.
I had planned, in my last blog, to spend Saturday night, after the Sabbath, watching all of the games I'd missed for holiday/Sabbath observance. But when I went online at 8:30 last night, I saw that the other two games were just more maror. Friday night, Mike Hampton had a lukewarm start in his Astros' homecoming against the Cards, while the lineup piddled away precious opportunities to score.
Saturday afternoon, Oswalt was slammed. His fifth inning was capped by Pujols' grand slam, leaving the Astros in the hole 6-0. The relievers jumped on the bandwagon - Wesley Wright, who didn't give away anything in the Spring, allowed 4 runs in his inning on the mound, including another homer to Pujols.LaTroy Hawkins added one for good measure. Meanwhile, the Astros lineup forgot how to score until the last inning, when they eked out a couple of runs. Thus they avoided that other seder plate symbol: The Egg.
Faced with all these bitter scores, I was perplexed about which of these games to watch first. In the end I opted to skip them all and go to bed early.
To recap a few highs and lows of the games I missed and the season so far...
Highs: The five home runs on Wednesday were hit by Matsui, Keppinger, Berkman, Pence, and Pudge. The new guy Keppinger is hitting .571 with 1.00 slugging. Pence is hitting .368 with .737 slugging, on a pair of home runs. Lee, who didn't hit all spring, went 3 for 4 with a homer on Friday night. Blum, who's getting about 2/3 of the playing time at 3B so far, is hitting over .400.
Lows: Brocail - who gave up a home run on Wednesday and then another run on a hit and three walks Friday - turns out to be injured with a right rotator cuff strain. He's day to day. After the first nine position players (counting both Blum and Kepp), the rest of the team has a batting average of .000 on 10 non-pitcher at bats. In the first 5 games, the starting rotation has allowed 23 ERs in less than 30 innings - that includes two appearances of our ace, and one relief appearance by Ortiz. Ouch - do the math. When you take out Wandy (1 ER in 6 innings), it's even worse. One week into the season, none of the starting pitchers has a win yet. Brocail, who has the only win, threw only 2 pitches in that game. Valverde has only appeared in one game.
I should review the statistics on how the Astros do when I'm watching live and when, due to Sabbath and holidays and work-day afternoon games, I have to miss them. It always seems to me (a highly unscientific statistical measure) that the Astros disproportionately lose these games. Unfortunately, after today's games, I will not get to watch a live game for the rest of the week due to a day game, an off-day, the end of Passover, and then the Sabbath. Wah.
This afternoon, Wandy returns to the mound to turn the tide - or to split the Cardinal Red Sea, sticking with my slightly forced Passover motif. I'm still betting on Wandy: This is finally going to be his career year.
April 10: Cardinals 5, Astros 3
April 11: Cardinals 11, Astros 2
My favorite of the symbolic foods on the Pesach seder plate is the maror, or bitter herb. This vegetable may be horseradish, endive, chervil, or even romaine - any herbaceous food with a bitter flavor. One of the characteristics of the maror is that it might initially taste sweet, before one chews it, breaking down the cell walls to release the bitterness, which may range from mild (romaine) to blow-your-head-off (horseradish). The rabbis compare this to our ancestors' experience in Egypt, which at first was pleasant before enslavement made it harsh and bitter.
I, of course, find a parallel in Astros baseball. My younger son, who has a fantasy baseball team, arrived on Thursday with the news that Astros players had hit 5 homers in the game Wednesday night. Sweet. Since I was in the first day of my Passover-induced baseball isolation, I did not actually know the outcome of the game until one of my seder guests arrived with the sports section of the Post. Bitter: The five dingers accounted for the Astros' 6 runs, but the game was long-since lost on Brian Moehler's early inning meltdown. Moehler's first start was a polar opposite of his Spring Training prep - he gave up 5 runs on 8 hits in 1 2/3 innings. He left a pair of base runners for replacement Russ Ortiz, whose first pitch went over the wall to add another 2 ERs on Moehler's debit card. Five home runs later, the Astros had still not made up for that start.
I had planned, in my last blog, to spend Saturday night, after the Sabbath, watching all of the games I'd missed for holiday/Sabbath observance. But when I went online at 8:30 last night, I saw that the other two games were just more maror. Friday night, Mike Hampton had a lukewarm start in his Astros' homecoming against the Cards, while the lineup piddled away precious opportunities to score.
Saturday afternoon, Oswalt was slammed. His fifth inning was capped by Pujols' grand slam, leaving the Astros in the hole 6-0. The relievers jumped on the bandwagon - Wesley Wright, who didn't give away anything in the Spring, allowed 4 runs in his inning on the mound, including another homer to Pujols.LaTroy Hawkins added one for good measure. Meanwhile, the Astros lineup forgot how to score until the last inning, when they eked out a couple of runs. Thus they avoided that other seder plate symbol: The Egg.
