2011 GAMES 48-53: Good Ol' Astros, Skewered and Grilled

GAME 48 - May 23: Astros 4, Dodgers 3
GAME 49 - May 24: Dodgers 5, Astros 4
GAME 50 - May 25: Astros 2, Dodgers 1


GAME 51 - May 27: Diamondbacks 7, Astros 6
GAME 52 - May 28: Diamondbacks 11, Astros 3
GAME 53 - May 29: Diamondbacks 4, Astros 2

With the Astros so solidly positioned in the cellar of the National League, it's not really worth spending a lot of time writing up all the individual game details. This past week there were a lot of close games -- five one-run scores in a row -- so the Astros were actually playing with a chance to win in most games. There were even a pair of walk-off wins against the Dodgers, for a rare series win. Be still my heart!

The close-game trend ended on Saturday night with a blowout loss to the Diamondbacks. When I turned on the computer after the Sabbath and saw the Astros down 9-0, I didn't even bother to start the live video. The good news is that the Astros, down 11-0 in the ninth, did manage to pull off a few runs, avoiding a shutout. (Just say NO TO SHUTOUTS!) I have to be thankful for the little things; it's hard to keep the excitement flowing. Sunday the bullpen blew another save situation to complete a weekend sweep by the Snakes. The good news: JA Happ (after walking 3 in the first inning) not only kept a shutout going on his watch, he also hit his first major league home run. That solo homer and a balked-in run accounted for Houston's whole score.

The Houston sports press also struggles to generate some excitement around a team that doesn't do many exciting things. Take, for instance, Wednesday's headline on mlb.com:

   Good Ol' J.R.: Towles' Walk-off BBQs Dodgers

I'm not saying that J.R. Towles isn't a nice young man, but "good ol' J.R." kind of hints at consistency and dependability. He's been really dependable, all right -- but just not the right kind. Up until that game, he'd been in a 0-for-32 slump, with only 1 hit the whole month of May. And what's with the barbeque metaphor? To me, "BBQ" indicates some fire. The Astros eked out a 2-1 win on a walk-off single. Here's a more accurate headline for the game:

   Astros Slowcook Dodgers on Rare Towles' Hit

I'm being a bit facetious here, but it's really that kind of a season, and it doesn't look like it's going to get much better for a while. The press has made much of the fact that the team is on pace to win just shy of 60 games this season, which would be the worst record ever -- even worse than the original 1962 Colt 45's. The Astros have never before lost 100 games, but they have a chance to break that record this year. On the other hand, the 2005 Astros also had the worst record brewing at the start of the season, and we all know where that ended up.

In the World Series.

No, I'm not expecting a 2005-style turnaround this year. It's going to be like Spring Training, all season long. Astros are leading the league in fielding flubs and blown saves.  That kind of season. The good news: We've only been shutout once! The bad news: We stink.

The real news is about which of the youngsters in Oklahoma are getting the call, as various roster players are injured. The latest team members to make the DL are Wandy (fluid in his pitching arm elbow) and Q (sprained ankle on collision at home plate).  Q's replacement (journeyman Robinson Cancel, playing for his seventh Triple A team in a 17-year professional career) isn't going to bring fans to the stadium. But Wandy's replacement should generate considerable interest: Twenty-year-old Jordan Lyles will get his big league debut in Chicago this week. Isn't that something -- a player born in 1990 on the mound for Houston? A top pitching prospect!!!

Here's the headline that the press (SB Nation) managed to generate for this event:

   Astros Sunday Roundup: Jordan Lyles - Savior of the Universe

Anything for attention.

2011 GAMES 45-47: Astros Win a Series Once in a Blue Jay...

GAME 45 - May 20: Astros 5, Blue Jays 2
GAME 46 - May 21: Blue Jays 7, Astros 5
GAME 47 - May 22: Astros 3, Blue Jays 2

Poised Friday night to recap their 15-30 start to the 2005 season, the Astros did something wild and crazy: They won a game. After 5 straight losses, the Astros looked like they were on their way to add to the streak, going into the eighth inning down 2-0 (good start with poor run support for Aneury R). But surprise: They celebrated their first trip to Toronto with a late inning surge: A 2-run double for Hunter Pence in the eighth; then in the ninth, a 2-run homer for CJ, capped with a Bourn RBI single. Good work by the bullpen (Escalon, Del Rosario, Lopez, and Melancon for the save).

