GAMES 23-25: Wet and Tired and Injured - But Winning

May 1: Braves 7, Astros 2
May 2: Astros 5, Braves 1
May 3: Astros 7, Braves 5

The Astros followed up their disappointing home stand last week with a good start to the road trip, notching back-to-back series wins in Cincinnati and Atlanta. Granted, the Braves aren't what they used to be - they only have one fewer loss than the Astros. But let's not quibble - a win's a win.

The Atlanta series did not get off to a very promising start - Game 1 was a 7-2 loss as Hampton's former team tagged him for 6 runs (5 earned) in 4 1/3 innings. It was a dreary game that featured a seventh-inning drench - a two-hour rain delay before the last two innings. I was hoping that the arrival of May would herald a big turnaround for Berkman. He went 1 for 5 - of course, given his slump, that hit actually raised his batting average. The Astros' two runs were both scored on non-hit plays: Berkman's RBI groundout in the first and Hampton's fielders' choice in the fourth. All in all, a dreary game. If the Astros could just manage to reserve Friday nights (when I'm offline for Sabbath observance) for their dreary games, that would be great.

By the time the Sabbath was over, Saturday's Game 2 had already ended, rain delay and all. Astros' starter Roy Oswalt had only pitched one inning when rain interrupted the game for over an hour and a half. When it resumed, Oswalt was replaced with Paulino. I am the unlikely beneficiary of this - Oswalt has been rescheduled to start on Tuesday afternoon against the Nationals. Since I did not get to see Roy O at Spring Training, due to his WBC stint, this will be my chance to get some 2009 photos of him.

Berkman got the Astros off to an early lead with a first-inning solo homer. He finished the game with a 1 for 5 line, but it was amended to 2 for 5 on Sunday, when the scorer changed a Braves error to a hit for Berkman. No problem! When the Puma's BA is in the 100's a month into the season, he'll take anything he can get.

Paulino lost the lead in the second inning, when the game resumed from the rain delay. It took him a bit to settle down - a lead off double and a bunt single put runners on the corners with no outs. He struck out the next two batters, before allowing the runner on third to score on a wild pitch, then struck out the third batter to end the inning. It took four additional Astros pitchers - Byrdak, Sampson, Brocail, and Hawkins - to close out this game. They combined for 4 scoreless innings, with only 4 hits among them. Byrdak got the win.

The Astros Big Inning (sadly, a 3 run inning is a Big Inning for them this season) came in the fourth. Lots of players contributed a lot of little pieces, but Braves' third baseman Chipper Jones contributed the most: With Lee on first and no outs, Jones booted Tejada's double-play ground ball, and both runners were safe. Three singles and a sac fly later, the Astros had put three runs on the board. Jones almost got the Astros back though. Batting with two outs in the seventh, he smacked the ball into pitcher Chris Sampson's ankle. Sampson was able to field the play, ending the inning, before limping off the field. Later reports say that nothing's broken, just a deep bruise, but it could put Sampson out for a day or two. (We don't need a replay of Valverde's heroics - and stint on the DL!)

The Astros got one more run in the ninth inning, when Pudge led off with a double and scored on Bourn's triple. Other notable offense: Pence went 3 for 4 with a trio of singles. I watched this game late Saturday night, when it became available on the mlb.tv archive

I went to DeBaggio's Herbs with my friend Ev this morning. We shopped for basil and chiles and tomato plants in the same pouring rain that caused today's Nat's home game to be cancelled. I've bought my herbs and salsa vegetables seedlings at DeBaggio's for about 20 years - their selection of heirloom varieties is truly amazing. (No, it is not true that I favor them because of the blending of Bagwell and Biggio's names.) In the spirit of SABR I am obligated to report that I scored 16 chile plants, 4 sweet peppers, 8 tomatoes, 2 tomatillos, 4 eggplants, 6 basils, and 3 perennial flower plants. I dragged my haul of seedlings into the house, and fired up the laptop just in time for the first pitch of Game 3.

