Astros Fan in Exile

End of an Era?

2011-11-20T18:30:00.001-05:00

Hi, I'm Susan, your blogger. But you all know me as Astros Fan in Exile. The blog, the website, the custom jerseys. Starting back in the early 2000’s, the miracle of the Internet meant that an out-of-town fan could get more than two sentences and a box score in the next day’s newspaper. First it was full game writeups, with pictures. Then pitch-by-pitch, with more and more stats every year. Then, in 2004, I got my first subscription to mlb.tv, with live video coverage of virtually every game. In 2005, I went to Spring Training for the first time, and sitting behind the bullpen, I had my epiphany — a vision of the Astros in the World Series. And then it turned out to be true, despite the naysayers. Astros Fan in Exile went online the following spring, and being an Astros fan-atic has eaten up a good deal of my waking hours, 7 to 8 months of every year since. It takes a lot of time to watch and write up nearly every game of the season. Despite the Astros' tumble into the major league gutter (a cellar is way too nice to describe their most recent season), I’ve tried to find reasons to stay the course — we’re rebuilding for the future, it’s fun to watch the young kids play, we get first pick next season…

And now, going into their 50th anniversary year, the Astros have been sold and banished to the American League.

And I’m thinking of becoming a Nationals fan.

I’m not jumping ship without thinking it through. I feel a bit like Tevya in Fiddler on the Roof: On the one hand… on the other hand…

Reasons for moving on: (1) I don’t like the designated hitter version of major league baseball. It ruins the strategy. Pitchers are professional atheletes — let them bat and run! (2) With the Astros in the AL West, a large proportion of their games will start so late at night (after 10:30 my time) that I won’t be able to watch live games and still get up in the morning for work. (3) I don’t know any of the players. The era of my beloved Bagwell and Biggio is long gone, and most of my more recent favorite players have already been traded. If I’m going to jump, this is the perfect time for it. (4) If I become a Nats fan, I can actually go to real live baseball games all summer long.

Reasons for staying: (1) All those great fans I’ve met in Kissimmee at Spring Training, who stay in touch in email and Facebook in the off season. (2) Fifty years of cheering for the Astros, from back when I went to my first baseball games in Colt Stadium as a little kid! It’s really hard to abandon a tradition like that.

I need to decide in the next couple of months. If I’m going to learn to cheer for the Nats this year, I really ought to go to Viera (near Cocoa Beach), not Kissimmee, for Spring Training, to get to know the team. Should I just do it? Or maybe, with the AL move still a year away, I should just give it one more season to decide?

Help me out! What should I do?

What to do in the Astros Off Season - Part 1

2011-10-09T11:22:00.000-04:00

The Astros were eliminated in August. Now the team I was cheering for in the playoffs (Phillies, for Pence and Roy O) are out. I don't really care about the outcome of the playoffs. And, given the remaining teams, the TV advertisers are probably less than celebratory also. The Yankees are so great for business.

So what to do, now that Astros baseball is over but the hot stove hasn't started heating up? Well, there's Real Life to attend to. Now that Yom Kippur has passed, it's time to build our sukkah! If you don't know what that is - it's a little temporary branch-covered dwelling we build to live in (or at least eat our meal in) for the weeklong Jewish holiday Sukkot. (If you really want to know more, check out Wikipedia.) Here's your Fan in Exile in the sukkah - walls are up, but no schach (branches on top) yet. The holiday starts Wednesday evening.

Another, less joyous thing to do in the off-season: Read about the trouble that the Astros' youngsters get into when they aren't busy playing baseball. Two in the past week, one tragic and one just stupid, and both probably avoidable: The Astros' 34th pick prospect, 18 year old Dustin Kellogg, was killed in a late night traffic accident, after cutting across 4 lanes to hit an 18-wheeler head on. The reports didn't give a reason for why the accident occurred, but it's hard to keep from wondering what might be behind this driver error. Very sad anyway, whether it was vehicle malfunction or impaired judgement. The second incident was definitely impaired judgement: Our young center fielder, Jordan Schafer got arrested for felony possession of marijuana, while puffing away and driving his car. He's lucky that it was an arrest and not an accident that resulted. It's also idiotic -- with the field wide open for young players on a team that's rebuilding, this doesn't exactly help his chances.

I'll figure out some more things to do in the Astros Off Season and post them in future blogs. Meanwhile, reply to this blog to give me YOUR ideas for how to pass the time until Spring Training!

There's Always Next Year (with Photos)

2011-10-02T14:44:00.000-04:00

I have a confession to make: I bet against the Astros this year. I bet my sister Elizabeth (the one who came with me to Spring Training) $18 that the Astros wouldn't win 60 games this year. She was willing to make the bet at 64 games, but I was pretty certain that 60 would be unattainable. As it turned out, there was plenty of room to spare, as the Astros finished the season with only 56 wins and a whopping 106 losses. One for the record books -- time to start thinking about what to do with that first pick in next year's draft! I'm saving the $18 to take Elizabeth out for a vegetarian Indian dinner at Woodlands in Orlando, when we go to Spring Training to check out the upcoming crop of baby Astros. We'll be rebuilding for a while...

Meanwhile, here are a few pictures that I took at the Astros vs Nationals game here in Washington on the tenth anniversary of 9/11. The Nats fans went home happy, having seen Strasburg pitch, and the Nats win 8-2. I went home happy, just having seen the Astros for the first and only time this season. Given the outcome of the standings, it really didn't matter whether we won the game. It was just a great day to celebrate our national pasttime!

Fan in Exile happy to see the Astros for the first time this season

Me with my friend (normally a Twins Fan) Ann

Altuve takes batting practice, but (alas!) had the day off

Schafer and Bogusevic miss the catch

Martinez makes a good throw from the outfield

Downs blows bubbles - got the start at second

Schafer waiting for a can of corn to drop into his glove

Corporan behind the plate

Sosa in trouble after giving up 3 homers in a row

Not an Astro - but who could pass up wanting to take pictures of Stephen Strasburg?

Wallace and Bogusevic during BP

Martinez batting, Lee on deck

Can you find the BALL?

No Caption required...

The Nat in the Hat?

Unfortunate end to Lance Pendleton's Astro's debut:
He struck out 2, then hit 2, then gave up a RBI hit

Melancon throws - NOT a save situation

Goodbye and good riddance, Astros Season 2011! I don't have a real favorite for the playoffs so don't look for much blogging on that subject. I guess I'll cheer for the Phillies, for Oswalt and Pence. (After all, Pence was the Astros' MVP this year! How sad is that?) I'll be back in the off-season to talk about trades, rebuilding, and plans for going to Kissimmee. There's always next year, you know!

Coming Up: Two Losing Teams, Strasburg, and the Ten Year Anniversary of 9/11

2011-09-07T19:41:00.000-04:00

The long awaited Astros trip to Washington to play the Nats is almost here! Unfortunately, it's a weekend series, so (due to Sabbath observance) I'll only be able to make it to the Sunday game. Thanks to my friend Chuck, who will be off on a fabulous vacation, I have most excellent tickets to this game. I'm expecting it to be quite a notable event, considering that it's a late season game between two losing teams. But with Stephen Strasburg expected to pitch for the Nats, and the momentous date (tenth anniversary of 9/11), it's likely to be a full stadium with quite a bit of pomp and ceremony.

After watching Strasburg pitch yesterday for the first time this season, I'm really looking forward to seeing him on Sunday. He's great and it's hard not to cheer for him. So here's the deal -- I will hope that he throws a perfect game for 6 innings, and then after they take him out, I hope the Astros go on a binge and win the game. The Nats left Strasburg in for 5 innings yesterday, and I doubt that they'll take a chance with letting him pitch much more than that in what remains of the year.

On Sunday I'll be sitting in the sixth row, ground level, behind first base. You can look for me during the televised game, wearing my Sunday red jersey with FAN IN EXILE on the back! But since Fox Sports Houston (which sometimes shows Astros fans in the stands between plays) isn't broadcasting, I'm not likely to appear.

Suddenly September...

2011-09-04T10:34:00.000-04:00

After six long grueling months of Astros Spring Training, suddenly it's September. Can anyone really say that the games this season have seemed like anything but months and months of training camp? When our team is eliminated by the beginning of September, the outcomes of the games are not really important. When most of the players have spent more time in Corpus and OKC than in Houston, there's more of a sense of "Spring is in the air..." than anything else.

You might have noticed that my blog postings this year have been remarkably free of my Spring Training photos. The Astros are playing a team full of youngsters, most of whom don't appear in the thousands of Astros pictures I've taken. Three reasons:
1. I didn't make it to Florida for Spring Training this year to see the latest crop of minor leaguers get their cup of coffee -- first time I missed since 2004.
2. Some of these kids were still low minor leaguers when I was at Spring Training last year, and not all of them were considered top prospects. Who was really watching J.D. Martinez a year ago? Jose Altuve started the year playing A ball - has he ever appeared in a Spring Training game?
3. Many of these guys came to us in trades during the season, so I wouldn't have seen them in Kissimmee anyway. At least not in Astros jerseys; some of them might have been there playing for the other teams. More likely they were in the other teams' minor league camps.

Seriously: Who would have guessed that our lineup would have changed this much since opening day?
1. Schafer (Braves) or Bourgeois (AAA), CF (Bourn to the Braves)
2. Altuve (A/AA), 2B (Bill Hall to the Giants)
3. JD Martinez (AA), LF (Lee to 1B)
4. El Caballo, 1B (Wallace to the minors)
5. Paredes, 3B (CJ to the minors)
6. Bogusevic (AAA), RF (Pence to the Phillies)
7. Barmes, SS (Sanchez to the minors)
8. Quintero or Corporan (AAA), C (Towles to the minors)

And the starting rotation? We started the season with Wandy, Myers, Happ, Norris, and Figueroa. All but Figueroa (now Pirates) still pitch for the Astros, but don't expect to see Wandy or Myers back next year. They're likely post-season trades. By next year, Norris may be our "ace," along with some combination of Happ, Lyles, Clemens (Paul), Cosart, Sosa, Harrell, Wright...?

I hope this is not coming across as negative -- that's certainly not my intent. I'm really glad that the Astros have finally faced the truth and have embraced "rebuilding" as a team theme. I'd rather watch the young players go through growing pains than to see random combinations of veterans year after year. How great is it to see Martinez (no prospect buzz) with RBIs in nearly every game? Who doesn't love Mighty Mouse Altuve? I hope the Astros will continue to collect prospects (including our 2012 first pick!) for a brighter future.

On a related note, among the rare surviving veterans on the team, Carlos Lee has gone on a late season hitting spree -- going 15 for 27 over the past week. Too bad he didn't have a solid power year, so that there might have been any chance of dumping him and his mega-expensive contract on some AL team that wouldn't expect him to field.

All season the Astros.com headlines have read like today's "Wandy Aims to Get Astros on Track in Finale," in some strange fantasy that our starting pitcher can somehow rescue them. Enjoy watching Wandy -- the last member of the pennant winning 2005 team still around -- in what may be one of his final starts for the Astros.

The Danger of Watching Baseball in Bed...

2011-08-17T08:00:00.002-04:00

Everyone knows that smoking cigarettes in bed is dangerous. Well, here's a lesser known danger: Watching baseball games on an iPad in bed. So you may wonder, why is that so dangerous? Look at what happened to me last night and learn...

With the Astros playing just over .300 ball (that's wins, not batting average), on a 7-game losing streak, and trailing since the first inning, who could blame me for deciding to turn off the iMac before Take Me Out to the Ball Game? Instead, I went to bed with my iPad, planning to watch the rest of the game on the At Bat 11 app. But then, because it was late and the bed was comfy and the game was dragging... I fell asleep. That's how I came to be dreaming of next year's Spring Training when Bogusevic hit his walk-off grand slam in the ninth.

First thing in the morning, I grabbed the iPad to check on the ending of the game. I was brushing my teeth when Bogus' swing was anything but bogus, the ball was flying out over the center field wall, JD and Brownie were hyperventilating, and what was left of the crowd was going crazy. Then the Astros players jumped out on the field for Bogusevic's ritual head bashing. He may have lost a standard deviation's worth of IQ points from that, but, hey, it was worth it! I watched the ninth inning twice while I was getting dressed for work, then came downstairs and watched the Cubs broadcast of it while I was fixing my breakfast, so I could gloat.

It's kind of fun watching a surprise win when you already know the ending. It gives an extra depth to all of the broadcaster's comments -- that Dempster, the Cubs' starter, was probably in the clubhouse, icing his arm, with one eye on the game. Or that Bogusevic really does have it in him to hit one out of there, even though they didn't sound very convinced that this would be anything other than another routine loss. As JD and Brownie noted, it's a "bleak" season, to say the least.

Bogusevic didn't do it all himself, of course. After Paredes lined out to start the ninth, Shuck hit a single just past the first baseman. Barmes managed to knock a not very promising pitch into left field, to put runners on the corners with one out. Then Downs pinch hit for Q. Gotta like your chances with Downs off the bench, and he did his best to hit it into the seats. But he was patient, didn't go for Marmol's slider, and walked to load the bases. Then Bogusevic came up, got down in the count with two quick strikes, before whacking a 2-2 fast ball over the center field fence, way over the 404' sign. A thing of beauty. It brought tears to my eyes, even the fourth time I watched it.

Today's an afternoon game - I should be able to stay awake till it's over!

Special shoutout to my Spring Training pal Carole, who was there for the game -- guess you got your money's worth!!!

