GAMES 96-98: I Really, Really Hate the Mets

Astros 5, Mets 4

Mets 10, Astros 3

Mets 8, Astros 3

My enmity for the Mets may be irrational, but it's long-lived, with its roots in my childhood when the two teams were born together in the 1962 expansion. I'm pretty sure I didn't hate the Mets then - I was just a little kid and didn't have any insight into the other teams that the Astros were losing to in those first years. But by the time that the Mets were Miraculous, a few seasons later, the seeds of my dislike were sown. And by the time that I moved from Texas to Maryland some 20 year later, I was primed to hate the '85 and '86 Mets who kept my team from the glory they deserved. Okay, I'll admit that it's probably just jealously, call it sibling rivalry. But I really, really hate the Mets.

So it's even more bitter that it was the Mets who kept the Astros from capitalizing on the weekend opportunity to grab the Central division lead from the Cards. With the Phillies squashing the Red Birds, it was Houston's chance to zip ahead. Instead, after eking out a close one on Friday night, the Astros lost big against the Mets.

Meanwhile, the Cubs are on a four-game winning spree, taking the division lead from the Cards, and hoping to continue their streak against the visiting Astros. Should be a great battle though - starting with Zambrano facing off against the hottest pitcher in the league this month. Oh yeah, folks, that would be our very own Wandy Rodriguez.

Freakin' Mets.

A Perfect Night Off

Since the Astros had the night off, I decided to make a stop at Costco on my way home. Dropped close to 500 bucks without even buying junk food. That's a lot of INGREDIENTS. Driving back from Virginia in pouring rain, I heard on the radio that White Sox pitcher Mark Buerhle had a perfect game, and I knew that baseball would be in my evening plans after all. I mentioned yesterday my ongoing greedy wish for the game to remember, every time one of my Astros favorites takes the mound. In the meantime, it's nice to share in someone else's joy - especially when the outcome doesn't affect our post-season opportunities.

So I got home, put away the supersized bottles of olives and the 80-pack of Keurig pods, the two month supply of terlit paper, and a whole lot of other stuff we couldn't possibly live without. Poured myself a glass of Yarden (Golan Heights, Israel) Sauv Blanc, and fired up the mlb.tv. I went straight to the top of the ninth, to hear the story from the perspective of the Chicago announcers.

Right off the bat (so to speak) Gabe Kapler, batting first for the doomed (Devil) Rays, whomps a long fly ball that appeared to end the quest for perfection. Of course, I already knew the outcome, so I wasn't as shocked as the broadcasters that DeWayne Wise leapt up against the wall and caught what was certainly a home run. That the bit of a bobble before he secured it and held it aloft like a torch -- real nice touch. I especially liked the replays, showing Buerhle's face when the ball was caught. The Chicago broadcasters were, of course, doing everything they could NOT to mention that there was a perfect game on the line: "Under the circumstances..." Let's not jinx it. The next batter came within a ball of walking, before striking out swinging. Crowd goes wild. Then the final batter hits a little grounder to end the game. The White Sox broadcaster was extremely eloquent: "Yes, Yes, Yes, YES, YES, YES!!!, YESSSSSSS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!" Mark Buerhle's teammates then piled on, thumping him on and about his noggin with glee.

I'm a big fan of the ritual head bashing that male athletes engage in when they are extremely happy. My own two sons are an architect and a lawyer, respectively - fields in which IQ points are cherished. But among the sporting types of males, this ritual of celebration, in which the honoree sacrifices up to 2 percent of his IQ points for the communal gratification of his colleagues, is a critical bonding custom. So they all ran up and banged their fists on his head. (There were a few surreptitious butt-pats too, an imitation of pseudo-homo-eroticism, given that professional baseball is a sport in which there is not even one actual homosexual player. Yeah, right.) From the post-game interview, it was hard to tell whether Buehrle was actually suffering from the early symptoms of a concussion or if he was just overcome with emotion. It did not help that the woman that interviewed him kept asking extremely blond questions: But tell me again (for the fourth time), how did it FEEL? Good, real good, duh.