Given the wear and tear on the bullpen over the past few days (see the numbers below), this would have been a good time for Wandy to pitch a complete game - or at least 7 or 8 innings. After 3 innings, he was off to a pretty good start; he'd only thrown 40 pitches and had not let anyone score. But in the fourth, he started to unravel a bit. Francour led off with a single, then Prado doubled. Lee fielded the ball very quickly, zipping it to Tejada, who threw to Pudge, who tagged out Francour at the plate. (This play caused Alyson to tweet: "this proves it -- Carlos Lee CAN move quickly when he wants to.") But Wandy hit the next batter with a pitch, then gave up a RBI single that tied the game 1-1. He got out of the fourth inning without further damage, but the fifth was more of the same. A leadoff walk and bunt single put two runners on; both moved up into scoring position on a sac bunt. Wandy intentionally walked Chipper Jones to load the bases and set up a double play. But instead he balked in a run, then gave up a sac fly that scored another.

Despite not being at his best, Wandy only had 86 pitches after five innings and the pen was stressed. So I expected to see him back for the sixth inning. Instead Cooper replaced him with Fulchino - but not for long, as Coop seemed determine to give everyone in the pen a say in the outcome of this game. By the end of the sixth, Coop had used Fulchino, Wright, and Geary. Geary came back for the seventh. Brocail, who'd pitched an inning on Saturday, started the eighth. But fielding a ground ball, he stumbled over first base, went down face-first and didn't get back up right away. He had to be taken off the field in a cart. In the replays, it looked like he had started to fall before he even got to the base, and later reports said that it was a hamstring problem. (Another reliever to the DL?) With the bullpen almost empty, Coop brought in Ortiz - normally a starter. Poor Ortiz - half of his game appearances this year have been in relief. He didn't stay long, though: Before the inning was over, Hawkins was on the mound. Happily, the Astros held on to a slim lead, and Hawkins finished off the game without extra innings, earning his third save. Geary got the win.

In between all of the pitching changes, the Astros somehow managed to score seven runs on 10 hits (one double and all the rest singles), 5 walks, and quite a combination of sacrifice moves. In fact, nearly everyone in the lineup (except for pitchers, oddly) contributed to the sacrifices: Berkman, Lee, Pudge, and Blum all hit sac flies, and Matsui, Bourn, and Erstad hit sac bunts. It is not really clear to me how Coop's small-ball approach goes with his admonition to the team before yesterday's game: "Our big horses have got to hit. If they don't hit, the wagon don't move! We've got Clydesdales. Our Clydesdales have got to pull the wagon." It's hard to imagine a Clydesdale bunting. Meanwhile, our racehorse Bourn is doing a lot of the pulling - he went 3 for 5 with a triple Friday night, hit another triple on Saturday afternoon, and went 3 for 4 with 2 stolen bases on Sunday. His batting average - .301 - is higher than his on-base percent last year. (So when does he get to hit leadoff?)

One might say that, given the successful outcome (the Astros did win the game and the series), Coop had made the right decisions. But at what cost? The Astros are coming to Washington wet and mildewy with a tired and injured bullpen. Here's how the weekend's work added up for the relief staff:
Geary - Fri 1.2 innings (21 pitches); Sun 1.1 innings (26)
Fulchino - Fri 1 inning (21), Sun .1 (6)
Wright - Fri 1 inning (20), Sun .1 (7)
Paulino - Sat 2 innings (35)
Byrdak - Sat 2.1 innings (43)
Sampson - Sat 1.2 innings (19) - left with deep bruised ankle
Brocail - Sat 1 inning (13), Sun .1 inning (5) - left with hamstring injury
Hawkins - Sat 1inning (17), Sun 1.1 inning (28)
Ortiz - Sun .1 inning (12)

I guess it's too much to hope for two complete games here in Washington? Do we really expect Hawkins - closing in place of Valverde who's on the DL - to pitch again tomorrow?

I'm actually a bit skeptical that there will be a game here tomorrow. The weather report calls for rain all day and into the night, a continuation of the cold wet weather pattern that caused today's Nationals game to be cancelled. If they do postpone Monday's game, I'm hoping for a double-header on Tuesday. As long as I'm taking off of work, might as well make a day of it.

Meanwhile, don't look for me on Twitter for the next couple of days. I'm going to be there in Real Life, snapping pictures instead of tweeting.