Cheering for the Twins!

2011-08-12T18:16:00.000-04:00

Every so often, I have to take a quick detour from baseball to remind you all that in my Real Life I'm a secret Twins fan. Not the ones from Minnesota, dontcha know -- the ones from Brooklyn. Just had a two hour (much-too-short!) visit with my grandsons Oscar and Oren, who are passing through Maryland on their way to the beach. Now going on 9 months old, they are full of tricks - walking around the furniture, escaping when you're trying to change their pants, waving bye bye (alas!). So cute. We were too busy playing to take many pictures when they were here this afternoon, but here's one of Robert (AKA "Saba") making the airplane full of baby food fly into Oren's mouth, as Oscar looks on.

With Oscar in his helmet (for reshaping a flat spot on the back of his head), they kind of remind me of Doonsbury and BD. Here's a picture with the helmet off, so you can see how cute they are. That's Oscar in blue, Oren in brown.

So if that's not enough of a case for being a Twins fan, there's always this: their 3 1/2 month old girl cousins Lyla and Sylvie.

Okay, this is a baseball blog, so I should say something about the game. Having cleaned house, and sent Pence and Bourn packing, the Astros are mostly playing their new baby players -- just a little bit older than my grandkids. (They're all closer to the babies' age than mine!) I'm just learning to recognize the new players, since I missed Spring Training this year, and some of them were acquired since then in trades. It's kind of refreshing to see young players running hard, trying their best, knowing that this is their chance to get a spot on a big league team. Lots of hits, lots of diving plays, lots of running. We may not win many games, but the kids are fun to watch. Almost as fun as the Twins.

Strangers in a Strange Land...

2011-07-31T10:54:00.001-04:00

Some years ago, my IBM colleague Sam and I went down in Texas to teach an "Object Oriented Design" class at the Clear Lakes office. Like most of the guys in our group, Sam preferred to stay in a Marriott. He was collecting frequent-sleeper points in hopes of someday going on vacation to somewhere exotic -- where he would reside in a hotel that was just like the ones he stayed in on our business trips. Back then, Clear Lakes (home of the Space Center) didn't have a Marriott, and the closest one was in Houston. I didn't care about collecting Marriott points, and would have preferred to stay close by the IBM office, so I could get a little more sleep and a little less commute. But this time, I didn't argue -- the closest Marriott just happened to be in the vicinity of the Astrodome.

So the deal was, I'd agree to stay in the Marriott near the Astrodome if Sam would agree to go to a ball game in the evening, after we got back from Clear Lake. Deal. We went to the Astrodome -- a huge thrill for me! I hadn't been back there since I'd moved away from Texas some years earlier. I picked the seats -- out in the bleachers, where I'd always sat as a kid growing up in Houston. The game started...

...and the Astros stunk. And worse, although I could rattle off the names of every starter on the team back in the day, I didn't recognize any of these guys. The year was 1991.

[Side note: Remember what it was like before the Internet? Although I've always been an Astros fan, there were a number of years after I moved away from Houston when it was very difficult to be a very engaged fan-in-exile. Until the Internet came along - game stories, then pitch-by-pitch, the online radio, and finally streaming live video - my daily source of Astros news was generally limited to a sentence or two and a box score in the Washington Post. I became a fanatic in exile with my first subscription to mlb.tv in 2004.]

So back to 1991... Who were these guys? A quick review of the roster in my program explained why the players were so foreign to me. Many of them were in their first year in the big leagues -- like Jeff Bagwell, who went on that year to be the MLB Rookie of the Year. Other rookies: Darryl Kile, Luiz Gonzales, Kenny Lofton. There were some other young guys I'd never heard of, who were in their first (or only) year with the Astros: Curt Schilling, Steve Finley, Pete Harnisch, Mark McLemore. And a few others, whose names I'd know better in later years: Craig Biggio, Ken Caminiti, Casey Candaele, Jim Deshaies...and coach Phil Garner. I don't remember who I saw on the field that night -- not even who pitched. Mike Scott, one of the better known Astros players, was in his last injury-plagued season, and didn't pitch that night -- I would have remembered that!

The night I went to the Astrodome, the Astros lost -- badly. It was one of many bad losses that year, as they went on to finish with a 65-97 record, one of the worst seasons in franchise history, tied for the most losses in a season. As we are all well aware, the 2011 Astros stand to demolish that record.

I'm telling this story for two reasons: First of all to celebrate how the Internet has made it possible for fans to really stay in the game for their home teams, even if they are exiled far away. Second, and more importantly, to remind us all that a team full of young nobodies one season may be a team full of winners later. The Astros had a .500 season in 1992, and did not have another losing season until 2000. In the meantime, they were first or second in the division 6 times in those 8 years.

So 2011 is a throwaway season - one to groan about or laugh about, depending on your outlook. Maybe both. One long Spring Training, without the nice Florida-in-March weather. But in losing Oswalt and Berkman and Pence and Bourn (and Wandy today?), we've picked up some young quality players. We've signed a lot of our draft picks, and who doubts that we're due to get the first pick in next summer's draft? By stocking up on prospects and rebuilding our miserable farm teams, the Astros just might have some fun years ahead.

Now back to our regularly scheduled loss...

Midway Through the Season from Hell

2011-07-17T08:18:00.000-04:00

With the All Star Game now in our rear view mirror, the second half of the 2011 season looks like an interminable drudge to the finish -- one where the only thing that the Astros will be competing with is themselves: Will they or won't they be the worst Astros team EVER?

Please do not call think of me as a traitor, but I actually have money on this question: An $18 bet with my sister Elizabeth (the one who has braved Kissimmee with me twice) that the Astros won't win 65 games this year. I actually offered to go lower than that. I was willing to put down money that they wouldn't hit 60. I'm not being negative or unfaithful, just honest: That's how bad this team seems to be. At 94 games, they have a 31-63 record. So unless something happens to drastically improve the team, they are on pace to win about 53 games. Record book stuff indeed.

One could point out that the Astros have often been a late bloomer, with a big bang finish to the season. But there's really no reason to think that's going to happen this year. If anything, it's possible that the Astros' in-flux owners will sell off any of the "stars" who can command some value, reducing the winning rate even further.

Given that I had expected this to be a losing season, I'm actually more cheerful than I sound in this blog. I'm pepping myself up with phrases like:

First Pick
Fresh Blood
Rebuilding
Hope for the Future...

It's what it takes to get through a season that looks like Spring Training for six months. But there are some ominous things floating around that worry me and threaten my longer-term loyalty.

First and foremost is the rumor about moving to the American League. My dad has been advocating this move for years -- he's a retired engineer and likes things to be well designed and balanced, so the lopsided leagues annoy him. But I'm one of those people who think that the Designated Hitter ruins the beauty of the game. Moving the Astros to the AL could be ammunition for moving me from mlb.tv to the Nationals Ballpark. I'm not kidding.

The other ominous thing is the possibility that some of my team favorites may be traded. Yes, I know that change is the nature of the game. Players come, players go. Players are stars, then they aren't. Players retire, players are traded. For a Fan in Exile, even more than a home town fan, continuity is important. When you only get to see the team at Spring Training, and maybe for a few games when they're playing an away game where you live now, you need some continuity of players to keep up your connection and loyalty. For years, Bagwell and Biggio were the poster boys for that continuity. (Literally -- I have a Bagwell/Biggio poster giveaway from 2004 in my office.) Then they retired. The pennant winning Astros players from 2005 started to disappear. Then fan faves Oswalt and Berkman were traded last year.

Now rumor has it that the management is looking to see what they can get for Hunter Pence. Underpants! He's the face of the team, the nice guy everyone loves! The only All Star on the team! Well, duh -- that's why he has value to the other teams who would presumably trade away their prospects to get his bat and his outfield assists to bolster their race to the pennant.

Who else may be on the trading block? Michael Bourn? Wandy?

Now if we could unload El Caballo, I wouldn't quibble.

Change is good. I keep reminding myself that. I keep telling myself that even the worst team in the Major Leagues won't lose all the rest of the games of the season. So I'll keep watching the games, hoping to catch a win once or twice a week. And I'll keep popping up on Twitter, hoping to catch some other Astros fans to commiserate with. But recently, it's mostly been the people who are paid to watch games and talk about the Astros. If you're reading this, please post a reply. Being an Astros Fan in Exile has gotten to be a very lonely pasttime.

2011 GAMES 67-162: No Comment

2011-06-26T18:19:00.000-04:00

I have gotten hopelessly behind in game write-ups for a good reason -- between work, life, and the Astros schedule, I haven't had much time for watching live games. With the Astros losing the vast majority of their games, there is really not much incentive to watch the games that I already know were losses after the fact. Some years, I've made a point of trying to watch at least part of each game, staying up late on Saturday nights to watch the Sabbath games I missed, checking out even the losses to find something to like. This season just isn't like that.

I listen to the broadcasters make excuses, how the team is trying hard, bad luck, if only... But the truth is, we're playing a really bad team, which does not appear to be particularly well managed. Having missed going to Spring Training this year, for the first time since 2004, I never developed the kind of connection to the players that you get from seeing the players in person. And being a fan in exile, I won't see the team play a season game until September, when they come to Washington. Two of the three games against the Nationals will be on the Sabbath - so at most I will get to see the Astros just once the whole season.

I don't really have a problem with cheering for the underdog -- that was most of my childhood growing up in Houston. But it is hard to keep up the connection without other fans to commiserate with -- at the ballgame or online through blogs, Twitter, Facebook and other social media. Earlier this season, I used to find plenty of people to tweet with during the games, and we could keep each other company while watching the Astros lose. But recently, when I tweet "Hey #ASTROS FANS..." at the start of a game, no one tweets back. I don't think it's anything personal, of course; I just don't think that many of the other fans are bothering to tweet. Maybe they aren't even bothering to watch the games? Hard to tell.

Last night I turned on the computer after the Sabbath, just in time to watch the Astros lose. Today, I got home from work (proposal season doesn't stop for weekends) just in time to watch the bottom of the 9th, with the Astros down 14-10. With 10 runs scored today, there are probably some fun innings to watch, and maybe I'll do that when they post the game to the archive later this evening. On the other hand, with 14 runs allowed, that's some painfully stinky Astros pitching -- from Happless to Melanconly. Maybe it's a night for a glass of wine and Angry Birds instead.

For the record, I am officially giving up my game write-ups for the year. I'll post to the blog when there's something interesting to comment on (like changes of management or swapping out the entire roster and bringing up the whole Oklahoma City team). I'll keep checking for other fans to tweet with during games -- I'm AstrosFanInXile, in case you're not following me yet. Tweet back! It gets lonely out here in exile.

Meanwhile, I'm going to keep considering whether I should just TRY to cheer for the Nats next year. There's something to be said for actually getting to see your team play now and then!

2011 GAMES 61-66: How to Get the First Draft Pick

2011-06-13T19:54:00.001-04:00

GAME 61 - June 7: Cardinals 7, Astros 4
GAME 62 - June 8: Astros 4, Cardinals 1
GAME 63 - June 9: Cardinals 9, Astros 2

GAME 64 - June 10: Braves 11, Astros 4
GAME 65 - June 11: Braves 6, Astros 3
GAME 66 - June 12: Braves 4, Astros 1

In a week that started mid-way through a 4-game losing streak, and ended with a 4-game losing streak, with just 1 win in the middle, it's hard to find a lot to get excited about. Even going through each game and finding just one thing to like starts to seem a bit hysterical. Happily for the Astros, with Pence on a 22-game hitting streak, finding something to like is a cheap thrill. Unhappily for the Astros, Pence sat out Sunday's game due to the lower back spasms that have been hurting him recently, putting the streak on hold and worrying a management team that doesn't have a lot to brag on at the moment.

Looking at the standings -- when I bother to do so -- I see that the Astros are still in the cellar of the combined Major Leagues, accompanied by only one team (the poor Cubs) in the Under .400 category. At 24-42, the Astros are on target to win barely 59 games this season -- by far the worst season in club history. It is true that the Astros tend to be a stronger end-of-season team, and it's possible that the win-loss ratio may improve as we head towards fall. But, really, can anyone out there think of a good reason for that to happen?

My sister Elizabeth (the one who goes to Spring Training with me) does not believe that this year's Astros could possibly worse than the 1962 Colt 45s. She bet me $18 that the Astros will win at least 65 games this season. She's on.

Hard as it is to admit, it's getting hard to work up much excitement for coming home from a long day at the office to watch a ball game.

Having said that, here's what I hope the Astros will do: STAY THE COURSE. Stick with the rebuilding, don't try to sign players who could help win this year, play the kids. Keep around a few veterans to act as player coaches to the youngsters and lose a lot of games.

Meanwhile, I'll stick with the little pleasures, like watching Jordan Lyles try for his first big league win. They're keeping him on, now that Wandy's back from the DL, sending down Fulchino and bumping Aneury-Rod to the pen. And when we just keep losing and losing... just think of what a low draft pick we're going to get next year.

2011 GAMES 54-60: Win a Few, Lose a Few

2011-06-06T21:37:00.000-04:00

GAME 54 - May 30: Astros 12, Cubs 7
GAME 55 - May 31: Astros 7, Cubs 3
GAME 56 - June 1: Astros 3, Cubs 1

GAME 57 - June 2: Astros 7, Padres 4
GAME 58 - June 3: Padres 3, Astros 1
GAME 59 - June 4: Padres 6, Astros 3
GAME 60 - June 5: Padres 7, Astros 2

So here's how a team like the Astros can SWEEP a series: Play a team whose combined ERA is even worse than ours. That would be the Cubs, whose sloppy play and pitching woes combined to give the Astros their first (and possibly only) 3-game sweep of the season. And the start to a FOUR GAME WINNING STREAK! Almost unimaginable.