At this inanity, I bailed from the Chicago celebrations, and moved on to watch it all over again, this time from the Rays' TV broadcast. (I am SO glad I upgraded my mlb.tv subscription to Premium.) The Rays' sportscasters, of course, had no problem with using the "P" word - they were HOPING to jinx it. It's fun to hear how the other guys report on a big event. Their team is being wiped out and they aren't having fun. But still, it's really hard not to get caught up in the beauty of what's happening. A perfect game! It's insane that anyone could do that.

The best part of the story for me, of course, is the center fielder, DeWayne Wise. A guy who's spent his 10 years in the majors mostly playing in the minors. A guy who spent the whole game on the bench, until the ninth inning, when he got put in center field as a defensive replacement. And then his ridiculous leaping catch, and that heart-attack bobble, turns out to be the only thing between a Perfect Game and a Perfect Shame.

In the baseball novel that I've been writing in my head for the past 5 years, there is a game kind of like this. Joe Dove is on the mound in the ninth inning with two down, facing his 27th batter, who hits a long fly ball. His catcher Adam Marsh suddenly collapses, blood seeping out from his mitt, and Dove rushes to the plate... There is a reason that the catcher's hand is bleeding and a reason that Dove doesn't even look to see the fate of that fly ball. But you'll have to wait until I am not spending my life working late nights in the proposal tank to find out. And maybe I'll let you vote on my website to decide whether or not the ball is caught - the outcome isn't really critical to the story. The catcher is, however.

In other baseball news today, the Cards are licking their wounds by coming to Washington to take it out against the Nats. In the seventh, the Cards lead 4-1, and the game (already a makeup) is delayed due to the scattered thundershowers that are peppering the area. (At my house in Maryland, it's not raining, but there's a ton of lightning to the south.) Although the Nats did win a pair from the Mets this week, I have to assume that the Cards won't have much trouble against them. Happily, the Cards are off to Philly tomorrow, to take on more formidable competition. Let's hope the Mets stay the course, as they're on their way to Houston.

One more baseball tidbit: I've become so high tech. Last night I downloaded MLB At Bat onto the iPod Touch that was a free giveaway with my new computer. After 26 years as a software engineer, I hate to sound like a complete Luddite, but ... WOW. Lying in bed watching a live baseball game on an electronic toy is so Dick Tracy. I think I'll go lie on the couch and watch that ninth inning in Chicago again.

GAME 95: Live, from Exile: Get Out Your Broom...

Astros 4, St Louis 3 - THAT'S A SWEEP!!!!!

I'm writing this up as I'm watching the game - something I've only actually done once, during the last game of of the 2005 season. With Roy O facing Chris Carpenter, it's supposed to be a great game, so I thought it would be fun to share my live reactions in the blog - not just on Twitter. These two pitchers are 5-0 in their combined last 3 starts, with an ERA well under 2. Everything points to a pitchers' duel.

When a favorite pitcher like the Wiz is on the mound, I have my own little ritual: First, I always start out hoping that it's going to be one of those games that is remembered for years - a perfect game or a no hitter. Then, once the first hit has been given up, I'm hoping for a great performance -and a win - for my pitcher. If things go south, then I'm hoping for a win for my team. There's layers of hopes and expectations - but I always start out really greedy.

So tonight, after 2 innings, both Oswalt and Carpenter are doing their thing: Pitching well. No perfect games or no no's tonight - both teams have hits, but no score yet. My big concern after last night's blow out: The Astros used up all their firepower yesterday, and didn't save any goodies for Roy O. Hopefully the first inning is not going to be representative of the night: Bourn eked out an infield hit, stole second, got to third on Matsui's single. Runners on first and third, no outs - and the Astros still managed not to score. That is not a good sign. Let's hope that this won't turn out to have been the Astros best chance all night.