Faced with all these bitter scores, I was perplexed about which of these games to watch first. In the end I opted to skip them all and go to bed early.
To recap a few highs and lows of the games I missed and the season so far...
Highs: The five home runs on Wednesday were hit by Matsui, Keppinger, Berkman, Pence, and Pudge. The new guy Keppinger is hitting .571 with 1.00 slugging. Pence is hitting .368 with .737 slugging, on a pair of home runs. Lee, who didn't hit all spring, went 3 for 4 with a homer on Friday night. Blum, who's getting about 2/3 of the playing time at 3B so far, is hitting over .400.
Lows: Brocail - who gave up a home run on Wednesday and then another run on a hit and three walks Friday - turns out to be injured with a right rotator cuff strain. He's day to day. After the first nine position players (counting both Blum and Kepp), the rest of the team has a batting average of .000 on 10 non-pitcher at bats. In the first 5 games, the starting rotation has allowed 23 ERs in less than 30 innings - that includes two appearances of our ace, and one relief appearance by Ortiz. Ouch - do the math. When you take out Wandy (1 ER in 6 innings), it's even worse. One week into the season, none of the starting pitchers has a win yet. Brocail, who has the only win, threw only 2 pitches in that game. Valverde has only appeared in one game.
I should review the statistics on how the Astros do when I'm watching live and when, due to Sabbath and holidays and work-day afternoon games, I have to miss them. It always seems to me (a highly unscientific statistical measure) that the Astros disproportionately lose these games. Unfortunately, after today's games, I will not get to watch a live game for the rest of the week due to a day game, an off-day, the end of Passover, and then the Sabbath. Wah.
This afternoon, Wandy returns to the mound to turn the tide - or to split the Cardinal Red Sea, sticking with my slightly forced Passover motif. I'm still betting on Wandy: This is finally going to be his career year.
Wednesday, April 8, 2009
GAME 2 - Astros Win - Let's Dance!
April 7: Astros 3, Cubs 2 (10 innings)
Now that was fun: Game 2 goes into extra innings. (That didn't take long!) They bring in the new guy, Keppinger, at the end of the game, with the score tied 2-2, the bases loaded and one out. He punches a single into left field, scoring Pudge from third. They can call it a "walk off," but it's more of a "run on," as all the players dash out onto the field to participate in the ritual head thumping of the hero of the day. Brain damage is such a small price to pay for popularity on the team. What's a few IQ points less between friends?
Everybody's happy. And we're talking about some exalted everybodies here. In addition to the many Astros guests who were there to celebrate the 10th anniversary of the "new" stadium, my favorite Astros fan was sitting right behind home plate. I'm talking, of course, about Barbara Bush. She's easy to locate from the big white cotton candy do; that little man sitting next to her is #41. Truthfully, I didn't have any use for Bush 1 or Bush 2, and hope never to see another one within 100 yards of the White House, but I do like Barbara. Especially her taste in ball clubs.
Although he didn't get the decision, Wandy had an excellent season start. He pitched 6 innings (89 pitches), giving up only a single run on 4 hits and 3 walks, striking out 4. I sooooo want Wandy to have a real career year this season - it's one of the necessary elements for the Astros to go all the way.
The Astros only spent a couple of innings behind tonight. The Cubs took a 1-0 lead in the third on a two-out RBI single by Derreck Lee. But Pence hit a massive blast to center to lead off the fifth, tying it up. It was the Astros first extra-base hit of the fledgling season. In the sixth, a trio of two-out singles by Blum, Pence, and Bourn pushed across another run, giving Wandy a chance to get his first win. Blum, sliding into home, just barely scored before Pence got caught running between second and third, ending the inning. That run put he Astros ahead 2-1 -- their first lead of the season. O joy!
Chris Sampson relieved Wandy in the seventh. I'm sure he went home happy tonight - he dispatched his 3 batters with a mere 7 pitches, and made a terrific play at first to boot. LaTroy Hawkins didn't fare as well in the eighth: That pesky Soriano hit another solo homer, tying the game and losing Wandy's chance at for the "W."
Valverde was pretty forceful in setting down the Cubbies in the ninth, notching a pair of Ks. Tejada made a fantastic play at short, shooting the ball to Berkman for a very lucky third out. (Lucky because the ump gave it to them - looked on the replay like the runner was safe.) Valverde allowed himself a little celebratory jig (something that he didn't really do in Spring Training, alas). The Astros looked good to break the tie in the bottom of the inning, as they got their first two runners on. Keppinger came in at this point as a pinch runner, but nothing came of it.
Extra innings. Two games into the season, and they're already playing extra innings. Byrdak did some lovely work, striking out the first two batters before the third reached on Tejada's throwing error (balanced out his much harder play in the previous inning). At this point, with the pesky Soriano coming up, Coop switched pitchers, bringing in a righty - Brocail - to handle him. He did the job, throwing 2 pitches, to end the Cubs' half of the inning.