It was all down hill from there over the weekend, as the Astros went on to lost the rest of the series in San Diego. The usual good news in bad times: They didn't get shut out. But just barely -- the Astros only scored a total of 6 runs all weekend. After scoring 29 runs in the previous 4 games, that's a painful indictment of Cubs pitching.

The big news of the week had relatively little to do with game outcomes, and much more to do with the future hopes of the team. With Wandy still on the DL, Jordan Lyles came up to the Bigs for his much anticipated debut. Tuesday night, in his first game, he was just about everything that fans had hoped for -- economical with his pitches (lasting into the 8th inning), calm (even with runners on third base), and relatively nasty. He even got his first major league hit. The worst thing he did all evening was a poor fielding play that cost him a couple of runs. The worst thing the Astros did was to fail to score runs for him, leaving him vulnerable for the loss. However, in a nearly miraculous turnaround, once Lyles was out, the Astros came back for a huge 9th inning comeback, putting 6 runs on the board against the Cubs closer Marmol. So Lyles got a no-D, and gained the affection of those of us who are hoping for a brighter future. As it turned out, a different Astros player got his first big league win that night -- reliever Fernando Rodriguez (one of the 3 Rodriguez pitchers on the team).

Just in case anyone was inclined to believe that Lyles would be the Savior of the Universe (as SB Nation facetiously claimed), his second big league start on Sunday night was a lot less exciting: He gave up 3 runs in the first inning, and only made it through 4 innings on 96 pitches, earning the loss. A bit of a reminder that the kid is just 20 years old, and that he could be heading back down to Triple A when Wandy gets back in a week or so. But still nice to see some energy from the fans and sportscasters.

In other youngster news, the Astros have named an outfielder (not a big arm!) for their first-round pick in the First-Year Player Draft tonight. The player is UConn's George Springer, considered a five-tool prospect. Maybe another future Pence-type player? Only time will tell...

Meanwhile we have to slog our way through this season for a few more months.

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

2011-05-30T08:08:00.001-04:00

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...

2011-05-23T20:29:00.000-04:00

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...

2011-05-20T19:11:00.000-04:00

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?

2011-05-15T17:38:00.000-04:00

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

2011-05-08T17:18:00.000-04:00

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!!!!

2011 GAMES 23-25: Losing and Having a Blast

2011-04-29T19:48:00.000-04:00

GAME 23 - April 26: Astros 6, Cardinals 5
GAME 24 - April 27: Cardinals 6, Astros 5
GAME 25 - April 28: Cardinals 11, Astros 7

After all these years, Astros fans still boo Carlos Beltran when the Mets come to town. So I was wondering what would happen when the long-time favorite, Lance Berkman, would make his Houston debut in a Cardinals jersey. Just would have been so sad to see the Puma booed. No worry. As Berkman came up for his first at bat in Tuesday night's game, the Houston fans rose to give him a standing O. Classy.

By Thursday night, however, the Puma had worn out our sentimentality. His two homers, a double, and a single combined for 5 RBIs -- that's the exact 5 run difference between the Astros winning and losing the game. Over his visit to Houston, he went 8 for 14, raising his batting average from .377 to .410, second among Major Leaguers. So borrowing a line from Fiddler on the Roof: May the Lord bless him and keep him -- far away from us!

Though the Astros lost this series, I have to give them credit for playing scrappy, exciting games. As a team, they are batting .275, fourth in the NL. They're fifth in the league for runs scored, second in doubles, first in triples. And dead last for homers. But offensively, this is a fun team to watch. The kids hit and they hustle, both on the base paths and out in the field. They lead the league in SB%, and are sixth in total steals. They're third in double plays turned with 25 -- including FIVE in Tuesday night's win! They also lead the league in errors - not a surprise for such a young team. This is not the old Astros team (with the emphasis on OLD) that got shut out all the time -- we've got a NO SHUTOUT streak going this season!

But for all those runs, we're still the worst team in the league for The pitching staff has the worst ERA in the league (5.24), with an opponents batting average over .300. On the other hand, our pitching staff is doing great at the plate -- they lead the league in batting by pitchers.

So, yep, win or lose, this is a really fun team to watch. The games in this series, even the losses, were exciting, with lots of action right to the end. On Wednesday night, the Astros went into the eighth inning down 6-0, and I was worrying about that shutout streak. But they came back for 3 runs in the eighth and another pair in the ninth, with a runner in scoring position when Pence struck out to end the game. The game went down to the very last pitch. Even Thursday night's game, despite the lopsided score, was exciting. The Cards had a huge 9-run sixth as Figeuroa, Abad, and Fulchino engaged in a total meltdown. But other than that, they only scored singleton runs in 2 innings. The Astros were battling to the end, stranding loaded bases in the eighth and another pair of runners in the ninth. So, okay, we lost -- we're going to lose a lot of games this year. We're REBUILDING. But at least we've got a bunch of kids with something to prove. We're losing - ain't it fun???

Why I've Become a TWINS Fan (Again!)

2011-04-29T18:51:00.000-04:00

Back in November, I confessed that I had defected, moving my allegiance to a new group of guys. You might say I started being a real Twins fan.

It's happening again. I'm really, really leaning towards the Twins... No, not the ones in Minnesota -- the ones in Brooklyn. This time it's Lyla and Sylvie, my new twin granddaughters.

Oscar and Oren, my five-month-old twin grandsons, have cousins, just born on Wednesday. So you can see why the TWINS are all that I'm thinking about these days!!!

Is this crazy or what -- two sets of twins in five months? These are the children of our two sons and their wives -- it's just coincidental. But when people ask us whether twins run in the family, we've started saying, "They do now!"

2011 GAMES 20-22: Wackiest Game of the Season

2011-04-27T21:34:00.002-04:00

GAME 20 - April 22: Brewers 14, Astros 7
GAME 21 - April 23: Astros 9, Brewers 6
GAME 22 - April 24: Brewers 4, Astros 1

Weird. Wonderful. Wacky.

I'm talking about the middle game of the series in Milwaukee. I could go back and watch this one again, just to see how crazy it was. A goofball play (fielders colliding in a tangle of limbs on the mound) followed by what was almost a triple play. First extra inning game of the season, and the Astros pull off a win in the end. Q's first steal ever.

It was another Saturday night game, so I joined in midstream after the Sabbath ended, with the Astros leading 4-3. The Astros added a pair of runs in the top of the seventh, then starter Brett Myers gave up a 2-run homer after the stretch, leaving the bullpen with a slim 6-5 lead to protect.

Speaking of Myers.... Exchange on Twitter during the game:

zacharylevine Zachary Levine Just out of curiosity, does anyone own a Brett Myers Astros jersey? I can't remember ever seeing one. -Z

AGAME_ River Austin @zacharylevine you mean a "wife beater?"

AstrosFanInXile Susan Lilly @AGAME_ @zacharylevine Serious ouch!

Anywhere, that's where things stood when things got kind of wild in the bottom of the eighth. Melancon gave up a leadoff single. Then a little bunt dribbled to the mound caused Wallace to become entangled with Melancon; both of them fell down, and Wallace's throw to first went astray. That put runners on the corners with no outs. Uh oh. The next batter hit a grounder to CJ, who worked with Quintero to catch the runner on third in a rundown. That runner was unwisely waving the runner from first around second, and he too got caught in a rundown between second and third. Once he was tagged, Quintero quickly threw to first base and nearly caught the batter straying off base for what would have been the third out of the play. Instead it was an extremely entertaining double play, which erased the scoring threat.

Lyon came in for the save situation, with that 6-5 lead still intact. But a Braun single, followed by a Fielder double, blew the save. Lyons walked a pair of batters to load the bases before wiggling out of the inning with the score tied 6-6. In the tenth, with Wallace on second (double) and Hall on first (walk), Q hit a big fly ball to right center for a two-out ground rule double, scoring both runners. Now with a two-run lead, Mills left in Lyon to bat, so he could pitch the bottom of the inning. Well, why not? Astros hurlers lead the lead in batting average for pitchers. Let 'em bat! Lyon doubled to score Q, bumping the lead to 9-6. Oh, did I mention that Quintero stole third base -- the first steal in his whole career? I told you that this was a wild and crazy game! Lyon pitched a perfect tenth, to add a W to his BS.

I could definitely watch this game again!

On the other hand, I didn't bother to watch Friday night's 14-7 rout at all. And the only thing I can say I liked about Sunday's loss was that JR Towles' eighth inning homer kept the Astros from being shut out. The Astros lost another series, but the Streak Goes On!!!!

2011 GAMES 17-19: Officially WINNERS

2011-04-22T18:57:00.002-04:00

GAME 17 - April 19: Astros 6, Mets 1
GAME 18 - April 20: Astros 4, Mets 3
GAME 19 - April 21: Astros , Mets 6

Well, it's now official: The Astros are WINNERS. Here we are, just three weeks into the season, and we've already won a series! Granted, they won their first series of the season against the only NL with a worse record than their own, the Unfortunate Mets. But that's the beauty of a "rebuilding" year -- we can celebrate every little success.

The Astros and Mets entered this series with identical sucky records. In the first game, Wandy faced off Jon Niese, a starter with a similar 0-2 record and high ERA. Wandy had been off, on, and off again in his earlier starts, and the on/off pattern continued with this game. Happily we were on the "on" side -- Wandy pitched a terrific start in the rain, giving up only a single run on a solo homer by (Boo) Beltran. Over 7 innings, he allowed 3 hits, 3 walks, and struck out 7. Bad weather, nice line. Abad and Fulchino pitched quiet innings to hold onto the lead, giving Wandy his first win of the season.

Wandy had a pretty nice lead to work with -- the Astros scored their first run before he ever took the mound, added on another run in the fourth and in the seventh, and 3 more in the eighth. So by the time the bullpen got into the action, the Astros were sitting pretty with a 6-1 lead. (Not that they haven't ever blown a big lead... but they didn't in this game!) This game was played Tuesday night, while I was sitting at my seder table with a dozen guests, talking about philology and philosophy and phood. (I really should blog about food instead of baseball -- I'd have more family interest.) Since I missed watching such a nice game live (and there haven't been that many of them this season!), I watched this game late Friday afternoon on the mlb.tv archive.

I was able to catch the end of Wednesday night's game, after the end of the (first round of) Passover holiday. When I turned on the computer, the Astros and Mets were tied 3-3. Bud Lite threw a quality start, although there were quite a few base runners on his watch. He pitched 6 innings, giving up 3 runs on 10 hits, a walk, striking out 6. All that ran his pitch count over 100, taking Norris out of the game after 6 frames without a decision. That left 3 innings for the bullpen to handle. Melancon pitched a scoreless seventh. He was the pitcher of record when Pence ripped out a solo homer in the top of the eighth to give the Astros a 4-3 lead. Abad started a nerve-wracking eighth, with a walk, strikeout, and single to put runners on the corners with only one out. Mills gave the ball to Jose Valdez, in just his second big league appearance. Valdez struck out his first batter for the second out, but his nasty splitter bounced off Towles' glove onto the field, allowing the runner on third to dash for home. What happened next was just gorgeous fielding -- Valdez ran towards the plate, Towles ran to grab the ball and flipped it to Valdez, who tagged out the runner. Double play to end the threat.

But the fun didn't end there. Our closer Lyon still had to get through the ninth. After a leadoff single put Mets speedster Reyes on first, the Mets tried to bunt him over. The bunt popped straight to Lyons, who tossed it to Downs covering first, catching Reyes for the double play. A fly ball to Pence ended the game, giving the Astros a double milestone: First back-to-back wins of the season and first series win.

We don't have to talk too much about Thursday night's disappointing finale. JA Happ was all set to continue his good pitching to sweep the Mets, but it didn't quite work out that way. He got beat up, starting in the third inning, and by the time he handed off the ball to the bullpen in the middle of the fifth, the Astros were down 6-0. By the seventh inning, I was starting to worry -- not about the outcome of the game, but about the status of the Astros' streak of no-shutout games. Then Wallace led off with a double and scored on Matt Downs' RBI single, keeping the streak alive. Three weeks into the season and we still have not been shut out!

That was all the fun that the Astros had at the plate, but they did manage to give the Mets a good time in the eighth. With a runner on first and two outs, Jason Bay hit a pop up to shallow right field. Pence missed the catch, the ball rolled, and the bases cleared. When it was all over, the record book showed a two-run four-base error on Pence. Does it get any worse than that? (Yes -- if it had happened in a close game!) To add insult to insult, the next batter hit a solo homer to make it 9-1. But who's counting at that point? The Mets got a much needed laugher, and the Astros left town with a series win, but no sweep.

In the Old Friends department: Ex-Astros pitcher, Babyface Buchholz pitched for the Mets in the eighth and ninth innings. Tell me, did he always do that little girly-girl butt wiggle thing in his setup when he played for us? Or is that some kind of New Yorker thing?

Off to Milwaukee to play the Brewers, one of 4 teams in the NL Central division within 1/2 game of the lead. That just leaves the Pirates (bad) and the Astros (really bad) tagging along behind. I'm predicting a sweep. But I'm not saying which team will win.