Now after 3, more of the same: Score is zip-to-zip. Both pitchers throwing well, but Oswalt has a bit of an edge on pitch count - 29 to Carpenter's 41.

Middle of the 4th: Roy O just threw that great curve to strike out Ryan Ludwick for the third out. Just 9 pitches for the inning - he's on his game. Dare we hope for another complete game tonight?

Astros are up to bat in the bottom of the 4th, and the idiot FSN guys are interviewing the hotdog guy about all the new flavors of dogs at the 5-7 Grill. Like I care about treif wieners in another time zone. I'd rather be watching Tejada and Lee bat. With 2 outs, Lee just singled to center. Blummer's up - I'm calling a homer... Last night I called that Lee grand slam, you know. I told my husband (who couldn't care less about baseball): Lee's up with the bases loaded - watch him hit a grand slam. And then he did.

Fly ball to left, three outs, end of four innings. I have to make a confession: I like to brag about calling home runs. And I do call a lot of them, especially for guys like Berkman and Lee, who are prone to such feats. But I also call a lot of home runs that don't actually happen. I'm not psychic - I just call a lot of home runs.

Top of the fifth: Mark DeRosa just hit a homer off Oswalt, giving the Cards first blood... Two batters later, Carpenter strikes out swinging at a 94 MPH fastball to end the inning. Oswalt's only thrown 49 pitches in 5 innings. Still hoping for a complete game from the Wiz. But he might have to hit a homer of his own to get this team on the board. (If he does, just remember that I called it!)

The Astros are up to bat, and Fox is out in the stands interviewing a woman who's celebrating her 97th birthday at the game. She's wearing a paper tiara with "97" over her Astros hat. Very nice - now can we go back to watching the Astros bat???! Pence just struck out for the second time. Pudge walked. Coste struck out - two down. Now Oswalt will be up - big chance to hit his game-winning homer in this inning. :-) Hold on a sec - I'm going to full-screen the video so I can watch this great event.

Oswalt grounded out to end the fifth. Astros trail 1-0. Carpenter's at 70 pitches. Hopefully the Astros are going to try to beef up his pitch count in the next inning or so, and try to get rid of him. They are having good luck against the Cardinal bullpen.

Sixth inning already, a little over an hour into the game. Both pitchers are throwing quickly. Leadoff double to Schumaker. Rasmus bunts to advance the runner, but Pudge throws to third and gets the runner in a close play. (Replay: Hard to say. Thanks, Ump.) Pujols up with a runner on first... and he hits into a double play. The Astros defense is really outstanding. Oswalt gets through the inning on 6 pitches - he's now at 55 after 6 innings.

Bottom of the sixth, and happily, no dumb FSN cameos out in the stands, so Exilees like me can actually watch Bourn get a leadoff walk. Matsui's sac bunt moves up Bourn - too bad they had to waste an out just to get Bourn to second base. Unfortunately, Carpenter & Molina aren't easy to steal against - Bourn got a lucky break when he stole in the first inning. Infield hit for Tejada on a swinging bunt - Molina drops the ball. Runners on first and third, one out. Come on, guys, score a couple of runs. Don't leave Roy with a loss in a gem like this! Lee grounds into a fielders choice, and Bourn scores to tie it up. Blum's up - he's hit a couple of fly balls tonight - how about a big bop into the Crawford Boxes? Nope, he hits it right to Carpenter for the third out. At least the game is tied. After six, score is 1-1 in the pitchers' duel that was predicted. Carpenter's up to 88 pitches - can we get rid of him soon? I'd prefer to take our chances with the bullpen.

Top of the seventh: Oswalt gives up a leadoff infield single on a ball that bounces off his glove. Would have been better to let it go and let Tejada take it! Next batter hits liner straight to Tejada. Cards are going to try to tire out the Wiz: DeRosa watches 7 pitches without moving, and walks. Molina singles to left - Lee makes a great throw to the plate, but Pudge drops the ball and the runner scores. Cards lead 2-1, with runners on first and third, one out. Sac fly to center scores another run - Bourn's throw to the plate bounced off the mound. Fly ball ends the threat, three outs. I sure hope that the Astros are going to make this up to Roy in the bottom of the inning. Roy added 24 pitches to his count in this inning - he's now at 79.