Bottom of the tenth, repeat of the previous inning: Rodriguez and Berkman hit back-to-back singles. Pinch hitter Michaels flied out, moving Rodriguez to third. The Cubs decided to IBB Tejada to load the bases. That's when Kepp did his instant-popularity trick, singling in the run to win the game, enduring only the loss of his bat (broken) and a minor concussion as a result of the celebratory head thumping. Just kidding - he looked fine in the post-game interview. Or was he? When asked how many times in the past he's hit the winning walk-off RBI in extra innings, he allowed that he couldn't actually remember any cases. Was that because he didn't have any - or because his joyous team mates bashed in his brains? (I expect that RoundRock15 can probably answer that question.) Oh well, Keppinger's not a catcher; he doesn't need brains, right?
Due to the quirky rules for awarding wins to pitchers, Brocail's two pitches to one batter in the tenth earned him the "W."
I took a lot of little penciled notes during this game. Otherwise, I wouldn't remember anything - I spent the game with one eye on my laptop and the other on my office computer, doing last minute work before shutting down for a 3-day absence for Passover observation. After the game, I turned off the computer and spent the next few hours doing the last of the Passover cleaning. Now it's all done: Everything's clean, the fridge is full of food just waiting to be cooked for the seder tomorrow night, boxes of matzah are stacked where my computer stuff usually sits on the kitchen counter. Now at 3 AM I can finally relax, and write up the game.
That's the good news. The bad news is that due to personal priorities, I don't watch TV or use the computer on Jewish holidays and the Sabbath. That means that I'm about to go into a 4 day baseball hiatus, from tomorrow night through Saturday night. We dropped our newspaper subscription, due to an editorial disagreement with the Washington Post, so I won't even see the outcomes of the next three games until Saturday evening. So don't look for anything on my blog until then. For the next few days, I'll be celebrating freedom from all that enslaves us, eating delicious holiday foods, crunching on big round matzahs baked by Hassidim, enjoying being with my family, drinking quite a bit of very good Israeli wines... basically, doing everything that's relly fun except for watching ball games.
But Saturday, after dark, I'm going to stay up all night watching those three games on the mlb.tv archive.
Happy Passover! Over and out, for now...
Now that was fun: Game 2 goes into extra innings. (That didn't take long!) They bring in the new guy, Keppinger, at the end of the game, with the score tied 2-2, the bases loaded and one out. He punches a single into left field, scoring Pudge from third. They can call it a "walk off," but it's more of a "run on," as all the players dash out onto the field to participate in the ritual head thumping of the hero of the day. Brain damage is such a small price to pay for popularity on the team. What's a few IQ points less between friends?
Everybody's happy. And we're talking about some exalted everybodies here. In addition to the many Astros guests who were there to celebrate the 10th anniversary of the "new" stadium, my favorite Astros fan was sitting right behind home plate. I'm talking, of course, about Barbara Bush. She's easy to locate from the big white cotton candy do; that little man sitting next to her is #41. Truthfully, I didn't have any use for Bush 1 or Bush 2, and hope never to see another one within 100 yards of the White House, but I do like Barbara. Especially her taste in ball clubs.
Although he didn't get the decision, Wandy had an excellent season start. He pitched 6 innings (89 pitches), giving up only a single run on 4 hits and 3 walks, striking out 4. I sooooo want Wandy to have a real career year this season - it's one of the necessary elements for the Astros to go all the way.
The Astros only spent a couple of innings behind tonight. The Cubs took a 1-0 lead in the third on a two-out RBI single by Derreck Lee. But Pence hit a massive blast to center to lead off the fifth, tying it up. It was the Astros first extra-base hit of the fledgling season. In the sixth, a trio of two-out singles by Blum, Pence, and Bourn pushed across another run, giving Wandy a chance to get his first win. Blum, sliding into home, just barely scored before Pence got caught running between second and third, ending the inning. That run put he Astros ahead 2-1 -- their first lead of the season. O joy!
Chris Sampson relieved Wandy in the seventh. I'm sure he went home happy tonight - he dispatched his 3 batters with a mere 7 pitches, and made a terrific play at first to boot. LaTroy Hawkins didn't fare as well in the eighth: That pesky Soriano hit another solo homer, tying the game and losing Wandy's chance at for the "W."
Valverde was pretty forceful in setting down the Cubbies in the ninth, notching a pair of Ks. Tejada made a fantastic play at short, shooting the ball to Berkman for a very lucky third out. (Lucky because the ump gave it to them - looked on the replay like the runner was safe.) Valverde allowed himself a little celebratory jig (something that he didn't really do in Spring Training, alas). The Astros looked good to break the tie in the bottom of the inning, as they got their first two runners on. Keppinger came in at this point as a pinch runner, but nothing came of it.