2011 GAMES 13-16: Officially NOT Losers

2011-04-21T20:41:00.000-04:00

GAME 13 - April 14: Astros 1, Padres 0

GAME 14 - April 15: Padres 4, Astros 2
GAME 15 - April 16: Astros 5, Padres 3
GAME 16 - April 17: Padres 8, Astros 6

With all the preparation for Passover, work at the office, and such, there was barely time to watch baseball games last week, let alone write about them. Just one really major thing to note: The Astros are NOT losers. Less than 3 weeks into the season, they actually TIED a series. Next thing you know, they'll be winning one.

The first game of the series was what Alyson Footer would call "a gem." As in, Bud Lite threw a gem: Six shutout innings, on 2 singles, 3 walks, and 7 strikeouts. All those Ks added up to a lot of pitches, and by the end of 6, Norris was at 116 and due for replacement. Meanwhile, Dustin Moseley, the Padres' starter, kept pace, not allowing the Astros to score in the first five innings. The game went to the bottom of the sixth with the score tied, 0-0.
Quintero led off with a single. I expected to see a pinch batter, but Mills left in Norris to bunt Q over. I griped on Twitter at that point about how I didn't like wasting an out on a sacrifice, but it turned out that Mills knew better -- Bourn's ground ball single scored Q to make it 1-0.

That single run put Norris in the running for his first win, but it didn't come easily. The bullpen was on the hook for 3 innings protecting that one-run lead, as the Astros couldn't manage to score again. Abad struck out the leadoff batter in the seventh, then gave up a single. Mills brought in Melancon, whose first pitch resulted in a double play. Nice work -- one pitch, 2/3 of an inning credit. In the bottom of the inning, the Astros got a pair of two-out singles, and Mills again brought in his pitcher to bat. More griping on Twitter -- but Melancon walked to load the bases. The luck ran out there; Bourn K'ed to end the fun.

Norris' precarious lead looked pretty vulnerable in the eighth. The leadoff batter got on base due to catcher interference by Quintero, then immediately stole second. The second batter struck out, but the ball was bobbled and the runner advanced to third on Q's throw to first. Melancon walked the third batter -- putting runners on the corners with one out. Next batter grounded to first base -- Wallace shot the ball to the plate, where Q tagged the runner for the second out. Melancon's strikeout ended the inning. Whew!

The Astros didn't score in the bottom of the inning, taking the game into the ninth with the 1-0 score intact. Lyon put his Opening Game screw-up out of mind, and knocked off the Padres, 1-2-3, on 8 pitches. Sweet. First win for Bud Lite.

The Padres came back for a Game 2 win Friday night, cheating the Astros of the opportunity for back-to-back wins. But Saturday night Figuero threw 6 2/3 solid innings to give the team the chance to tie the series. I joined in during the seventh inning after the Sabbath ended, with the score tied 3-3, just in time to see Joe Inglett and Angel Sanchez add on a couple of runs with RBI singles. Lyon wasn't quite as lights out as he had been in Game 1, but dispatched the Padres in the ninth to get the save. Melancon, who finished off the seventh inning for Figuero, had been the pitcher of record when the Astros went ahead, earning the win for his 5 pitches.

I had great hopes for a winning series when the Astros took an early lead in Game 4 on Sunday. After 6 innings, the score was 6-3, and Myers looked like he was on his way to another win. But Melancon and Fulchino let it all get away in the 8th, with the Padres more than batting around and scoring 4 runs on a combination of hits, walks, and errors. Ugly.

So the Astros finished up their homestand on a bummer of a game. But given that it was the first series that they didn't LOSE, we'll have to take that as something to like. That's how it's going to be this season.
Oh, by the way, the no-shutout streak continues. I like that too!

2011 GAMES 10-12: The Streak Continues!

2011-04-14T21:17:00.000-04:00

GAME 10 - April 11: Cubs 5, Astros 4
GAME 11 - April 12: Astros 11, Cubs 2
GAME 12 - April 13: Cubs 9, Astros 5

No, it's not a winning streak. The Astros have yet to get past one consecutive win, and there are only 3 of those so far. But in this "rebuilding" year, we'll have to find other things to get excited about. So here's a trend that I really like:

The Astros are on a 12 game no-shutout streak!

Maybe that doesn't sound like a huge deal, but when you compare it to the first 12 games of last year, we're doing great! Last year this time (3-9 record, same as this season), we had already been shut out 3 times, with another 2 games in which we only scored 1 run. Last year this time we'd scored 28 runs; this year we've scored 55 runs already -- that's fifth in the league. Team BA is .272, also 5th in the league. Middle of the pack in slugging -- low on homers, but 25 doubles and 5 triples (Lee? Quintero? Really?). So even if we aren't winning any more games than we did at the start of 2010, we aren't offensive in offense. Last year we were in the cellar in virtually every batting category.

You don't lose games for no reason at all. In the Astros' case, let's just say that the pitching is still a work in progress this season.

In an effort to focus on the positive, let's talk about the middle game of the Cubs series. Astros won 11-2! On a night when manager Mills was banished to a field box, serving a single game suspension, our bench coach Al Pedrique ran a gutsy game to big success. Multiple runs in 4 different innings, including 3 in the first and another 2 in the second inning. Sanchez, our very own Angel, went 4 for 5. Pence was 3 for 5, with 4 RBI. Quintero was 3 for 3 with a double and a triple! Bourn got 2 hits and stole 2 bases on back to back pitches. Our most durable and consistent ace, Myers, pitched 7 innings, giving up 1 run (a solo homer) on 8 hits, no walks, striking out 5, and earning his first "W" of the season. One might think that if some of those extra Astros runs were spread out a bit, we'd have more wins to show for all the fireworks. True, but a blowout now and then sure is fun.

As I'm writing this, the Astros are tied with the Padres, 0-0, in the fourth inning of the first game of a 4 game home series. We're not losing, so I'm not getting too worried yet. But that 0 in the runs columns represents a potential end to this thrilling no-shutout streak! I'd better finish this up and go cheer. Can you hear me from out here in Exile?

2011 GAMES 7-9: Ahead of Last Year...

2011-04-10T19:58:00.000-04:00

GAME 7 - April 8: Marlins 4, Astros 3
GAME 8 - April 9: Marlins 7, Astros 5
GAME 9 - April 10: ASTROS 7, Marlins 1

With a 2-7 record, the Astros might still be in the NL Cellar, but there's reason to think good thoughts and hope for the future. Here are a few of the reasons:

1. They're doing better than last year -- after 9 games last season, the Astros were 1-8. Granted, this year's record is only marginally better, but we'll have to take anything we can get.
2. The losses in this weekend's losing home opener series were not embarrassing blowouts. The Astros actually led in much of all three games, losing the first two in late innings. Yesterday's game might not even have been a loss had the Astros not been on the wrong side of an erroneous call by the first base ump: He called out Brett Wallace, who had actually beat the ball to first. That bad call resulted in a double play, ending the second inning -- stranding a runner at third who would have scored another Houston run and continued the inning. Who knows what might have happened?
3. The Astros have not been shut out yet this year. By this point last season, the Astros had been shut out 3 times and had only scored 1 run in 2 other games. So far this year, the lowest run total has been 2 runs.

If you look at the team stats, the Astros do look pretty bad. The statistic that bothered me at the start of last season -- few bases on balls -- is just as bad this year. The Astros walk less than any of their opponents. One might say that they are more aggressive at the plate, but that doesn't seem to result in wins, does it? They have a ton of strikeouts, with Bill Hall accounting for a disproportionate number of them. The team is towards the bottom of the league in most offensive stats, has the highest ERA of any NL pitching staff, and has the most errors.

It's still a small sample -- take away that one awful game in which the Astros made 5 errors, and their count is one of the league's lowest. But let's be honest: The sucky stats are totally consistent with our terrible record. Fact is, this is not a good baseball team.

But it's still fun to watch a win, like today's 7-1 victory over the Fish. J.A. Happ, who floundered horribly in his 4 innings last week, pitched into the 8th inning today, only allowing 1 run, on 4 hits, 4 BBs, and 6 Ks. I always like a pitcher who helps himself, so it was fun to watch Happ get 2 of Houstons' 16 hits today, including a 2 RBI double. Other players with multiple hits in today's win: Bourn (2 for 4), Sanchez (3 for 5), Pence (3 for 5), and Quintero (2 for 3, including a double that he unsuccessfully tried to stretch into a triple). In the goat column is El Caballo, who went 1 for 5 and left 7 runners stranded, including 3 in scoring position with 2 outs. With his BA at .200, Lee is looking a whole lot like his last season self, except perhaps for showing a bit more power (a homer and a pair of triples so far this year). Let's hope he picks up the pace, so we can trade him to an AL team to be a DH. It's painful to watch him in the outfield with two-time GG Bourn and super-energetic Pence.

The other two Houston starters in this series also pitched much better this week. Wandy threw 7 innings on Friday night, allowing only 1 run on 8 hits and no walks, striking out 2. Bud Lite looked really good for the first 5 innings Saturday night, before giving up 3 runs on a single, a double and a homer in the sixth. While the starters were looking more solid, the relievers couldn't hold on in the first two games. Lopez allowed 2 runs in the 8th on Friday night, blowing Wandy's lead and losing the game. Abad gave up 3 consecutive doubles on Saturday night, allowing a pair of runs to give the Marlins a permanent lead.

So here's what we need in our upcoming series against the Cubs: The starting pitchers and relievers to be solid in the same games. We can beat Chicago. Their record is better than ours (4-5), but hey, they were playing the Pirates and Brewers, while we were playing the Phillies and Reds. I'm betting that we will win some games against the Cubs and Padres this week. How's that for optimism?

In the Old Friends department: Roy O got his second win last night, as the Phillies scored double-digit runs for him against the Braves. That's why he wanted his trade -- so that when he pitched well, the team would win. That's what he's getting with the Phillies. I'm glad for him, as long as it doesn't come at the Astros' expense again. In less happy news, Lance Berkman is batting .214 for the Cardinals, with a couple of doubles and no homers. The Cards are almost as dreadful as the Astros so far this season. So sad...NOT.

2011 GAMES 4-6: We're NOT Total Losers!

2011-04-07T20:59:00.000-04:00

GAME 4 - April 5: Reds 8, Astros 2
GAME 5 - April 6: Reds 12, Astros 4
GAME 6 - April 7: ASTROS 3, Reds 2

In a season when the die-hard fans are tweeting "Does this look like a minor league team?" and "Hey, Spring Training's over!" one has to work hard to look for the silver lining. I maintain that there's virtually always something to like in every game -- except perhaps that time that the Astros had to play a "home game" against the Cubs in Milwaukee during a hurricane and were the victims of a no hitter.

So here's today's thing to like about the Astros: After losing their first 5 games of the season, they WON today! Think about how much better we are than last year, when we lost the first eight games of the season!

After four pretty dreadful performances by Astros starters, we rotated back to Myers. Happily, his start today was solid -- he gave up 2 runs in 6 1/3 innings, on 6 hits, 3 walks, and 4 strikeouts. Last time Myers pitched, on Opening Day, the Astros went into the ninth inning 2 runs ahead, but our closer Lyons blew the save on half a dozen singles. Today, the Astros scored the tie breaker in the top of the ninth on a RBI double by Matt Downs, giving Lyons a one-run lead to protect. He got two quick outs, then gave up a couple of singles just to keep things interesting, before getting the save.

The only disappointment in today's game was the mlb.tv coverage -- the game was only covered by Fox Sports OHIO, so I had to watch the other guys' broadcasting of our mighty win. They were somewhat less than euphoric over the occasion, as it coincided with the Reds' first loss of the season. So I went back after watching the game and listened to the recording of the last inning on KTRH, the Astros radio broadcast: "A heart-stopper -- but a win!" Much better!

We don't need to dwell on the other games in the Cincinnati series. There were a few minutes of euphoria in the middle game, when the Astros benefited from a shaky start from the Reds' Volquez. On a weird combo of walks and balks and hits and strikeouts, the Astros managed to get a 4 run lead in the first inning. But they didn't ever score again, while the Reds scored a dozen runs on a lot of hits and five (!!!) Astros errors. Lots of tweets with reference to "minor leagues."

Face it -- if the Astros weren't "rebuilding," a number of their roster players would be playing in Oklahoma City this year. So, yeah, this is going to be a season with lots of minor league moments, embarrassing flubs, and losses. It's probably going to look like Spring Training for most of the season. Maybe there will be some exciting moments, as our kids start demonstrating the potential that got earned them a chance to play in the bigs. There will probably be at least 10 or 12 more wins this season! :-)

Here's something else to like about today's game: The Astros are NOT the worst team in the big leagues. Their 1-5 record is better than the mighty Red Sox and the team formerly known as Devil Rays, who have lost their first 6 games. So, okay, the Astros are the worst team in the National League. But not for long -- we're going home to Houston on a winning streak!

2011 GAMES 2-3: Well, You Can't LOSE 'Em All... Can You?

2011-04-03T20:41:00.000-04:00

GAME 2 - April 2: Phillies 9, Astros 4
GAME 3 - April 3: Phillies 7, Astros 3

The good news -- if there is such a thing when you start out the season getting swept -- is that the Astros were not shut out even once by the mighty Phillies. In fact, they managed to eke out a few runs in each of the three games. The other good news is that it's virtually impossible for a team to lose every single game of the season, so Astros fans can look forward to a win or two sometime in the next few months. If the wins are few and far between in this year of "rebuilding," we will just have to savor them all the more.