Bottom of the seventh: Pence grounds out on a first pitch swing - he's been totally stymied by Carpenter all night. Wish he'd been a little more patient - we need to wear out Carpenter. Guess he's afraid of striking out a third time. Pudge hits a long fly, that comes within inches of being a homer - instead it's a long single. Coste gets on with an infield hit, bringing Puma to the plate to pinch bat for Oswalt - no complete game tonight. Crowd is on its feet, going nuts. Berkman hits a single to load the bases. He can hit, but can't run - Kata comes in to pinch run. Bourn goes down on a called strike three, two outs. Matsui up, bases loaded, two down - and he singles to center, scoring Pudge. Coste has to hold at third. Tejada flies out to end the inning, with the Astros down 3-2. No win for Oswalt tonight, but there's still time to keep it from being a loss! Carpenter's at 104 pitches - hopefully we'll get someone who will be more charitable to our guys in the eighth.

Eighth inning: Byrdak relieves Oswalt, in to face the first two (lefty) batters. He does the job, chikchak, and passes the ball to Hawkins to face Pujols. Ground out to end the inning. Pujols has not been a problem for the Astros in this series.

Bottom of the eighth: Ugh! Carpenter's back! Can't we get rid of him? Two quick outs... Pence up - will his luck change? Pudge gives him a few words of advice. Takes a wild swing at the first pitch. We'll never get rid of Carpenter at this rate. (On a totally irrelevant subject: I hate Chris Carpenter's mustache. Is he trying to look like a naturalist, with a caterpillar under his nose? Or maybe a 70's porn star?) Pence strikes out for the third time to end the eighth. We get one more chance here, guys - let's hope that Carpenter's done for the night.

Ninth inning: Valverde pitching in a non-save situation. With yesterday's blowout, and tomorrow's off day, he might as well get some exercise. Strikes out Ludwick on a nasty splitter. Ankiel singles. DeRosa goes down swinging for the second out. Molina up, the runner goes... and Pudge nails him with a perfect throw to Matsui. Three out.

Bottom of the ninth, Astros down by one, with the bottom of the lineup coming up. Hey guys, Roy doesn't deserve a loss tonight - just a couple of runs will do it...

Cardinals' closer Ryan Franklin is up. Carpenter's sporting an ugly mustache, and Franklin's wearing his matching beard. He looks like a billy goat. The Fox guys are going on and on about how wonderful Franklin's been pitching this year, 2000 consecutive scoreless innings, blah blah, blah... Time to upset his streak.

Pudge leads off with a single to center. Coste set up to bunt. Wah. I hate to waste an out when we're down to our last 3. Pudge nearly gets picked off first. Coste fails in two bunt attempts; hopefully he's swinging on 0-2. Swinging.... and rips a double to center, scoring Pudge to tie the game!!! OKAY!!!! I'm smiling now! Kepp singles to left, Coste to third. Rewind to the first inning: First and third, no outs. CAN WE SCORE THIS TIME???

Bourn pops up - one down. We have to do it NOW!

Matsui grounds to second - looked like an easy double play, but they go for the play at home. Coste out - two down, with runners on first and second.

Tejada singles to left -- he runs to first waving his arms in joy, as Kepp scores from second. I'm jumping up and down in my kitchen, clapping, and grinning like an idiot.

ASTROS SWEEP THE FIRST PLACE CARDS!!! We're only one game out of first! Man, I love baseball!!! I'm going to wear this dumb grin for the rest of the night.

GAME 94: Wandy Rocks, Carlos Rolls...