Extra innings. Two games into the season, and they're already playing extra innings. Byrdak did some lovely work, striking out the first two batters before the third reached on Tejada's throwing error (balanced out his much harder play in the previous inning). At this point, with the pesky Soriano coming up, Coop switched pitchers, bringing in a righty - Brocail - to handle him. He did the job, throwing 2 pitches, to end the Cubs' half of the inning.
Bottom of the tenth, repeat of the previous inning: Rodriguez and Berkman hit back-to-back singles. Pinch hitter Michaels flied out, moving Rodriguez to third. The Cubs decided to IBB Tejada to load the bases. That's when Kepp did his instant-popularity trick, singling in the run to win the game, enduring only the loss of his bat (broken) and a minor concussion as a result of the celebratory head thumping. Just kidding - he looked fine in the post-game interview. Or was he? When asked how many times in the past he's hit the winning walk-off RBI in extra innings, he allowed that he couldn't actually remember any cases. Was that because he didn't have any - or because his joyous team mates bashed in his brains? (I expect that RoundRock15 can probably answer that question.) Oh well, Keppinger's not a catcher; he doesn't need brains, right?
Due to the quirky rules for awarding wins to pitchers, Brocail's two pitches to one batter in the tenth earned him the "W."
I took a lot of little penciled notes during this game. Otherwise, I wouldn't remember anything - I spent the game with one eye on my laptop and the other on my office computer, doing last minute work before shutting down for a 3-day absence for Passover observation. After the game, I turned off the computer and spent the next few hours doing the last of the Passover cleaning. Now it's all done: Everything's clean, the fridge is full of food just waiting to be cooked for the seder tomorrow night, boxes of matzah are stacked where my computer stuff usually sits on the kitchen counter. Now at 3 AM I can finally relax, and write up the game.
That's the good news. The bad news is that due to personal priorities, I don't watch TV or use the computer on Jewish holidays and the Sabbath. That means that I'm about to go into a 4 day baseball hiatus, from tomorrow night through Saturday night. We dropped our newspaper subscription, due to an editorial disagreement with the Washington Post, so I won't even see the outcomes of the next three games until Saturday evening. So don't look for anything on my blog until then. For the next few days, I'll be celebrating freedom from all that enslaves us, eating delicious holiday foods, crunching on big round matzahs baked by Hassidim, enjoying being with my family, drinking quite a bit of very good Israeli wines... basically, doing everything that's relly fun except for watching ball games.
But Saturday, after dark, I'm going to stay up all night watching those three games on the mlb.tv archive.
Happy Passover! Over and out, for now...
Tuesday, April 7, 2009
GAME 1 - That's the One to Throw Away...
April 6: Cubs 4, Astros 2
I just turned off my office computer, after having to work late tonight, but I can't go to sleep without saying a few words about the Astros' Opening Night game:
WAH WAH WAH.
Just kidding. Actually the word in my head during the game was "momentum." Or in this case, lack of ... It wasn't that the game was boring exactly. (Disclaimer: I may have been a bit distracted by having to work on my offfice laptop, while the game was on my personal laptop.) But there just didn't seem to be a whole lot of movement. You know, home to first, first to second, second to third, and so on... I'm not just talking about the Astros - both teams scored all their runs metered out one per inning.
Being the first game of the season, it was supposed to be a duel between our pitching aces. Zambrano was tough, no surprise there. But, unlike the last time we saw him, in that ridiculous "Astros home game" in Milwaukee, he wasn't unhittable. He scattered some base runners around - 5 hits and 3 walks over 6 innings. But all but one were left stranded in variations on the theme of missed opportunities.
Missed opportunities: First inning, Zambrano walked Matsui, who advanced on Berkman's single. Lee grounded into a double play to end the fun. Third inning, Bourn and Matsui on the corners with one out and the top of the lineup coming to bat. Frittered away. But the most disappointing missed opportunity: Seventh inning, Zambrano tiring, Tejada singled, Blum walked, and Pence up to bat with no outs. The Cubs changed pitchers. It was the chance for the big play, but instead it was a double play. Tejada went on to third, and then scored on Bourn's two-out swinging bunt for the Astros' first run. Pence came back in the ninth and hit a sac fly to score Tejada for the second run, but it was too little, too late...
Oswalt, unfortunately, allowed the same number of baserunners as Zambrano - 7 hits and 1 walk, but with worse results, largely due to a pair of solo homers. (The game's leadoff home run to Soriano kind of set a bad-luck tone of the game.) He actually outlasted Zambrano, going 7 full innings, throwing 93 pitches. Not a horrible start, but not a classic Oswalt performance. Geary relieved him, and gave up one run on 2 hits and a walk.
Offensive kudos go to Tejada, who went 3 for 4, scoring both of the Astros runs. (The other time he got on base came to a quick end when he was caught stealing.) Berkman also got to base 3 times, on a single and a pair of walks. Bourn was 2 for 4, with an RBI hit.