Bad news first, so I can end up on a high note. After a solid start by Myers in the Opening Day game, Wandy and Bud Lite were overmatched by Cliff Lee and Roy O, respectively. Both Houston starters kicked off the game by giving up runs in the first inning, and the Astros were never able to regain the lead. Wandy pitched especially badly Saturday night, allowing 7 runs on 9 hits and a walk in his 4 innings. Norris got off to a dreadful start on Sunday afternoon, giving up 4 runs on two homers in the first inning. However, he settled down after than, and only allowed one other run, while striking out 7. The Houston bullpen had to carry 8 innings between the two games, and not one of the relievers escaped giving up at least one hit. But put the blame on the starters, who were responsible for allowing 12 of the Phillies' 16 runs in the two weekend games.

Both Phillies pitchers threw quality starts -- not much of a surprise from a team that is carrying 4 "aces" in its rotation. If the Astros were going to lose anyway, I'm just as happy that Roy O got a win out of it. He pitched a solid game and earned a "W" -- unlike so many similar starts for the Astros last year that resulted in a no-decision or loss.

Still, it's no fun to get swept.

If I were to pick one statistical comparison that I really don't like, it would be this: In their first series the Astros logged 28 strikeouts, while only garnering 3 walks -- and one of those was intentional. The lack of walks may be a sign of an aggressive offense. But like I noted in last season's dreadful start (when the team had barely any walks), it also kind of looks like the batters are desperate. Something for the hitting coach to figure out...

The Astros are due to lose a lot of games this year, so I am going to just have to find something to like about every game despite the outcome. Here's what I liked in this weekend's games: Carlos Lee hit well on Saturday, with a triple and a homer, accounting for all 4 of Houston's RBIs. With his giant paycheck, the only way he can avoid being a big boo-boy in MMP is by hitting in a big batch of runs. If nothing else, a big offensive year may make him an attractive trade target for one of the American League teams, who could turn him into a DH. There's not much he can do about his defense.

Hunter Pence, another player who had a dreadful start last season, also got off to a nice pace, hitting a homer and pair of singles off of Roy O on Sunday. CJ had a nice day at the plate too, with a single and double.

Day off tomorrow, resuming on Tuesday night in Cincinnati before heading back to Houston for a 10-game homestand. The Reds also swept their first series, so don't hold your breath waiting for the Astros' first win. But don't worry -- they can't lose 'em all!

2011 GAME 1:Kicking Off by Getting Kicked

2011-04-01T19:17:00.000-04:00

GAME 1 - April Fools: Phillies 5, Astros 4

First game of the season, on a Friday afternoon. I was at work and by the seventh inning stretch, with the Astros ahead 4-0, I was boasting a bit to my Phillies-loving colleagues. Went home to finish up the workday, arriving just in time for the bottom of the ninth, with the Astros lead cut to 4-2. My devoted cheering is obviously not the Astros' lucky charm today -- as soon as I turned on the game, the Phillies started hitting broken bat singles against Lyons. After about a half dozen of those, the Phillies had pulled off the come-from-behind victory that their shrieking fans wanted.

Myers did a good job against his former team, giving up only 2 hits and no runs in the first six innings, then allowing a pair of runs on miscellaneous junk (walks, passed ball, RBI groundouts) in the seventh. His final line was 1 ER on 3 hits and 3 BBs, no Ks, over 7 innings. He even hit a couple of singles and a sac bunt in an effort to eke out some run support. The game was his to win, before Lyons came in and blew the save. Lyon faced 7 batters and gave up singles to 6 of them.

In the hitting department, the Astros got 1 triple (Bourn), 1 double (Pence), 7 singles, and 1 measly walk. Somehow they managed to piece that together into 4 runs. Of special mention in the no-hitter department: El Caballo went 0 for 4. After batting approximately .200 in Spring Training, this is an ominous start. Bill Hall also started out his Astros career today with an 0 for 4 game.

Hey Astros fans, it's going to be a loooonnnnngggg season.

Shabbat Shalom!

Opening Day Confessions

2011-03-31T22:48:00.000-04:00

I'm not ready. The Astros play their season opener tomorrow afternoon, and I haven't even been to Spring Training yet. For the first time since 2004, I missed Spring Training this year -- I just couldn't work out my schedule to get down to Kissimmee. With a busy work schedule in March, including a couple of Sundays in the office, I didn't even get a chance to watch the spring games on mlb.tv. I just barely managed to read the occasional Alyson Footer blog, and to keep up with news on who was injured, who was sent down, and who made the starting rotation. This isn't just Exile -- maybe I should change the name of my blog to Astros Fan on the Dark Side of the Moon.

I have a confession to make. I've been toying with a dark and disloyal idea over the past couple of months:

Maybe this is the year I should try to become a Nats fan.

I know -- it's heresy. But hear me out: I've never seen many of the players on the current Astros roster. Usually I get to know who's who down in Kissimmee, out at the practice field and at games. I take a few hundred pictures per game, and then come home and edit the photos and post them on my website. By Opening Day I can recognize all the players at a glance. But this year is different. I didn't make it to Spring Training. The players who have been the heart of the team for the past decade have moved on, through retirement or trades. Wandy's the last man standing from the 2005 Astros -- the first year I went to Spring Training, and the first and only time the Astros won the NL Pennant. And it's going to be an ugly season. The Astros finished up Spring Training solidly in last place, only winning one game in their last week playing the starters. I don't even know if the Pirates will be able to stay below the Astros in the standings this year. And just to make it worse: The Astros are playing their only series in Washington over a weekend in September -- due to Sabbath observance, I'll only make it to the Sunday game. Only one in-stadium Astros game all season.

If I'm ever going to switch allegiance to a local team, this would be the time.

The Nats would be such an appealing team to cheer for -- I'm a sucker for the underdog, having grown up with the early era of the Astros franchise. And my local Washington team is definitely an underdog! But the Nats are going to be an exciting team to watch in the next few years if they grow out the talent that they've acquired through those low draft picks. (And if Strasburg recovers well from his surgery!)

So I thought about it. At 2 AM one morning in the middle of March, I decided: I'm going to do it. I'm going to cheer for the Nats this season and see what it's like to be a real live in-person fan again. Jump on the subway and go to the ball park. Cheer for the home team for a change. Buy me some peanuts and crackerjacks -- or even some shwarma at the National Stadium's kosher eatery. Catch a foul ball! Sing TMOTTBG. Get a team hat, even though the W on it looks like the logo for Walgreens.

I got up the next morning, my resolution intact: I'm going to be a Nats fan this season. And then, that day the Astros newbie first baseman, Brett Wallace, hit a grand slam, a single, and a pair of doubles, finishing up the day with 7 RBIs. Watching the archived game afterwards, my resolve began to crumble. How can I not cheer for the Astros' kids, now that the team is (finally!) rebuilding? How can I not cheer for Wallace and CJ. Or for our old "veterans" like Underpants and Air Bourn? I'll watch a few games on mlb.tv, and before long I'll recognize all the newbies. I'll wear my FAN IN EXILE jerseys. Cheer for the Nats??? What was I thinking?

The Astros might lose 100 games this year, but I guess I'll just have to be there cheering for them anyway -- sitting in front of my computer watching them on mlb.tv, as usual.

Hey, it's Opening Day of the 2011 season! Baseball is back! Ain't it grand?!

A Fan Speaks Up for Jeff Bagwell

2011-01-02T18:24:00.000-05:00

The 2011 class of the Baseball Hall of Fame will be announced imminently, with Jeff Bagwell's position on the ballot of primary interest to Astros fans like me. Lots of sportswriters and baseball bloggers have weighed in recently on whether Baggy (or as they keep calling him, BagPipes) could or should be voted in. Unfortunately a lot of the discussion has not been on his many years of performance on the field -- most admit that Bagwell's got HoF-worthy stats. Instead, some of the just-say-no-to-Bagwell voters focus on his being a steroid user. Of course, they can't say that he used steroids: No one has ever claimed to have seen Bagwell use drugs. He has never failed a drug test. He has said repeatedly that he never used steroids. But it's just the times, you know -- guilty by association. Just on suspicion, just in case, don't vote for him. To me, that's puny, pathetic, and cowardly.

Of course, there's no possible way for me to make an unbiased comment on the subject of Jeff Bagwell. He's my all-time favorite baseball player. But for what it's worth, in my eyes Bagwell's a Hall of Famer, and it's a no-brainer for three reasons:

1. His performance on the field. I don't need to recap the numbers - I'll leave that to Zack Levine and other sabermetricians, who have all shown that -- by the books -- Bagwell's right up there with the denizens of the Hall.

2. His leadership off the field. In his many years playing for the Astros, Bagwell was a clubhouse leader who gained the huge respect of his teammates, team management, Houston sportswriters, and fans. You can still see it at Spring Training when he's mentoring the minor league guys, and when he was filling in as the hitting coach at then end of last season. Players do not get that kind of admiration from their peers just because they're good at their job; they earn it through character, hard work, caring about their colleagues and about how the game is played.

3. His integrity. In an era when there were a lot of cheaters, Bagwell didn't use steroids. Why do I think that? Simply because he says he didn't. I've heard Bagwell called many things -- a role model (except for his batting stance), a strong but quiet leader, a players' player. I've never heard the people who worked with him and around him call him a liar or a cheat. So if Bagwell says he didn't use PEDs, I choose to believe him. If he lied, I'm not sure that I will still believe that baseball's the best game in the world. In an era of liars and cheaters, it takes players like Bagwell to still believe in the game. It's why, even though they had "suspicions" that Bagwell wasn't really going to be able to play in 2006, so many people thought that he should get his chance to try at Spring Training -- out of respect, they gave him the benefit of the doubt.

If the HoF voters don't think that Bagwell's lifetime achievement in baseball warrants a first-year vote, it's their perogative not to vote for him. But weasily claims of "suspicion" are cheap shots from people who work in journalism, people who ought to know the value of sticking to facts and not just making up the so-called news. Writers like Dan Graziano can vote for whoever they please, but if the reason for not voting for a player is based on innuendo and hunches, they should just shut up about it. To brag about voting like this just cheapens their credibility as journalists to me.

I have no doubt that Bagwell's going to be in the HoF, voted in in a future year, if not now. At one time, I had kind of a nostalgic idea that it would be nice if Bagwell and Biggio would go in together, the first players to enter the hall in Astros uniforms. But they aren't the Bobbsey Twins; they are individual players who have each earned places in the Hall of Fame. As emotionally satisfying as it would be to see them standing in Cooperstown together in a couple of years (Biggio's got to be a first rounder!), I'd much rather hear that Bagwell got the vote for 2011. I hope that many of the voters -- rejecting the unfairness of suspicion and innuendo as factors for determining HoF-worthiness -- used their ballots to make that point loud and clear.

That's my 27 cents. There's no ballot for bloggers, other than the feedback they get from their readers. So, other Astros fans out there, what do you think?

Kaz Goes Back to Japan

2010-11-28T10:07:00.000-05:00

I interrupted my perusal of grandbaby photos to do a quick check on the Astros hot stove. Not that much exciting news there, but I did notice a small news item that Kaz Matsui had given up on the MLB and returned to Japan. After being cut from the Astros, he ended up in the Rockies farm, never made it back to the bigs, and has now signed with the Rakuten Eagles.

No great loss there - I was never happy with him during his Astros tenure. He got off to a bad start after the Astros acquired him before the 2008 season, when he ended up on the DL following surgery that he would probably have preferred unmentioned. He hit .293 for the season, but only logged 96 games due to injuries.

If anything, the best thing about Kaz was the presence of his two aids (a trainer and a translator) who trotted around with him at Spring Training, dressed in matching red and black costumes. I know it's awful, but I couldn't help referring to them as Thing 1 and Thing 2.

So it's back to Japan for Kaz. I don't know what will happen to Thing 1 and Thing 2 - he won't need a translator back in the old country. As for me, I've moved on to my own version of Thing 1 and Thing 2.

My New Favorite Team in Exile

2010-11-24T20:52:00.000-05:00

I have a confession to make. The Astros have been surpassed in the competition for my affection. There's a new team that I've become a huge fan of. Like the Astros, they're an out of town team, so I'll be following them from Exile. You might call them the "Twins," but they're not in Minnesota. Like the Astros, the new team features cute young men who wear hats. But rRally, there's no competition. Astros? Astros who? I've moved on...

When you see a picture of the out-of-town team I've become a fanatical fan of, you'll understand. One glimpse of them sunbathing barechested will make you swoon. Forget about Hunter and Michael and CJ and JA and Wandy and Carlos and Brett... Welcome Oscar and Oren -- my precious twin grandsons.

You see my problem? It's pretty hard to get my mind off these young fellows! They are so seriously adorable that's it's hard to think about stuff like baseball -- in the off season! At 6 days of age Oren and Oscar have surpassed all those 20-somethings in Houston. Can you blame me for my switching teams?

Just to be clear, becoming a grandmother for the two most precious babies in the world isn't going to keep me from following the hot stove, or making plans for Spring Training. They just put things in perspective.

CJ's a Winner in My Eyes

2010-11-15T22:58:00.001-05:00

The MLB Rookie of the Year votes are in and no big surprise - Buster Posey added on to his team's World Series triumph by carrying home the NY ROTY award. The Braves' Jason Heyward came in second, with several other young players garnering fewer votes.

