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...