The Fan in Exile Experience pretty much sucked at the beginning of the game, as the MLB.TV folks seemed to get confused about when to actually stream live video. For the first few innings, they streamed live camera feeds (with off camera remarks by the broadcasters who didn't know they were on mike) between innings. Then when the game was actually in progress, they swithed to their commercial blocker - an annoying but mute ad for their Premium service. It just played over and over, as I watched the game on the Sportsline pitch-by-pitch. This was apparently an isolated fluke, as other games were broadcasting correctly. I called MLB.TV help number to report the problem, and got their "due to a higher-than usual number of calls" message, which means it would be a long wait to talk to a human. Eventually I did get a help desk guy, who wanted all of my contact info - email address (which I had to repeat a couple of times), phone number, and my first and last name. He couldn't find my account at first, since he was spelling my name Suzan instead of Susan. (I don't think I've ever met a Suzan.) All this was fairly useless information anyway, since I wasn't calling to say my account wasn't working, just reporting a technical problem on their end. But he has his process to follow, and that probably accounts for why the wait time is so long.
Ironically, just as he answered, the broadcast resumed the correct streaming - live video of actual plays. Of course. After that, I was able to watch the rest of the game, although some of it was still shots rather than video - that happens sometimes and I'm never sure whether it's them or me. The audio was fine. All in all, I'd have to give MLB.TV a C- for tonight. Yeah, I know it was the first day of the season, and they had glitches. But hey - it was the First Day of the Season - I wanted to watch the game!
Now for something completely different: What was the meaning of the quartet of Black Hawk helicopters flying over in the sixth inning? Was this supposed to redefine the term "high chopper"? Please - don't think I'm unpatriotic - but I really don't like to mix baseball and military hardware. It's philosophical - unlike sports where players align at two ends of a field and protect their goals (the classic war story), baseball has a different paradigm. But I'll have to write more about that sometime when it's not after 1:30 in the morning, and when I don't have to get up at 6... The good thing about going to bed so late is that I know that there will be another baseball game later today!
I just turned off my office computer, after having to work late tonight, but I can't go to sleep without saying a few words about the Astros' Opening Night game:
WAH WAH WAH.
Just kidding. Actually the word in my head during the game was "momentum." Or in this case, lack of ... It wasn't that the game was boring exactly. (Disclaimer: I may have been a bit distracted by having to work on my offfice laptop, while the game was on my personal laptop.) But there just didn't seem to be a whole lot of movement. You know, home to first, first to second, second to third, and so on... I'm not just talking about the Astros - both teams scored all their runs metered out one per inning.
Being the first game of the season, it was supposed to be a duel between our pitching aces. Zambrano was tough, no surprise there. But, unlike the last time we saw him, in that ridiculous "Astros home game" in Milwaukee, he wasn't unhittable. He scattered some base runners around - 5 hits and 3 walks over 6 innings. But all but one were left stranded in variations on the theme of missed opportunities.
Missed opportunities: First inning, Zambrano walked Matsui, who advanced on Berkman's single. Lee grounded into a double play to end the fun. Third inning, Bourn and Matsui on the corners with one out and the top of the lineup coming to bat. Frittered away. But the most disappointing missed opportunity: Seventh inning, Zambrano tiring, Tejada singled, Blum walked, and Pence up to bat with no outs. The Cubs changed pitchers. It was the chance for the big play, but instead it was a double play. Tejada went on to third, and then scored on Bourn's two-out swinging bunt for the Astros' first run. Pence came back in the ninth and hit a sac fly to score Tejada for the second run, but it was too little, too late...
Oswalt, unfortunately, allowed the same number of baserunners as Zambrano - 7 hits and 1 walk, but with worse results, largely due to a pair of solo homers. (The game's leadoff home run to Soriano kind of set a bad-luck tone of the game.) He actually outlasted Zambrano, going 7 full innings, throwing 93 pitches. Not a horrible start, but not a classic Oswalt performance. Geary relieved him, and gave up one run on 2 hits and a walk.
Offensive kudos go to Tejada, who went 3 for 4, scoring both of the Astros runs. (The other time he got on base came to a quick end when he was caught stealing.) Berkman also got to base 3 times, on a single and a pair of walks. Bourn was 2 for 4, with an RBI hit.
The Fan in Exile Experience pretty much sucked at the beginning of the game, as the MLB.TV folks seemed to get confused about when to actually stream live video. For the first few innings, they streamed live camera feeds (with off camera remarks by the broadcasters who didn't know they were on mike) between innings. Then when the game was actually in progress, they swithed to their commercial blocker - an annoying but mute ad for their Premium service. It just played over and over, as I watched the game on the Sportsline pitch-by-pitch. This was apparently an isolated fluke, as other games were broadcasting correctly. I called MLB.TV help number to report the problem, and got their "due to a higher-than usual number of calls" message, which means it would be a long wait to talk to a human. Eventually I did get a help desk guy, who wanted all of my contact info - email address (which I had to repeat a couple of times), phone number, and my first and last name. He couldn't find my account at first, since he was spelling my name Suzan instead of Susan. (I don't think I've ever met a Suzan.) All this was fairly useless information anyway, since I wasn't calling to say my account wasn't working, just reporting a technical problem on their end. But he has his process to follow, and that probably accounts for why the wait time is so long.