The Astros' team ROTY, of course, was Chris Johnson, who missed part of the season start due to injury and a detour through Round Rock, but came back in a big way in the second half.

Just in case anyone's wondering, how does CJ compare to the other position players who got ROTY votes this year, here's a comparison based on various hitting stats:

Pts Name/Team AB BA HR RBI SLG OBP OPS
129 Posey/SF 406 .305 18 67 .505 .357 .862
107 Heyward/ATL 593 .277 18 72 .456 .393 .849
18 Sanchez/FLA 572 .273 19 85 .448 .341 .788
  3 Walker/PIT 426 .296 12 66 .462 .349 .811
  3 Castro/CHC 463 .300 3 41 .408 .347 .755
  2 Davis/NYM 523 .264 19 71 .440 .351 .791
  1 Tabata/PITT 405 .299 4 35 .400 .346 .746

  0 Johnson/HOU 341 .308 11 52 .481 .337 .818

Not at all shabby numbers for CJ -- one only wonders how he would have compared had he more at bats for the season, instead of doing time in Triple A. At any rate, it's certainly good enough to secure a spot a third base for next spring, saving the Astros the trouble of wasting their money chasing down another Pedro Feliz in the free agent market. Just to keep you going until Spring Training starts, here are a few pictures of CJ from the 2010 season...

CJ batting at Spring Training:

CJ hits a 9th inning homer against the Nationals in September:

Making a play at third base in Spring Training:

Fielding third base against the Nats in September:

Back to back with Bogusevic against the Nats in September:

Three months till pitchers and catchers... and counting. Can't wait till Spring Training!

Bourn is Hot... but the Stove is Not

2010-11-14T08:37:00.000-05:00

The World Series is over. Some team from the West Coast won, I hear. Meanwhile, there's supposed to be a lot of action going on in the free agent market, but the Astros don't seem to be in the running for any big names. All part of the rebuilding that started after the World Series - let's take a look at those kids, maybe fill a hole here and there. But don't hold your breath thinking that we're going to be signing away the big bucks this winter.

It's a new world for the Astros, a team which was one of the most geriatric in the league not long ago. Now our veterans are guys like Michael Bourn, who at 27 has just snagged his second Gold Glove. Given that there's not much news on Astros.com, I'll dedicate the rest of this blog to some of my pix of Bourn, taken at Spring Training and Astros @ Nats games here in Exile.

It's no wonder that Bourn has led the league in steals - he can really fly. Speaking of flying, this flying shortstop picture is one of my favorite Spring Training shots ever.

The stereotypical picture of Bourn on first base... don't blink - he'll be on second!

Bourn doesn't stop at second - here he is stealing third too.

Here's one that he didn't quite pull off - Bourn in a rundown...

Here's an early look at Bourn as an Astro - taken at Spring Training in 2008 after we got him in trade from the Phillies.

Speed accounts for lots of Bourn's singles on bunt and infield hits.

Unfortunately, I don't have much in the way of the leaping and rolling catches that won Bourn his Golden Glove.

To end, here are Bourn and Pence celebrating a win over the Nationals in July 2008. I was able to get this great field-level angle due to fantastic birthday-present tickets from my son Josh, who came down from NY just for the day to take me to see the Astros.

Sadly, Bourn was injured when the Astros played the Nats here in Washington in September. I'm looking forward to seeing Bourn, Pence, and Wandy (our veterans!) and all the new guys in Spring Training - just a few months away!

There's Always Next Year (Reprise)

2010-10-31T09:35:00.002-04:00

It's Halloween. It's my nephew Isaac's birthday. It's the week of the Hindu holiday Diwali. It's the last week of Daylight Savings. And, oh yeah, it's game 4 of the World Series...

When your team isn't in the playoffs and the teams that you've pretended to be cheering for have dropped out before the Main Event, it's hard to remember that the baseball season isn't over already. I watched a bit of the Phillies games (the ones where Oswalt pitched), and took a passing glance at how Berkman did in the Yankees games. But once it got down to that Other Texas Team and Barry Bonds' old team, I lost interest. I guess I have to admit that being an Astros fan isn't quite the same thing as being a baseball fan. I love the game, but I love it more when my guys are on the field. It's a bummer for the advertising community -- I'm probably more typical than not, and this year's World Series is going to be a washout for advertisers. (I checked that out with my in-law Bob, who writes for Advertising Age.)

I have a confession to make: Although I did tell my in-law Bob and Frank from the office that I was cheering for Philadelphia, because of Oswalt, I had mixed feelings about the Phillies losing the pennant race. Yeah, it would have been great to see Oswalt pitching in the World Series. But in my heart of hearts, did I really want to see him pitching there in some other team's jersey? I'm a bit ambivalent about this. Maybe there's a bit of justice in his helping his new team get soooooo close - and then losing. He should have stayed with us. You know, we're going all the way... next year. There's always next year.

I don't have any ambivalence at all about Berkman not making it to the World Series in his Yankee stripes. On principle I cheer against all New York teams, even though both of my sons, their wives, and their unborn children reside in Brooklyn. Berkman was our guy forever, like Bagwell, like Biggio -- and then he wasn't anymore. I've heard musings about his coming back to the Astros next year. Why do we want him back? Batting average under .250? Only 14 homers and 58 RBIs this season? Was his sub-par year an anomaly or is he over the hill. Didn't the Little Pumas disband? I'm not holding my breath waiting for his return. Don't get me wrong - I loved Berkman when he played for the Astros. He was always fun to photograph at Spring Training. But he went over to the dark side. Let's play the young guys. They weren't 100 percent in September. But you know, there's always next year.

One piece of sad news for fans: Bagwell won't be returning as the pitching coach next year. I was looking forward to seeing him in an Astros uniform at Spring Training next March, but he's decided not to re-sign due to family reasons. Hard to blame him. He doesn't need the cash, and his daughters are still young. But it was always great to see him in the dugout during the games in the second half of this season. I may still get lucky and see him at Spring Training - he still works for the team and comes to Kissimmee for a week or two, hanging out at minor league practice, and sitting with the coaches during the Astros games.

The schedules for Spring Training and the regular season are out, and it's not good news for this Fan in Exile. I always plan my trip to Kissimmee to coincide with the week that has the most home games. The tentative schedule that has been posted is awful -- the home games are mostly on alternating days. If I go the first week, I can see 4 games. But I'd rather go later in the month, when the starting pitchers are throwing a bit longer. Hopefully, more games will get scheduled between now and January, when tickets go on sale. For the regular season, the Astros are coming to Washington again in September -- but it's a weekend series. Since I can't go to the Sabbath games, that means I'll only get to see them once in DC this year. I checked to see when the Astros will be playing the Mets, thinking that I could go up and see my soon-to-be-born grand babies and catch a ball game too -- and they're scheduled to be in NY on Passover. Yes, there's always next year -- but it looks like I'll be watching it all on mlb.tv.

Happy Halloween. Happy Birthday, Isaac! Diwali Mubarek to my Indian friends! Oh, is there a World Series game tonight?

There's always next year.

GAME 162: There's Always Next Year

2010-10-03T17:41:00.000-04:00

GAME 162 - October 3: Astros 4, Cubs 0 [Happy Birthday Joel!]

The long cold baseball-less winter is imminent. Oh yeah, I know that the 2010 season isn't over. Some teams are going to the playoffs. I'll watch some of the playoff games, cheering for the Phillies, hoping that Roy Oswalt makes the most of his trade. Cheering against the Yankees just on principle, even if the Puma's playing for them. But for the Astros Fan in Exile, the season ended today, and it's a long gap before pitchers and catchers arrive in Kissimmee.

Figeroa pitched the season finale on 3 days rest, with another shutout performance to add to his win over the Reds' B team last week. He even got a hit -- it was about the worst excuse for a hit ever, barely made it out of the batter's box. But the catcher didn't play it fast enough, and give Figgy credit for hoofing it to first base. Meanwhile, the catcher unwisely tried to catch him for the third out, made an errant throw, and allowed a run to score. Made a nice case for himself for the rotation race next spring. The other Astros runs scored on a solo homer by El Caballo, and two RBI singles by Tommy Manzella.

The Astros scored their 4 runs early, so it was a relatively relaxing ballgame. No big heart-thumping moments, even considering that the two teams were in a battle for the honor of fourth place in the NL Central division. Happily the Astros secured that distinction, leaving the Cubbies down in fifth, only surpassed in awfulness by the truly terrible Pirates (105 losses!). Finishing the season 10 games under .500 was disappointing, but it was a net improvement from the hole the Astros dug for themselves in the first half, before we sold off our stars to contenders. On the other hand, it's also an improvement over 2009, so we're going in the right direction.

The Astros final game of the season was nowhere near as exciting as the Phillies/Braves game, which went down to the wire, with Billy Wagner striking out the side to save a 8-7 win for Atlanta. It was do or die for the Braves - they're still alive for the wild card spot. The Phillies, of course, already won their division. Meanwhile the Nats went to the 14th inning to win a meaningless duel against the Mets - the winning run was a bases loaded walk. The Rays (formerly satanic Devil Rays) are taking 12 innings to eke out a win over KC, cementing their lead over the Yankees in the AL East. But who cares? They're both going to the playoffs. Out on the west coast, Brad Ausmus is catching his last major league game in LA, before retiring and perhaps reinventing himself as a coach or manager. (Wouldn't it be cool to have Bagwell and Ausmus together again in Astros uniforms?) In a game that matters more, the Padres and Giants are duking it out to figure out who's going to the playoffs; the outcome feeds into some arcane three-way algorithm with the Braves. One of my Facebook friends mentioned something about football games today. Football? Are they allowed to play football on the last day of the baseball season?

So this concludes my regularly scheduled post to the Astros Fan in Exile blog. I managed to write up all the games of the year, despite the disappointing season outcome. I have a few months to think about whether to take this on again next year. What do you think? If you're out there reading this, leave a comment and let me know. Meanwhile, I'll post sporadically during the playoffs, and over the Hot Stove months, before Spring Training. Keep in touch. It's going to be lonely without my social media buds this winter!

GAMES 157-161: Blackout Blues

2010-10-03T08:42:00.000-04:00

GAME 157 - September 28: Reds 3, Astros 2

GAME 158 - September 29: Astros 2, Reds 0

GAME 159 - September 30: Reds 9, Astros 1

GAME 160 - October 1: Cubs 2, Astros 0

GAME 161 - October 2: Cubs 8, Astros 3

I left the game on for a few minutes after the loss to the Reds on Tuesday night. That's uncharacteristic for me -- I usually kill the video within seconds of the last out of a loss. But I wanted to watch the jubilation of a team clinching a division title and ticket to the playoffs, the jumping and leaping, the division champs tee shirts, the drowning in champagne. Our guys stood around and watched as the Reds celebrated. Some of the sports writers, including Alyson Footer, commented on how it's hard to be the team that allows the other guys to clinch a playoff spot. They'd know -- they've seen the Astros do it before. But given how many young kids are on the Astros squad at this point, I'm glad that they had a chance to experience that firsthand. It's got to make them hungry for the experience. And as all losing teams (except possibly the Pirates) say: There's always next year.

Having secured a division title for the Reds, the Astros went on to lose the series. Their only bright spot was Wednesday night's win, when Figeroa and the bullpen shut out a Reds team that lacked any regular starters. They'd all earned a night off. The low spot was Thursday night's bashing, in which Brett Myers couldn't make it out of the sixth inning. Mills let him go down 8 runs and then pulled him, breaking his perfect streak of 6+ inning starts.

With the recent downturn in Astros performance, their hold on third place in the Central Division was lost, leaving them to duke it out with the Cubs for fourth place. Losing the first two games of the home series against the Cubbies didn't help -- they go into today's season finale tied.

Of course, I didn't actually see much of the action after Tuesday night's gift to the Reds. In a year when the Astros are contenders, the arrival of the fall flurry of Jewish holidays is always a mixed joy. The holidays are (mostly) a wonderful time to enjoy family and friends, with several weeks of special meals and events. On the other hand, since we don't use computers, televisions, phones, or other paraphernalia of modern communications on the Sabbath and holidays, I miss all the ball games. Ever since we canceled our subscription to the Washington Post, I don't even find out the outcomes of games unless I go visit a neighbor with a newspaper. This year's Jewish calendar put the bulk of the holidays falling on Wednesday nights through Friday nights, leading right into the Sabbath -- three-day baseball blackouts for me, occurring three times in September. If the Astros had been in contention, I probably would have gone nuts. But given the situation, I've just caught up on Saturday nights after the Sabbath -- read up and watched highlights from the missing games, perused a few box scores, checked the status of injured players. Next year the holidays again fall on this three-day blackout schedule, but since it's a leap year they'll all be a month later. That means that if the Astros do make the playoffs, I'll end up missing most of the action. But I'm getting ahead of things here: First we need a winning season.

We're going into today's season finale -- which I'll get to watch live -- with a 75-86 record. With the 2-8 results of our last 10 games, it was not the last-minute eking-out-a-winning-season result I'd giddily predicted a couple of weeks ago. Instead, it's probably a more realistic representation of where we are now. The great starting pitching has faltered, the kids (except for CJ) are playing like the minor leaguers that they recently were. Hard to say what will happen in the off season, or what the team will look like coming out of Spring Training. Well, there's always the year after next...

GAMES 154-156: We're Losers After All...

