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 innings, 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!