Saturday Brett Myers was going strong, holding a shutout through 5 innings, while his teammates put 4 runs on the board for him. Then in the sixth, the wheels started coming off. With a runner on first, Barmes misplayed what should have been a double-play ball. Next batter lined out, which should have ended the inning without the error. Instead it brought up Jose Bautista, who hit a 3 run homer. Myers gave up another 3 runs in the seventh before Mills pulled him. Bautista hit another homer in the eighth just to rub it in. Astros got another run in the top of the ninth, but it was too little, too late. The Astros' 5 runs were a big score for them -- they have been extremely frugal with runs recently -- but not enough for the win.

Pence also figured in all the runs of Houston's 3-2 win on Sunday, scoring in the third, and then hitting a 2-run homer in the fifth. Luckily, it was a good day for both Wandy and the bullpen. Wandy held the Blue Jays to 2 runs on 6 hits over 6 innings; then Lopez and Melancon handled the rest of the game without giving up a run.  It was Melancon's third save; hopefully he'll have a bit more opportunity to try for more of those this season.

Nice to win a series. Nice to even win a game. But I'm resigned to a whole season of Spring Training for the Astros. At 17-30, we are still very securely in last place in the league. Now home to Houston to play the Dodgers, who have lost 7 of their last 9 games. Maybe we'll get lucky.

2011 GAMES 41-44: This Team's a Bargain...

GAME 41 - May 16: Braves 3, Astros 2
GAME 42 - May 17: Braves 3, Astros 1
GAME 43 - May 18: Cardinals 5, Astros 1
GAME 44 - May 19: Cardinals 4, Astros 2

How can a team that's in the cellar sell for $680 million and still be considered a bargain? Well, if you think of a bargain as in bargain basement, the Astros sure fit the bill! Here's what I figure: Jim Crane is probably not a fool. And if he thinks it's worth putting down the big bucks for one of the worst teams in the Major Leagues, with a farm system that's improving but still rated in the bottom third, he must know something special.

To celebrate the sale of their team, the Astros promptly lost all their games this week -- swept in a pair of back-to-back two-game road series in Atlanta and St Louis. The good news, if there is such a thing when you get swept, is that the games were generally close with nice work by the Astros rotation:

Myers on Monday: 6 innings, 2 ER on 8 hits, 3 BB, 6 Ks. Loss went to Abad, who pitched 1/3 inning in the seventh.

Wandy on Tuesday: 8 shutout innings, 5 hits, 2 BB, 6 Ks. Melancon blew the save, and Fulchino lost it in extra innings.

Bud Lite on Wednesday: A rare flub against the Cards, who he usually dominates, due to a 4-run third. Aside from that he only gave up 1 more run in his 5 innings. Bullpen was clean.

Happ on Thursday: 6 innings, 3 ER on 4 hits, 3 BB, 8 Ks. Not a bad start and the bullpen didn't do any damage, just crummy run support.

So that's the good news: It wasn't really terrible pitching that did them in this time.

The bad news: It was only scoring 6 runs in 4 games that led to the double sweep. The only good thing I can really say about that is: NO SHUTOUTS.

The Astros are in Toronto this weekend for the first time ever. They do play the Blue Jays in Spring Training, but they've never been to Canada for inter-league play. Given that the Astros are so bad this year, I barely watch the NL standings, let alone the AL. I had to look up the AL Central to find out what we're up against. Toronto is a little over .500, and won 7 of their last 10 games. So, we're likely to lose. Of course, at this point, we'd be likely to lose against the Pirates (who actually flirted with a winning record for 5 minutes this season).

O, to be at .500! Actually... O, to be at .400!!! By the way, if the Astros lose tonight, they will have the same 15-30 record as the 2005 team that went on to win the NL Pennant. Perhaps that's Jim Crane's big insight -- with this record, we're bound for glory!?