2010-09-27T21:06:00.000-04:00

GAME 154 - September 24: Astros 10, Pirates 7
GAME 155 - September 25: Pirates 6, Astros 4
GAME 156 - September 26: Pirates 9, Astros 3

So with less than a week left in the season, it comes down to this: The Astros are losers. I hate to say it, but there it is. Eight games under .500 and just six games left to play -- there's just no way to flip that into a winning season. Truly, after losing series to both the Nationals and the Pirates in the past week, it's hard to feel like winners. But on the other hand, the Astros have had an overall winning record since they traded off Oswalt and Berkman and started playing the kids. They've gone from dead-last in the league earlier this season to third in the (admittedly weak) Central division. So that's a good sign for the future.

I was offline for the Sabbath, as usual, and then in NY Sunday for an occasion that's even better than a baseball game, if you can imagine such a thing. It was a one day trip to Brooklyn for a baby shower for my son and daughter in law, who are expecting twins this fall. First grandbabies! How cool is THAT!? So, anyway, I missed out on live baseball for most of the Pirates series. I saw the end of the Saturday night loss, then watched parts of Friday night's win on the mlb.tv archive. I tracked yesterday's fiasco on my Blackberry off and on during the baby shower. And no, I didn't watch it when I got home from NY at 1 AM this morning! (Maybe if it had been a win...)

Netting out the lost series in Pittsburgh: Astros pitchers got roughed up.

Myers got in his 6 innings on Friday night, to keep his streak alive. If it hadn't been for the ongoing record -- and his solid pitching that backs it up -- Mills might have pulled him earlier. He gave up 6 runs (5 earned) on 6 hits, 4 walks, striking out just 1 batter. Despite the not-so-quality start, Myers eked out the win, due to some big offense by his teammates, including a 4-run sixth inning (just in time!) to put him ahead. Amazingly, the Astros scored their 10 runs without any homers -- just 2 doubles, 13 singles, 4 walks, and 2 Pirate booboos. Pence and Kepp each got 3 hits; Sanchez and Wallace each got a pair. The loss for the Pirates was their 100th of the season.

Saturday night, it was Bud Norris who got hit on -- he didn't make it out of the fifth inning, after giving up 5 runs on 7 hits, 3 walks, striking out 6. After his previous 14 K performance against the Pirates last month, this was kind of a bummer game. The 3 errors committed by his teammates didn't help much either. Of the Astros 8 hits in this game, 4 were doubles; the others were all singles. CJ and Q accounted for half the hits, and 3 of the 4 RBIs. I got to see the end of this game live: Brian Bogusevic hit a RBI double in the ninth inning, to pull within 2 runs, but it was just too little, too late.

Sunday's game was a loss, but at least the starting pitching was good. J A Happ threw 6 innings, giving up 2 runs (both unearned in the sixth) on 4 hits, 2 walk, and 4 Ks. My daughter in law's father, who is a baseball fan from Philadelphia, told me yesterday that "Happ is the real deal." That was shortly after I reminded him that he owed me a big thank you for Oswalt. But all in all, I'm not complaining about our trades with the Phillies. They've got Oswalt and Lidge; we've got Bourn and Happ. And we have Myers too - another ex-Phillie.

After Happ was done, the bullpen made a mess of things. Melancon gave up a walk and single before a strikeout for the first out in the seventh; then Abad came in and allowed both of Melancon's runners to score, plus one of his own. Lopez faced one batter to end the inning. In the eighth inning, Paulino continued his shaky work since returning to the Astros -- this time he gave up 3 hits and a wild pitch in his third of an inning, leaving the bases loaded for Byrdak, who allowed them all to score. The Astros scored once in the first inning, which was good for a precarious one-run lead right up until the two unearned Pirate runs in the bottom of the sixth. Houston got another pair of runs on Pence's eighth-inning homer, his 25th of the season. That bumps up Pence's RBI count to 91 -- still a chance for him to break the century mark this season. Not bad for a guy who had a really crummy start to the season.

In other team news, Bourn is still benched with that oblique strain that's had him out for more than a week. The Astros have offered 2 year contracts to their coaching staff members, a real tribute to their great work with the youngsters in the second half of this season. A contract offer was extended to Bagwell as well, although he has not yet decided whether to take it or to go back to being a dad. I'm hoping to see him in an Astros uni come Spring Training. After a day off Monday, the Astros are headed for Cincinnati, where they are duty bound to beat the division leading Reds. If you're going to let the Pirates beat you, the least you can do is to sweep the Reds. (Sorry, Cousin Bill!)

GAMES 151-153: Swarm of Annoying Nats

2010-09-25T22:54:00.001-04:00

GAME 151 - September 21: Nationals 8, Houston 4
GAME 152 - September 22: Nationals 4, Houston 3
GAME 153 - September 23: Nationals 7, Houston 2

I was having quite a good time at the Astros game on Tuesday night, right up until the bottom of the eighth inning when J A Happ's nice shutout start turned into a meltdown rout. The good news first: I got a chance to snap some photos of newly acquired players, who weren't in my collection from Spring Training. More good news: Happ threw 6 innings, giving up only 3 hits and 3 walks, while striking out 6. He didn't give up his first hit until the fifth inning (a fact pointed out in a blur of beer breath by the guy who sat next to us: "Didja know yer guy has a no hitter going?" Well, duh, not that I was going to mention it). Another good start for the Astros rotation -- happy tidings for those of us who are thinking ahead to next season.

Astros hitters, meanwhile, got off to a quick offensive start with a three-run first inning. Bourgeois, filling in for Bourn (still out with strained oblique), singled, stole second, and scored on Keppinger's single -- all in the first 5 pitches of the game. Michaels, starting in left, hit a 2-run homer to cap the inning. That was all the offense that the Astros were able to muster for a while, but with Happ's good work on the mound, it didn't seem to matter much.

Unfortunately, the bullpen wasn't able to keep up the good work, starting with Melancon (another newbie added to my Astros photo album), who gave up a run in the seventh.

The real damage came in the eighth inning. It started out inauspiciously, with Brydak's leadoff 4 pitch walk to Adam Dunn. Paulino, back from his long stay on the DL, got two quick outs, before throwing the hung curveball that resulted in a game-tying homer to Pudge Rodriguez. I have to give credit to my host for this game, my friend Peter, who called that homer at the beginning of the inning. (Thanks for a fun evening, Peter -- but not for that called homer!) Here's Peter looking very pleased with himself:

I then predicted that the game would go on, tied, for 14 innings -- a claim that quickly turned out to be erroneous, as Paulino allowed two more singles and a pair of walks. Here's Paulino talking about his woes with Castro and Manzella.

I groaned as I saw Lindstrom coming in from the bullpen, since he's been anything but lights out recently. Sure enough, he allowed 3 consecutive hits, to dump a couple of extra runs on Paulino's tab. Villar finally put an end to the two-out barrage, but not before the Nats had scored 7 -- payback apparently for last night's fifth inning. Here's Villar, one of our September gang:

Down 8-3, the Astros did not totally cave. CJ bravely homered to deep center field, but it was too little, too late, to save the game. Here's CJ's ninth inning home run swing:

In other bad news, Hunter Pence came up to bat (grounded out) in the first inning, then did not come out to the field for the bottom of the inning. Turned out that he was removed after experiencing discomfort in his right hip, but I didn't know the reason until I got home and read the results. That must have been very disappointing for some of his relatives, who I met in the subway, all wearing Pence shirts. I asked if they wanted to be my Fans of the Game, and here they are -- Brandi, Mike, Ben and Evelyn:

By the way, that's not a Nationals jersey Brandi's wearing -- it's a Pence National League All Star shirt.

A couple more game photos to add to my collection of new Astros players - here's Brett Wallace playing first base, late in the game Tuesday night:

And here's Castro behind the plate:

I missed the last two games of the Nationals series, due to celebration of Sukkot. So I didn't see the close loss on Wednesday night, when Fulchino blew Wandy's 3-3 tie by giving up a homer in the bottom of the seventh. Or the not-so-close loss on Thursday night, when Figuero was tagged for 5 runs, including a pair of homers. I'm not going to write these up, since I didn't watch them -- coming up for air after the Sabbath ended, I was 4 games behind in baseball-watching. Unfortunately, with these 3 consecutive losses to the Nats, the Astros were back to 7 games under .500, with only 9 games left in the season. Not mathematically eliminated from the goal of finishing up with a winning record, but not looking good either.

As I write this up, I'm watching the Friday night game, which has a happier ending. I'll tell you about it in my next blog.

GAME 150 - Astros Trounce Nats - And I Was THERE!

2010-09-21T01:38:00.000-04:00

GAME 150 - September 20: Astros 8, Nationals 2

For someone who watches nearly every game of the season on the computer, it's a strange (and wonderful) experience to actually go to a real live ballgame. My friend Chuck invited me to go to see the first game in the Astros vs Nationals series. Not only did I have the great pleasure of watching a game with someone who loves baseball, I got to do so from great seats, third row field-level, right behind first base. Unfortunately for Chuck, who is a Nationals fan, his team lost, due to a particularly ugly series of events in the fifth inning. Ugly for the Nats, beautiful for the Astros: Homers by Quintero and Blum, interspersed with a few hits, and spiced with a few Nationals' fielding errors. Here's Chuck (hoping to catch a flying tee shirt):

Bud Lite got roughed up a bit in the first inning, which cost 30 pitches and a pair of Nationals runs. But after that he settled in and lasted into the seventh inning. He gave up just those 2 first-inning runs on 6 hits, 4 walks, striking out 6.

When Norris left, his reliever Byrdak inherited a full house with slugger Adam Dunn coming to the plate. NO PROBLEM! Byrdak struck him out on 3 pitches. Sweet. (Sorry Chuck.)

Fulchino and Abad each pitched a scoreless inning to finish off the Nats.

The Astros got their first run of the game in the third inning when Norris put down a beautiful squeeze bunt, scoring Bogusevic from third. After that, all the runs came in a seven-run fifth inning, when the Astros batted around. CJ led off with a double, then scored the tying run on Bogusevic's single, with a little help from Adam Dunn's throwing error. Quintero then homered to left to make it 4-2. Norris reached second base on a fielding error by the left fielder. Bourgeois struck out for the first out. Kepp singled, scoring Norris, with a little help from the Nats' third fielding error of the inning. Pence flied out for the second out. El Caballo singled to keep the inning alive, so Blum could hit his 3-run homer to make it 8-2.

Here are a few more of my pix from the game. I posted a lot more of my photos of the game on the Astros Fans in Exile Facebook photo album. Here's Bagwell watching Brett Wallace during BP:

Here's a pickoff throw from Norris to El Caballo, who was playing first base in this game:

Here's Q behind the plate:

Here's CJ at the plate, with Bogusevic on deck:

More Bagwell (have I mentioned recently how great it is to see him in uni?!) - this one talking with some soldiers and their families before the game:

And, of course, no game would be complete without Fans of the Game. This is Joe, a huge Astros fan, even if he isn't wearing the full Astros fan costume:

And here are my Nats Fans of the Game (after my friend Chuck, of course), John and his daughter Meredith. (John and I met on the subway train to the stadium.)

Astros are now just 4 games under .500, right on target to finish off their WINNING season. Ever the optimist! I'll be back at the ballpark for Game 2. Look for me in the stands!!! I'm sure you'll be able to hear me cheering!

GAMES 147-149: Sorry Cousin Bill! We Beat Your Reds!

2010-09-19T18:32:00.000-04:00

GAME 147 - September 17: Astros 5, Reds 3
GAME 148 - September 18: Reds 11, Astros 1
GAME 149 - September 19: Astros 4, Reds 3

When I dragged in from the synagogue at the conclusion of Yom Kippur, here's what I did: First I drank 3 glasses of water. Then I turned on the computer to watch the ballgame. It was only the beginning of the game - at that point the Astros were only losing 2-1. But it started to get uglier and uglier. The Reds mounted up runs, as Figueroa and then Villar struggled to get out of the fifth inning. I warmed up some leftover pizza, ate a bowl of ice cream, and struggled to stay involved. But I was really having a hard time staying awake after hours of fasting and standing in the synagogue (not to mention the week of decaffeinating myself in preparation!). So I did something really out of the ordinary: I turned off the computer and went to bed before the game ended. I would have been really sorry if the Astros had pulled of a miraculous come-from-behind. But they didn't. By the time our newbie reliever, Enerio Del Rosario (traded from Reds), gave up the last 3 runs in the ninth, putting Cincinnati in double digits, I was fast asleep. Meanwhile Houston trudged along with just Lee's solo homer to show for the night. All in all, I didn't miss much in the way of fun.

That was the bad news for the weekend. The rest was all fun and games, as the Astros stayed on the course of winning 2/3 of their remaining games in order to complete the season with a winning record. That's my focus now. I'm betting on these guys not to be a bunch of LOSERS. They're going to dig this team out from the humongous hole that the original bunch dug in the first half of the season. Remember those guys? Matsui, Feliz, Berkman back when he couldn't hit anything? Oswalt? They're all gone now, and the Astros are playing our future hand - and winning! Man, I really can't wait for Spring Training!