Astros 11, Cardinals 6

Wandy Rodriguez rocks. I can't stop saying this, since Spring Training this year: This is Wandy's year. Another great start tonight earned him his 10th win: Seven innings, 1 run (solo homer) on 4 hits, no walks, 5 Ks. With a little over 100 pitches, it looked like Coop was going to give him the 8th too -- Wandy led off the bottom of the seventh with a double. But after El Caballo hit a grand slam, and Blum followed with another homer on the next pitch, Houston was leading 10-1 going into the eighth. Seemed like a safe time to give Wandy the rest of the night off.

That judgment came into question, briefly at least, as the Cards scored 5 in the eighth, mostly off of just-up-from-the-farm Chad Paronto. (Paronto, pitching between Wandy and Wright, looked like a giant in the land of the munchkins.) Not a fortuitous start for Paronto (4 ER on 1/3 inning puts his ERA at a whopping 108!) As the Astros' lead was whittled down to 4 runs, visions of yesterday's Twins fiasco (lost after a 10-run lead, on a bad call from the ump no less) were coming to mind...

But no harm done - the Astros put another insurance run on the board in the bottom of the eighth, and Arias pitched a perfect ninth to turn off the lights.

The Astros continued their excellent fielding - special mention goes to Geoff Blum for an acrobatic catch at third. The Cards, on the other hand, were just plain sloppy - their 3 errors were just part of an overall pattern of less-than-stellar fielding. I noticed this yesterday too - I'm not sure if it's typical, or just an oddity in a small sample of games.

With 11 runs, there are lots of players who had fun at the plate tonight. King of the RBIs is Lee, who went 1 for 5 - but that 1 was a grand slam. Pence had a second-inning 2-run homer to give the Astros an early lead that they never relinquished. Tejada continues his surge, going 2 for 3, and knocking in 3 RBIs. Bourn was 2 for 4 with another stolen base.

On the get-well-soon list: Berkman continues to sit out games, with a calf strain that persists. Matsui hit a foul ball into his own knee, and rolled around in pain for a bit. He finished his at bat, but was replaced in the next inning. He's a fragile guy. Last night Brocail pitched a scoreless inning for Round Rock. So far so good, towards a timely comeback.

Tonight's win is Wandy's 10th of the year - tying his previous season best, with more than a third of the season still to go. Wandy Rocks!

Every game we win against the first place Cards advances us a game in the standings. But let's not forget our other competition - most of whom were kind enough to lose tonight. The Cubs lost to the Phillies in 13 innings, and after 4 innings the Reds are losing to the Dodgers 9-1. Milwaukee beat the Pirates, but it was greedy to hope for the Bucs to help us out here.

In other news, Chris Sampson and his wife named their new baby Colt. What are they thinking?

Tomorrow it's Roy O vs Chris Carpenter. Should be a great game. Just hope the Astros saved some fun for the Wiz.

GAME 93: Seeing Red (Birds)

Astros 3, Cardinals 2

After a disappointing end to the Dodgers series, the Astros came home to face the division leading Cardinals. No disappointment tonight: Moehler had another in a string of good starts, giving up 2 runs on 6 hits in 6 1/3 innings. The bullpen didn't have any trouble holding the score, with a little help from the infield, that is. The trio of Matsui, Tejada, and Berkman ended both the eighth and ninth with double plays. Valverde closed to get his 10th save, earning Moehler his 7th win.

The Cardinals pitchers didn't make it easy for the Astros, who only eked out 5 hits against Kyle Lohse. Happily, one of those hits was El Caballo's fourth inning 3-run homer. With the Astros sporting special caps commemorating the 40th anniversary of the Apollo moon landing, the blast to left was quickly dubbed a "moon shot." Not much offense to work with, but with the solid pen and excellent fielding, that turned out to be enough tonight.

This is a big series for the Astros - each win against the Cards bumps them up a whole game in the standings. While the Astros were under .500, it was hard to really focus on the division race, but things have changed a lot over the past few weeks! Houston may only be 1 game over .500, but we're only 3 games out in the division, with Wandy and the Wiz taking the mound in the remaining games of this series. Meanwhile, the Cubs had gotten used to the easy life, playing the Nationals this weekend. Now moving on to a more challenging opponent in Philadelphia, they got creamed 10-1. As I'm writing this, the Pirates are leading the Brewers, and the Dodgers are ahead of the Reds (but the night is young out on the West Coast).