Just maybe not this year.

2011 GAMES 35-40: Would You Pay Almost $800M for This Ballclub?

GAME 35 - May 9: Reds 6, Astros 1
GAME 36 - May 10: Reds 7, Astros 3
GAME 37 - May 11: Astros 4, Reds 3


GAME 38 - May 13: Mets 6, Astros 4
GAME 39 - May 14: Astros 7, Mets 3
GAME 40 - May 15: Mets 7, Astros 4

The Astros have been up for sale for a while, with Uncle Drayton reportedly looking for around $800M for the team. Given the state of the franchise -- in the cellar this season with a farm that's widely ridiculed -- that didn't really seem likely. But wonder of wonders, miracle of miracles -- it seems that McLane will realize nearly what he was looking for, between the sale price of the team and his take on the regional sports network. Sources are reporting that the team will go for $680M, with over $90M for the communications deal. That's a whole lot more than recent predictions for the franchise value, which were more in the $500M range. Looks like a nice return on McLane's $117M investment when he bought the team in 1992, not to mention all the fun he's had over the past 19 years.

The new owner will be Houston businessman Jim Crane, who will reportedly make George Postolos the CEO after the sale goes through (despite some wistful suggestions from fans to bring Hunsicker back to Houston). It will be interesting to see what kind of changes these gentlemen make. The Astros are having the horrible season that was expected, although it's been more entertaining to watch than last year's team. Perhaps that's just an issue of expectations: With the "rebuilding" label on this year, we expected to lose a lot of games. Kind of like my fantasy (and players' nightmare) of Spring Training Heaven, where March's meaningless games just go on forever. Will the new owner get rid of Ed Wade right away or wait till the end of the season? Will he keep Mills? Will he trade our more lucrative players (Wandy, Myers)  for prospects? Can he unload Carlos Lee?

Ah, El Caballo. His 2000th career hit in yesterday's game was cause for a rare standing ovation for the player who has lost his popularity in Houston. Poor season last year, bad start in April... Lee has picked up a bit in May. I've been hoping that he'll go on a power streak long enough for some AL team to get suckered into picking him up as a DH, so we can be done with this albatross of a long-term contract.

This week the Astros were pretty much the same as usual. Bad news: Two series losses. Sucky pitching. Good news: No shutouts. (That will be my measure of hopelessness for the year.) Near miss, rescued by a timely late-inning solo homer. Nice lead squandered by the bullpen. Walk-off double by Pence for a win. The usual. Not a lot going on that warrants a real game write-up, unfortunately.

As we are around the six-week mark, I'll drag out my usual barometer of badness: How does this year compare to the 2005 Astros -- the team that lost 30 of their first 45 games, earned a RIP tombstone from the Houston newspaper, and then went on to win the Pennant? The 2011 Astros record is marginally better -- 15-25, percent-wise.  But, for a change, this year you won't hear me using that as a reason to believe in a miraculous happy ending. The 2005 team had an inexplicably bad start by a power house roster; the 2011 Astros are... well, rebuilding. Let's hope that Mr Crane understands that not every renovation problem is solved with a hammer.

But a whole lot of baseball problems can be solved with pitching.

2011 GAMES 26- 34: The End of the Streak and Other Mothers Day Musings

GAME 26 - April 29: Brewers 5, Astros 0
GAME 27 - April 30: Astros 2, Brewers 1
GAME 28 - May 1: Astros 5, Brewers 0


GAME 29 - May 3: Astros 10, Reds 4
GAME 30 - May 4: Reds 3, Astros 2
GAME 31 - May 5: Reds 10, Astros 4


GAME 32 - May 6: Astros 3, Pirates 2
GAME 33 - May 7: Pirates 6, Astros 1
GAME 34 - May 8: Pirates 5, Astros 4

The Astros managed to take their No Shutout Streak almost 2 months into the season, but it finally came to an end in the first game of the Brewers series last week. But don't tell the Astros that they are supposed to be losers -- they went on to win THREE GAMES IN A ROW for the first time this season. (This is definitely a year in which we will have celebrate every little excuse of a success!)

