GAMES 107-110: Can't Win 'Em All!

GAME 107 - August 4: Cardinals 8, Astros 4
GAME 108 - August 6: Brewers 6, Astros 5
GAME 109 - August 7: Brewers 5, Astros 2
GAME 110 - August 8: Brewers 11, Astros 6

Even in my wildest fantasies, I knew that the New Era Astros weren't going to win all the rest of the games of the season. I think I might have known that the tide might be turning when I wrote my last blog posting after the first two of the three games of the Cardinals series. I wanted to grab a chance to write it while the winning streak was still on. Especially with the Chris Carpenter game still to go. I didn't really expect, though, that it would be quite as much of a downturn as it ended up over the weekend.

No big shame in losing to Carpenter - he's been hot this season. However, our new starter Happ got banged up early - he didn't manage to get a single out in the second inning before he'd been tagged for 7 runs on 6 hits and 3 walks. Ugly. The bullpen did a good job finishing up for him: Figueroa, Lopez, Lyon, and Chacin combined for just one more redbird run.  Chris Johnson hit a 2 run homer, Castro hit a triple, and Blum got a pinch RBI hit. But it didn't add up to enough to dig their way out of the hole that Happ dug. It was the end of a long streak of "Winsday" victories for the Astros.

I missed the Friday night heart-breaker, due to the Sabbath, and didn't have the heart to even watch the good parts. Wandy kept the Astros in the game, giving up 3 runs (2 earned) on 8 hits, no walks, and 7 Ks, before coming out with one out and a 4-2 lead in the seventh.  Lopez and Lyon got the Astros through the eighth without any trouble, so Lindstrom came in to close with a comfortable 5-2 lead. We can sum up the ending with two words: Blown Save. Or maybe: Bad Call? Was the winning run actual out at the plate, for the third out? The ump called it safe, game over, but Mills thinks Castro made the tag. Not clear from the replays, but that doesn't matter -- the umps don't use replays for this situation.

I turned on my computer in time for the last two innings of Saturday night's game and things weren't looking good. Brett Myers had done it again - pitched another 6 innings to keep his record going. Myers' third pitch of the game resulted in an inside-the-park homer for speedy Rickie Weeks. (One might wonder if Bourn might have turned the long fly ball into an out, rather than the run it turned into when Bourgeois couldn't get to it.) Two pitches later, Corey Hart doubled, then scored on subsequent ground outs. In the sixth inning, Myers gave up 4 consecutive singles, allowing another pair of Brewers runs. But in between those first two batters and the 4 in the sixth, Myers retired 15 of his 17 opposing batters in another very solid start. Unfortunately, his teammates didn't do much to help him out. Doubles by Pence and Lee drove in two runs for the Astros in the seventh, but it was too little, too late. The Astros outhit the Brewers 11 to 10, but could only manage to push two runners across the plate. All this was before my time -- I came in after the Sabbath ended with the Astros down 5-2. Having just read about the turnover the night before, I was cheering for Trevor Hoffman to blow the save in the ninth. But no such luck: The Astros went down 1-2-3 to end the game.

After missing out on watching much live baseball since the middle of last week, I was annoyed that I had to be at my office today for a 3 PM meeting. That gave me just enough time to watch the first inning of Sunday's game before I had to leave the house. At first I was optimistic -- against a tough Gallardo, the Astros were getting some nice hits in the top of the first, scoring their first two runs. But then our baby-faced lefty starter wannabe, Wesley Wright, took the mound. Coming off a good start last week against the Brewers, he was clearly hoping for a lot better outcome. But like Happ on Wednesday, he got off to a bad start and it didn't get batter.  The first 6 batters got 3 hits, 2 walks, and an RBI sac fly, accounting for four Brewer runs in the first inning. After a scoreless second,  Wesley was back in trouble, leading off the third inning with a pair of walks, and then giving up a 2-run double. That was it for Wesley's day. His final line: 7 earned runs on 5 hits, 4 walks, and one strikeout in just 2 1/3 innings. Figueroa finished off the inning, allowing Wesley's runner to score and adding another of his own. Then Chacin gave up 3 more runs in the fourth, and it looked like it was going to be a gigantic blowout. But Brydak, Fulchino, and Lopez combined for 4 scoreless innings to keep the game from spiraling into total embarrassment.

I was watching all this happening out of the corner of my eye during my meeting, on the pitch-by-pitch on my Blackberry. This was only minimally less painful than seeing it live on mlb.tv. Meanwhile, the Astros did score 4 more runs after the first inning, ending up with a total of 6 runs on 12 hits -- what would have been considered a huge score for them earlier in the season. Bourn hit a 2 RBI single in the fourth, and Lee and Keppinger each got a RBI in the last two innings of the game.

Obviously, finishing up the weekend being swept in an 11-6 game wasn't much fun. However, let's put today's game into perspective: Wesley Wright wants to be a starter. The Astros want to know if he can be a major league starter. There's one way to find out -- let him start a few games and see what happens. In a losing season like this, the Astros can do that without putting a playoff run in jeopardy. If it turns out that Wright's not major league starter material, so be it. This is certainly the time to find out. And it's not as if they threw a game to a team that's in real contention -- the Brewers are 11 games out in the division. I'm not saying it's fun to watch the Astros lose -- just saying that it's not giving me heart palpitations.  And there are some good things to see also, even in a lopsided loss: Bourn went 3 for 5 with 2 RBI, and 2 runs. Kepp, Pence, and Lee had multi-hit games. Hey, Lee's BA is almost up to .250. We can complain about El Caballo all we want, but in the end he's going to be sitting on our roster for another 2 years - we better hope for the best for him!

Another interesting note to our current four-game losing streak: In 3 of the 4 games, a big part of the blame for the loss belongs to the meltdown of one of our pitchers. Happ and Wright dug giant holes in the first inning or two, while Lindstrom blew a 3-run lead in the ninth. But for the most part, the rest of the team did their part -- the bullpen generally came through well, and the batters got hits and scored some runs. Just not enough to overcome the big inning deficits. We haven't been no-hit or even shut out. I don't like our chances for the playoffs this year - it's too late for miracles -- but I like our chances for the future. Well, I like them better now than a few months ago, at least.

In related news: The Puma has been doing a whole lot of nuthin' for the Yankees. I'm trying to feel bad about it, but my loyalty is stretched pretty thin here. It's not like Berkman was traded against his will.