Ironically, just as he answered, the broadcast resumed the correct streaming - live video of actual plays. Of course. After that, I was able to watch the rest of the game, although some of it was still shots rather than video - that happens sometimes and I'm never sure whether it's them or me. The audio was fine. All in all, I'd have to give MLB.TV a C- for tonight. Yeah, I know it was the first day of the season, and they had glitches. But hey - it was the First Day of the Season - I wanted to watch the game!
Now for something completely different: What was the meaning of the quartet of Black Hawk helicopters flying over in the sixth inning? Was this supposed to redefine the term "high chopper"? Please - don't think I'm unpatriotic - but I really don't like to mix baseball and military hardware. It's philosophical - unlike sports where players align at two ends of a field and protect their goals (the classic war story), baseball has a different paradigm. But I'll have to write more about that sometime when it's not after 1:30 in the morning, and when I don't have to get up at 6... The good thing about going to bed so late is that I know that there will be another baseball game later today!
Sunday, April 5, 2009
One More Day...
My husband and I recently celebrated our Baskin Robbins Anniversary (#31, as in 3
1 Flavors). A couple of months after we were wed, I called my parents to tell them that they were going to be grandparents, and my mother's response was "But I haven't even sent you the wedding pictures yet!"
I was thinking about that late last night, realizing that Opening Day is nearly here, and I haven't yet finished posting the 2009 Spring Trainin
g pages in my website Photo Album. It will take me well into the season to update all the player pages with new pictures, but I did hope to post a nice collection of pictures from each game before the season started. That's becoming unlikely, since the first game is tomorrow, but I took another step by formatting and publishing another page of Spring Training pictures - photos from the Astros' M
arch 22 win over the Nats.
A couple of notable things about this game: First, it was Pudge Rodriguez's first game in an Astros uniform. Maybe because he's new he spent quite a bit of time running out to the mound to chat with his new battery mates, which of course makes for great photo ops. Pudge hit a single in his first at bat, which endeared him to many fans. I probably took enough photos of him just from this game to make up what will be his player page in my online photo album.
Another notable item, on a personal level. I've always wanted to take one of those Flying Shortstop pictures, but I've never managed to catch one. I finally did, at this game. It was the Nationals' shortstop (Hernandez) who was aloft, with Bourn sliding neatly under him for a stolen base.
I almost fainted when I saw this picture - the flying shortstop, no arms or legs cut off, not even out of focus. The best baseball picture I've ever snapped. Afterwards, of course, I started to nitpick - it would be better if the shortstop was our guy, and if his face was visible in the picture. This is how I motivate myself for next time, always trying to improve. But for now, this picture graces the desktop off both my home and office computers, and I'm thinking that a framed print would be nice too.
There are a lot of nice photos from this game. One reason was that we had fantastic seats for shooting pi
ctures. Our actual tickets were just behind home plate - ideal for game watching, but a bit annoying for photography because of the safety netting. (The pictures from the March 18 game against the Yankees reflect this challenge.) Rather than fighting the Old People who safeguard the sanctity of the aisles at the ballpark, I decided to ask one of them for help. When the Old Lady patrolling my section came to tell me to sit down now, I asked sweetly whether it would be possible to move to another section, not behind the netting, so that I could take pictures without blocking the aisle. She allowed that (since I had tickets for the best seats in the house), it would be okay to move down a couple of section. So my sister and I moved to first row seats, right over the visitors' dugout. These seats were just about ideal for pictu
re taking - I'd have had to be actually on the field to get a better view. Second base was directly in front of me, with first base angled off a bit to the right - so I could get great shots of plays at second without the first base folks blocking the scene. And of course, it was a fantastic location for shooting pitchers and right-handed batters.
When I have time (after the season starts), I'm going to write up a guide for taking pictures in Osceola County
Stadium. After five years of attending games there, I've got a lot of suggestions for other amateur camera buffs who'd rather go home with a couple of thousand photographs than a handful of autographs. It's hard for me to tell, just from looking at my website stats, whether other people enjoy my Astros photos. But I never tire of looking at them - as a Fan in Exile, who doesn't often get to see the team in person, my pictures bring back wonderful memories of being there in the spring.