This has not been a good week for watching ball games. Between Sabbath games (the Sabbath ends LATE now), last Sunday's trip to NY to meet our new twin granddaughters, and a pair of day games while I was at work, I've only managed to watch a few innings live. So if you haven't seen me tweeting in a week, that's why. And I've had little time to write up games after the fact, so this post covers 3 whole series. If you want to see my excuse for not writing up ball games last weekend, here's what I was up to instead. This is the "Twins" Fan in Exile with Oscar and Oren, age 5 1/2 months:

And here are my brand new twin granddaughters Sylvie and Lyla: 

I finally got to watch a whole game live today -- on Mothers Day! After spending several hours doing back-trashing work in the garden, I treated myself to a ballgame. (Telling myself that I'd go back out after the game, but now all I want is to shower off the sunscreen, mulch residue, and bug spray!) Watched the game on my new toy -- the iPad 2 that finally arrived this week, with "Astros Fan in Exile" etched on the back. I've only bought one app so far -- MLB At Bat 11, of course. (I can see why I have to pay for my MLB.TV subscription every year, but I don't really understand why I have to buy MLB At Bat each season. Why don't I just get a free update like most other apps?)

Meanwhile, in the game, things didn't look too good for the first 6 innings, as the Astros could not get anything going against the Pirates' starter. But as soon as he was replaced in the 7th, the fun began: CJ hit a leadoff solo homer to get things started. Hall singled, then scored on Quintero's double, then Q scored from second on Sanchez's pinch hit bunt to put the Astros ahead 3-2. (Q scored from second on a bunt!?!?! That's what kind of year this is.) In the 8th inning, Lee got a double off what really looked like a caught fly ball (ump mistake), advanced to third on a bad pickoff throw, and trotted home on a humongous sac fly by Wallace. That extended the Astros lead to 4-2, and Happ's chance for a win was still alive. But in the bottom of the inning, Abad gave up a single, a walk, and a 3-run homer, and the Pirates took away our Mother's Day win. This is not a good year for the bullpen. The Astros lead the league in blown saves.

There's not really a whole lot of astounding news from the past week: The Astros are working hard to keep up their position as the Worst NL Team, with a 13-21 record. I generally don't pay that much attention to the standings when the Astros are below .500, let alone under .400. If we're not going to the playoffs, I don't actually have much preference who does. I just count games under .500, because that's how many days of a winning streak it would take to stop being LOSERS. We are on pace to lose 100 this year.

The Astros bullpen has been pretty iffy lately, as today's loss illustrates. Biggest other bullpen disappointment this week: Aneury Rodriguez (replacing Figueroa in the rotation) pitched 5 scoreless in his first ML start, helping the Astros take a 2-0 lead into the bottom of the ninth. But Lyons lost the  game on 4 hits and a walk, allowing 3 runs to score without getting an out -- his 4th blown save in 8 tries this season. After the game, Lyon went back to Houston to get checked out, and ended up on the DL with biceps tendinitis, and a partial rotator cuff tear. Melancon, the Astros end of the Berkman trade last year, is due to take over the closer job. Speaking of Berkman, he's got the #2 batting average in the NL at .388, with 10 homers, and leads the league in RBIs. Good for the Puma! (Except when he does it against us!)

In other injury news this past week, Carlos Lee was out for a few days after bruising his ribs in a fielding crash with Angel Sanchez. It was hard to miss him, when he's having another ho-hum season, and Bourgeois, his replacement in left field, was tearing the cover off the ball. In his 7 starts, Bourgeois went 14 for 27, with 7 stolen bases. With Lee back from his injury, the Astros didn't want to take Bourgeois out of the lineup, so they tried out him out at second base Saturday night -- and he was hurt in the game.  Now he's on the DL with a strained left oblique, and Inglett's back up from OKC.

Happily, real life is going much better than the Astros baseball season, with those four grandbabies and other good family stuff. It's a long season, and no doubt the Astros will find a way to win at least one or two more games before it ends. Meanwhile, Happy Mothers Day!!!!