Roster news of the day: Puma's back in the lineup, running a bit gingerly, but hitting just fine. Erstad's on the DL with a strained hamstring, and Kata's back up from Round Rock. Sampson, on the DL, is busy focusing on a different medical situation - his wife's about to have a baby. Brocail is in Round Rock for a rehab assignment.

Fashion Statement: It's weird to see Brad Ausmus in LA blue, instead of Houston's brick red jersey, but admit it, he still looks pretty hot. I thought that I might as well cheer a bit for him in Sunday's game, but after the second RBI double, I started having second thoughts. Why couldn't he just hit into double plays? He certainly had plenty of experience doing that for us!

I'M BAAAAACCCKKKKK!

It's been a long and grueling month in the proposal tank, getting home at midnight, working Sundays... but this one is winding down, and life is getting back to normal. At least for now. I'm over a month behind my game writeups, and no, I'm not going to try to catch up. I actually did get to watch most of the games late at night on the mlb.tv archive, but writing them up was beyond my energy level.

So cut to the chase. Now that we're past the All Star Game, with our record over .500, it's time to get traditional - that is, the Astros tradition of having a humongous second half. This year that will be a bit of a challenge; we have a tougher schedule than the earlier part of the season. But since no one really knows why this team has become such a second half powerhouse, it's hard to know if that's really a major factor.

Here's where we are, a few games after the All Star Game: Out in LA, where the Astros whomped the first-place Dodgers in their first couple of games. Thursday night Wandy threw a shutout, with a little bit of help from the bullpen. Then Friday night Oswalt pitched all all-but... if Pence hadn't lost a fly ball, resulting in a third-inning triple, that game would have been a shutout as well. Last night's game was a can't-win-'em-all mess, with iffy calls from the umps, a bizarre run-scoring error by Hampton, and Coop's ejection. Today's game doesn't start for another couple of hours, giving me some down time to write in my blog and to watch Friday night's game on the archive.

Did I mention that we're over .500? After a pretty awful start to the season, capped by Berkman's worst-ever performance, things started coming together over the last month, and the Astros chipped away at the deficit, series by series. By the All Star Break, we got to .500 - no longer a losing team, for the first time since the beginning of the season. Berkman, of course, got better. Tejada's been a hitting machine - fifth in the league in batting average, first in number of hits. Oswalt started being himself. Wandy is continuing on his way to a breakout season - which I've been predicting since Spring Training. And one of my favorite success stories this season: Michael Bourn has turned into exactly what the Astros hoped when they traded Lidge to get him -- a terrific leadoff batter. He's already passed his total number of runs scored from last year, he's leading the league in stolen bases - and triples too, and has one of the league's highest averages with RISP.

Roster changes: The Astros picked up Chris Coste from the Phillies, adding another catcher to the roster. Paulino was sent down to the minors, Wesley Wright is back up from Round Rock, with Chad Paronto right behind him to replace Sampson, who went on the DL (muscle spasms). Brocail is inching his way back from his stint on the DL. Berkman has sat out the last couple of games, due to a calf strain, but it's minor and he's day to day. But Erstad might be on his way to the DL with a strained hamstring in last night's game.

So there's a fair amount of churn within the team, as the Astros head towards the July 31 trade deadline. Lots of gossip going around about trade possibilities, but none that I've heard related to the Astros. Still, who knows? Wade likes to surprise us.

Midseason predictions: We're going all the way, of course! No surprises here, for anyone who knows me. I always stay the course until we're mathematically eliminated. That's the beauty of being a fan, not a sportswriter. Seriously, though, this team has been much maligned (I've pretty much stopped reading the blog comments on Astros.com) and doesn't deserve it. With no run-away team in NL Central this year, I have to like our chances.