1 Flavors). A couple of months after we were wed, I called my parents to tell them that they were going to be grandparents, and my mother's response was "But I haven't even sent you the wedding pictures yet!"I was thinking about that late last night, realizing that Opening Day is nearly here, and I haven't yet finished posting the 2009 Spring Trainin
g pages in my website Photo Album. It will take me well into the season to update all the player pages with new pictures, but I did hope to post a nice collection of pictures from each game before the season started. That's becoming unlikely, since the first game is tomorrow, but I took another step by formatting and publishing another page of Spring Training pictures - photos from the Astros' M
arch 22 win over the Nats.A couple of notable things about this game: First, it was Pudge Rodriguez's first game in an Astros uniform. Maybe because he's new he spent quite a bit of time running out to the mound to chat with his new battery mates, which of course makes for great photo ops. Pudge hit a single in his first at bat, which endeared him to many fans. I probably took enough photos of him just from this game to make up what will be his player page in my online photo album.
Another notable item, on a personal level. I've always wanted to take one of those Flying Shortstop pictures, but I've never managed to catch one. I finally did, at this game. It was the Nationals' shortstop (Hernandez) who was aloft, with Bourn sliding neatly under him for a stolen base.
I almost fainted when I saw this picture - the flying shortstop, no arms or legs cut off, not even out of focus. The best baseball picture I've ever snapped. Afterwards, of course, I started to nitpick - it would be better if the shortstop was our guy, and if his face was visible in the picture. This is how I motivate myself for next time, always trying to improve. But for now, this picture graces the desktop off both my home and office computers, and I'm thinking that a framed print would be nice too.
There are a lot of nice photos from this game. One reason was that we had fantastic seats for shooting pi
ctures. Our actual tickets were just behind home plate - ideal for game watching, but a bit annoying for photography because of the safety netting. (The pictures from the March 18 game against the Yankees reflect this challenge.) Rather than fighting the Old People who safeguard the sanctity of the aisles at the ballpark, I decided to ask one of them for help. When the Old Lady patrolling my section came to tell me to sit down now, I asked sweetly whether it would be possible to move to another section, not behind the netting, so that I could take pictures without blocking the aisle. She allowed that (since I had tickets for the best seats in the house), it would be okay to move down a couple of section. So my sister and I moved to first row seats, right over the visitors' dugout. These seats were just about ideal for pictu
re taking - I'd have had to be actually on the field to get a better view. Second base was directly in front of me, with first base angled off a bit to the right - so I could get great shots of plays at second without the first base folks blocking the scene. And of course, it was a fantastic location for shooting pitchers and right-handed batters.When I have time (after the season starts), I'm going to write up a guide for taking pictures in Osceola County
Stadium. After five years of attending games there, I've got a lot of suggestions for other amateur camera buffs who'd rather go home with a couple of thousand photographs than a handful of autographs. It's hard for me to tell, just from looking at my website stats, whether other people enjoy my Astros photos. But I never tire of looking at them - as a Fan in Exile, who doesn't often get to see the team in person, my pictures bring back wonderful memories of being there in the spring.
Friday, April 3, 2009
I'm Glad I'm Not in Kissimmee
For the first time in weeks, I can honestly say that I'm glad that I'm not down in Florida - but only because the team has moved on. With much glee (well documented by Alyson Footer's camera), the big league roster guys checked out and headed out for the big city. Well, actually, they headed out to Corpus Christi, but it's in the right direction.
They left some of the minor league contingent back in Osceola Land, to play one more just-fer-fun against the Braves. The Astro-wannabee team lost 2-1, but they acquitted themselves very well, thank you, behind an excellent start by Bud Norris. He threw
4 innings, giving up only a single run on five hits (including a solo homer), walking no one, and striking out 4. Sergio Perez came in behind him with 4 well-pitched innings, giving up one run on 2 hits and a walk. Neal Musser threw a hit-free ninth. It was a doesn't-matter game, attracting less than 2500 fans (probably including some of my die-hard new friends with their season tickets). But still nice to see some muscle on the mound from our much aligned farm hands.
Meanwhile the Big Boys were off to Corpus to play the Double A Hooks - the first time since the 50's that a major league team has graced that fine city with a ball game. (That was before the Astros were born.) This occasion drew almost 4 times as many baseball fans as the earlier game in Florida - a record breaking crowd of over 9000 for a Corpus ball game.
Though this game was not the pitchers duel of the earlier one, it started off with a terrific performanc
e by Wandy Rodriguez. He pitched six shutout innings, giving up only one hit, walking no one, and striking out a whopping 11 batters. We can make some excuses - it was just a bunch of minor leaguers, after all - but in Wandy's last three plate appearances, he's pitched 16 innings without giving up a run, striking out 20 in the process. The guy is locked in. If he can stay healthy, this could really (finally) be his year to shine. Despite his diminutive size on the mound (a midget next to hunks like Valverde), Wandy can really pitch. I vowed last year that, if Wandy would grow up in pitching stature, I'd start calling him by his last name. Now with a second Rodriguez on the team, it's not worth the confusion, so I'll stick with Wandy and Pudge. But I'm going on record now, predicting that he's going to come into his own this year.
