GAMES 128-130: I Hate the Mets!

GAME 128 - August 27: Mets 2, Astros 1
GAME 129 - August 28: Astros 4, Mets 1
GAME 130 - August 29: Mets 5, Astros 1

Before I realized that I'd be completely overwhelmed at the office in August and September (end of the government fiscal year blues), I had thought about going up to New York to see the Astros play the Mets. I thought that it would be a fun way to celebrate my son Josh's birthday, going to Brooklyn to hang out over the Sabbath with him and his pregnant wife Katie, then taking him out for a Sunday afternoon ballgame.  Josh is the only one of my kids who more than tolerates my love of The Game -- he came all the way to DC for the day to take me to an Astros-Nats game a couple of years ago. (Backe started, Astros won 5-0, temp was miserable - close to 100.

Anyway, I never actually got a chance to run this idea past Josh before I realized that I'd most likely have to be at the office on Sundays in August/September. But now I'm just as glad I didn't make it, given how disappointing today's game turned out. (I would have liked to see Katie with a big belly though!)

Overall it wasn't that bad a series, although the Astros came out on the short end. They continued their trend of solid starting pitching in the first two games. Despite a Friday night loss, Figueroa pitched another quality start - giving up only 2 runs (1 unearned) in 7 innings. His teammates weren't much help;  Mets' starter Mike Pelfrey shut them down for 8 innings. They got 9 hits, but only managed to eke out a single run in the 9th inning. Too little too late...

I tuned in after the Sabbath in time to see the Astros come out on top in Game 2 Saturday night. A little run support goes a long way for Myers, who did it again -- his 27th consecutive 6+ inning game. This time he threw 7 shutout innings, allowing 6 hits and a walk, striking out 6. The Astros batters defied Santana, scoring a pair of runs in the first inning, and another pair in the fifth for good measure. Carlos Lee, starting at first base, went 2 for 3 with a homer and 3 RBIs, and a couple of flat out (literally) good fielding plays. He's turned around quite a bit in the past few weeks. (He doesn't seem to be keeping up that Slacker title that my friend and fellow-blogger Austin bestowed on him.)

I was at work for 11 hours today, with Game 3 right in the middle of it. So I didn't get to see Bud Lite  break the streak of quality starts for Astros pitchers, giving up 5 runs by the time he came out in the sixth inning. All but 1 of the Mets' runs came in a 4 run second inning, featuring 2 walks, a double, and 2 singles. The Astros got plenty of base runners on 9 hits and 2 walks, but only managed to get one all the way home. That's been their other recent theme -- low run scoring, despite lots of hits. I like the good starting pitching theme better.

What with Thursday's afternoon game, Sabbath games, and work-on-Sunday games, I haven't gotten to watch much live baseball recently and I've entirely abandoned my friends on Twitter. I'm really hoping to get home in time for tomorrow night's 8:05 first pitch against the Cards. Tweet you then!