As good as Wandy was, Capellan was bad: In his 2 innings, he was in trouble all over the place, giving up 4 runs on 4 hits - including two home runs - and 5 (FIVE!) walks. Maybe he was just disappointed that Ortiz made the team and he got sent to Round Rock. At any rate, his performance didn't do anything to challenge the wisdom of that move.
I listened to this evening game on the radio broadcast after work, and found the announcers to be nearly giddy in their presentation of this who-cares game. The one thing that they did not say, but what I suspect in my heart o' hearts, is that the Astros threw the game to the Hooks. It went back and forth, with the Astros taking a 4-3 lead into the bottom of the ninth. At that point, they made a curious pitching move - they handed the ball to one of the Hooks' own pitchers, Chris Salamida. (Kind of a conflict of interest there? Read on...) The lefty threw to only two batters in the ninth: The first hit a single, and the second homered to give the Hooks a walk-off 5-4 win. Okay, using Valverde might have been overkill - although the Corpus fans would have loved to have seen him. Perhaps the Astros hadn't brought any extra relief pitchers with them? I don't believe that. I think they put in the kid with the express (oh wait - that's the AAA team) purpose of throwing the no-account game to the home team crowd. Whatever the motivation, the crowd loved it. David slew Goliath and everyone went home happy.
I've had a crazy time at work since I've been back from Spring Training, with barely time to listen to the games on the radio, let alone format pictures and write about baseball. It's going to be much worse over the next couple of weeks, between my work at the office and the Passover holiday (don't get me started!). But the clock's ticking - just two more exhibition games and then...
THE SEASON'S STARTING MONDAY!
They left some of the minor league contingent back in Osceola Land, to play one more just-fer-fun against the Braves. The Astro-wannabee team lost 2-1, but they acquitted themselves very well, thank you, behind an excellent start by Bud Norris. He threw
4 innings, giving up only a single run on five hits (including a solo homer), walking no one, and striking out 4. Sergio Perez came in behind him with 4 well-pitched innings, giving up one run on 2 hits and a walk. Neal Musser threw a hit-free ninth. It was a doesn't-matter game, attracting less than 2500 fans (probably including some of my die-hard new friends with their season tickets). But still nice to see some muscle on the mound from our much aligned farm hands.Meanwhile the Big Boys were off to Corpus to play the Double A Hooks - the first time since the 50's that a major league team has graced that fine city with a ball game. (That was before the Astros were born.) This occasion drew almost 4 times as many baseball fans as the earlier game in Florida - a record breaking crowd of over 9000 for a Corpus ball game.
Though this game was not the pitchers duel of the earlier one, it started off with a terrific performanc
e by Wandy Rodriguez. He pitched six shutout innings, giving up only one hit, walking no one, and striking out a whopping 11 batters. We can make some excuses - it was just a bunch of minor leaguers, after all - but in Wandy's last three plate appearances, he's pitched 16 innings without giving up a run, striking out 20 in the process. The guy is locked in. If he can stay healthy, this could really (finally) be his year to shine. Despite his diminutive size on the mound (a midget next to hunks like Valverde), Wandy can really pitch. I vowed last year that, if Wandy would grow up in pitching stature, I'd start calling him by his last name. Now with a second Rodriguez on the team, it's not worth the confusion, so I'll stick with Wandy and Pudge. But I'm going on record now, predicting that he's going to come into his own this year.As good as Wandy was, Capellan was bad: In his 2 innings, he was in trouble all over the place, giving up 4 runs on 4 hits - including two home runs - and 5 (FIVE!) walks. Maybe he was just disappointed that Ortiz made the team and he got sent to Round Rock. At any rate, his performance didn't do anything to challenge the wisdom of that move.
I listened to this evening game on the radio broadcast after work, and found the announcers to be nearly giddy in their presentation of this who-cares game. The one thing that they did not say, but what I suspect in my heart o' hearts, is that the Astros threw the game to the Hooks. It went back and forth, with the Astros taking a 4-3 lead into the bottom of the ninth. At that point, they made a curious pitching move - they handed the ball to one of the Hooks' own pitchers, Chris Salamida. (Kind of a conflict of interest there? Read on...) The lefty threw to only two batters in the ninth: The first hit a single, and the second homered to give the Hooks a walk-off 5-4 win. Okay, using Valverde might have been overkill - although the Corpus fans would have loved to have seen him. Perhaps the Astros hadn't brought any extra relief pitchers with them? I don't believe that. I think they put in the kid with the express (oh wait - that's the AAA team) purpose of throwing the no-account game to the home team crowd. Whatever the motivation, the crowd loved it. David slew Goliath and everyone went home happy.
I've had a crazy time at work since I've been back from Spring Training, with barely time to listen to the games on the radio, let alone format pictures and write about baseball. It's going to be much worse over the next couple of weeks, between my work at the office and the Passover holiday (don't get me started!). But the clock's ticking - just two more exhibition games and then...
THE SEASON'S STARTING MONDAY!
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