As for this weekend's fun and games... Friday night the Astros got off to an early lead, scoring single runs in the first and second innings. CJ hit a RBI sac fly in the first, and Wandy doubled, then scored on Bourn's single in the second. Wandy kept the division-leading Reds scoreless until the sixth inning, then gave up 3 runs, to end his night behind 3-2. But Carlos Lee hit a solo homer in the bottom of the inning to tie the game, getting Wandy off the hook for a loss. Then in the seventh, Kepp singled, Hernandez walked, Bourn bunt singled to load the bases with no outs, setting up Angel Sanchez to drive in the tie-breaking runs with a single. Lindstrom allowed a couple of base runners, but no runs, in the eighth, and Lyon pitched a 1-2-3 ninth for the save. Fulchino, who had pitched to only one batter to finish off the Reds in the seventh inning, was the pitcher of record when the Astros took the lead in the bottom of the inning, so he got the win. Lucky guy.

I went out in the garden Sunday morning and harvested a bunch of my chiles, which I turned into various sauces and potions while watching the ballgame in the afternoon.

That meant that I was pretty much tweet-less during the game, but I can assure you that I was cheering at the appropriate times in my kitchen. When CJ homered, I splashed habanero catsup all over the floor in my excitement.

I have to admit (again) that I was pretty unenthusiastic when the Astros acquired Brett Myers this season, due to his well publicized troubles off the field. Frankly I have issues with guys who rough up women, even if the woman (his wife) doesn't press charges. But on the mound, I have to give Myers credit for about the most super-reliable pitching performances on any team this season. In today's game, he threw another seven innings, pushing his streak of 6+ inning starts to 31 -- that's every game he's pitched all season. His line today was just more of the same -- 7 shutout innings, on 6 hits, 1 walk, 5 strikeouts.

As it turned out, Myers' teammates gave him just enough run support to get the win: With a 0-0 score in the fifth inning, Michaels was hit by a pitch, then CJ doubled to put runners on the corners with no outs. After Manzella grounded out, Quintero came though with a line-drive single to left field, allowing both Michaels and CJ to score. Q advanced to third on a throwing error, then scored on Myers' sac fly to give the Astros a 3-0 lead. CJ hit a solo homer in the seventh inning for a little extra insurance. As it turned out, that extra run was just what the Astros needed to get the win. Lindstrom (not exactly lights out since his return from the DL) gave up 3 runs on 3 hits in the top of the eighth, and suddenly the game was a whole lot more interesting. ("Interesting" in the Chinese curse form of the term.) Lyon came into the ninth with a 4-3 lead, and promptly struck out the first two batters. Don't sigh in relief yet, though -- he then allowed a pair of singles, bringing Votto (with 3 hits in the game) to the plate. It was all just to work up the crowd, to give the finale a little extra spice -- Lyon got Votto to pop up harmlessly to end the game.

Another series win, Astros Fans! Our guys are working to the plan. They're 5 games under .500. They now need to go 9-4 to avoid the tag of LOSING SEASON. It's not going to be easy, since all but the last 3 games will be on the road. That includes a 4-game series, starting tomorrow, here in the Washington area. I won't be tweeting during the Nats games -- Monday and Tuesday I'll be at the stadium, and Wednesday and Thursday I'll be in my sukkah celebrating the next batch of Jewish holidays. Look for me cheering in the stands tomorrow! I'm sure you'll be able to hear me!

One last footnote: When is someone going to do something about bats that splinter, before someone gets stabbed to death on the field? In today's Cubs/Marlins game, outfielder Tyler Colvin was running from third base to home when the sharp end of a broken bat hit him in the chest, right below the collarbone. He staggered, then completed running to the plate, before being taken off to a hospital for xrays. He's apparently in stable condition, but what if the bat had hit him a few inches higher -- in the throat instead of his jersey-protected chest? One day someone's going to really get speared by a splintered bat. Apparently MLB is waiting for that to happen before taking any action constraining the construction and materials of big league bats.

Okay, enough - look for me in the stands in the Astros broadcast of the game tomorrow. I'll be wearing one of my "FAN IN EXILE" custom Astros jerseys.

]

GAMES 144-146: Beating the Brewers

2010-09-16T21:55:00.000-04:00

GAME 144 - September 13: Astros 4, Brewers 2
GAME 145 - September 14: Astros 3, Brewers 2

GAME 146 - September 15: Astros 8, Brewers 6

One thing for sure -- the new baby Astros are a scrappy bunch. They may not always win, but they keep things close. The Brewers series featured three more very close games, along with a couple more examples of terrific pitching.

On Monday, Brett Myers (yawn) threw another 7 innings, giving up only a single run on 6 hits, striking out 10 Brewer batters. The single run was the result of a fourth inning solo homer by Corey Hart; other than that, Myers had the Brew Crew stymied. Myers was just back with the Astros after a short vacation in Florida, where his wife was giving birth to their son. After a first-inning run, the Astros failed to score again until the bottom of the seventh, when they put another 3 runs on the board, just in time to give Myers a chance for the win. The offensive star for Houston was Keppinger -- he went 2 for 2 with a double and a single, 3 walks, a run and an RBI. Matt Lindstrom entered the game in the ninth inning, with no outs, a runner on second base, and a two-run lead to protect. he got 3 quick outs for the save.

Tuesday's game started with a bit of a scare: But Norris was hit hard on the shin by a first-pitch come-backer, but he managed to make the play for the out. He was limping a bit afterwards, but managed to hang in for 7 1/3 innings, giving up just a single run (solo homer in the first inning) on 3 hits and 5 walks, striking out 7. Fulchino and Byrdak each contributed an out to finish the eighth. Lyon gave up a leadoff solo homer in the ninth, just to make things interesting, before retiring the next 3 batters to get the save. The Astros only run scorer in the game was Chris Johnson, who came up to bat with 2 runners on and two outs, and hit a LOOOONG homer to center field. CJ also hit a double later in the game. Kepp had another good game, with a double and a single.

Wednesday's afternoon game was a bit of a heart-breaker. After all the recent close-game wins, the Astros were starting to look kind of invincible. Then J.A. Happ broke the string of great pitching starts, giving up 3 in the first inning and another 2 runs in the fifth to put the Astros behind 5-0. Happ didn't make it out of the fifth inning. In the bottom of the inning, though, his teammates came through big-time, scoring 6 runs to take the lead. No single heroes, or perhaps I should say all the heroes were singles -- El Caballo singled, CJ singled, Wallace reached on an error (Lee scored), Sanchez singled (CJ scored), Castro walked to load the bases, Bogusevic singled (Wallace/Sanchez scored), Bourn grounded into a fielders choice (Bogusevic out), Bourn stole second, Kepp singled (Castro scored), Pence singled (Bourn scored). Then having batted around, El Caballo grounded into a double play to end the fun. After such a singular (!) effort to take the lead, it would have been nice to preserve it. Mills used a boatload of relievers after Happ (Villar, Paulino, Byrdak, Melancon, Abad) to get through to the ninth inning with the lead. But Lyon blew the save in the ninth, allowing the Brewers to tie it up. Then Lindstrom gave up 2 runs on 3 hits in the tenth inning to lose the game.

Even with the disappointing ending, it added up to another series win for the new baby Astros, who have a 9-5 record in the first half of September. The Astros are only 6 games under .500 with 16 games still to play. That means that a winning record for this season is still a finite possibility. Given where we came from the first half of the season, that's pretty amazing! But it won't be easy: The Astros will be facing the division leading Reds over the weekend. Don't look for me on Twitter during the first games, which will be played on Yom Kippur. But I'll be back on Sunday for the series closer.

Can you sing "Okalahoma"? Well, learn the words -- that's where our triple A team is likely to be next year. Now that Round Rock is turning into a Rangers franchise, the Astros need a new home for their top minor league team, and it looks like it will be Oklahoma City. Not sure whether the players will enjoy it there more than Round Rock (just a conversation away from way-cool Austin). But who cares -- play ball! O-K-L-A-H-O-M-AAA Oklahoma OK!

GAMES 139-143: Too Many Games to Watch - Even for Me!

2010-09-12T18:08:00.000-04:00

GAME 139 - September 9: Astros 4, Cubs 0 (Happy Birthday, Marissa and Ariella!)
GAME 140 - September 10: Astros 4, Dodgers 3
GAME 141 - September 11: Dodgers 4, Astros 2 [11 innings]
GAME 142 - September 12: Dodgers 6, Astros 3
GAME 143 - September 13: Astros 7, Dodgers 3

Sunday Morning: When I turned on my computer after the Sabbath ended, I realized that catching up on the three days of games I'd missed during the Rosh Hashanah/Sabbath combo would be an impossible task. So I watched the end of last night's game live, and then just browsed the boxes and writeups of the others. Maybe I'll try to catch a few innings of the other games before this afternoon's finale against the Dodgers. Can't miss that - Brad Ausmus will be the starting catcher for LA. I read online that Ausmus would be interested in a future role with the Astros, the team that he played most of his long career with. Now wouldn't that be an interesting combo -- Ausmus and Bagwell in the dugout together, managing and coaching the team. Maybe start by brining in Ausmus as the pitching coach, and then move him up to manager? Okay, I'm getting ahead of myself - for today, at least, he's playing for the enemy.

The Astros did very well on Rosh Hashanah. Wednesday night they shut out the Cubs 4-0 to win the series in Chicago, behind the incredibly consistent Brett Myers. Retiring the first 14 batters he faced, Myers took a perfect game into the fifth inning, then went on to complete 7 innings -- his 29th consecutive 6+ inning start. Abad, Lindstrom, Brydak, and Lopez combined to finish off the other two innings for the win. On the offense, Pence hit another homer (#23), and CJ, Kepp, and Q each got a pair of hits and an RBI.

Second night of Rosh Hashanah, the Astros went back home to start a 4-game series against the Dodgers. The player of the game, for good and bad, was Chris Johnson. CJ started out the game by making a fielding error, setting the stage for a 2-run homer that put the Astros behind. He struck out in 3 of his 4 at bats. All in all, it would have been a night to forget. But in the sixth inning, with Pence and Lee on base, CJ smoked a fast ball 417 feet, over the railroad tracks in left field, to give the Astros a 3-2 lead. Meanwhile, after that first inning homer, Bud Lite didn't give the Dodgers much to play with and finished up with 6 innings of 3 hit ball, striking out 7. Chacin loaded up the bases in the seventh inning on a single and a pair of walks, but Melancon finished off the inning with no damage to the Astros slim lead. Melancon then threw a scoreless eighth, and Lyon got the save with a 1-2-3 ninth.

Friday night, while we had a nice Sabbath dinner with the Fainchteins, the Astros were dueling with the Dodgers for 11 innings of a low-scoring game. Houston's starter Happ had a tough battle in his 5 innings, giving up 7 hits, but only a single run. Mills then used 8 Astros pitchers over the next 6 innings. With the score still tied 2-2, September callup Fernando Abad gave up a 2-run homer in the 11th inning. With 2 outs and a runner on first, Mills brought in Henry Villar for his big league debut. He prompt made a fielding error to put a second runner on, but then struck out the next batter to end the threat. On the little offense that Houston mustered, Bourn went 3 for 5, with his pair of RBI singles accounting for all of the Astros' runs. The Astros had the perfect opportunity to win the game in the bottom of the tenth, when Bourn hit a one out triple. But ex-Astro closer Octavio Dotel got back-to-back swinging Ks against Kepp and Pence to prolong the agony. I can only imagine the collective groan of the 31,000 fans. More than 30K fans showing up for a team so far down in the standings? Shows you what an infusion of youth and winning will do -- even if it's too little, too late for the season.

I tuned into Saturday night's game after the Sabbath ended, just after the Dodgers had scored 3 in the fourth inning with a homer and three singles. That was pretty much all that LA could do against Wandy, who settled down and stayed in for 7 innings, giving up just those 3 runs on 5 hits, 3 walks, and 10 strikeouts. Meanwhile, his teammates scored one run for him in the fourth, when Bourn tripled, and then scored on Keppinger's single. Then they got two more runs in the fifth, starting with Brett Wallace's leadoff homer (#2), then a pair of singles, a sac bunt by Wandy, and Bourn's ground out RBI. That tied it up 3-3, but the Astros didn't manage to score again on Wandy's watch, leaving him with a No-D for his trouble. Given how much work the bullpen had in Saturday night's game, Mills went for his closer in the ninth, even though the score was tied. But this wasn't Lyon's night, starting with a 3-2 walk to kick off the inning. Then a bunt was misplayed by Wallace (scored as a single) put a second runner on. Another sac bunt... and this time it was Lyon who misplayed it with a wild throw, scoring the tie-breaking run, and an extra one for good measure -- a 2 run error, leaving a runner on third with no outs. That was it for Lyon. Brydak gave up a fly ball to right, which bounced off Pence's glove. By the time Bourn fielded it, it was a called a double, not an error on Pence. But even if Pence had caught it, the runner on third would have scored. That run was just gravy anyway, as the Astros didn't put up a fight in the bottom of the ninth.

What do these 4 games have in common? Same answer as most of my other blogs in the last month or two -- solid starting pitching that has allowed the team to get into late innings either leading or tied. That doesn't necessarily lead to starting pitchers with a pile of wins, with so many games either won or lost after the starters were done. But it does mean that going forward into a better-luck next year, the Astros have some nice talent to choose from.

I need to put in a few hours of work this morning, so I can free up in time for the first pitch at 2 this afternoon... More later!

Sunday @ 5:30: For about an inning, it looked like Houston might have one of those wild runaway train extravaganzas, with double digit runs, and all kinds of fun. The Astros batted around in the first inning, with Hunter Pence's 2 run homer in a starring role. Four runs scored, and we're already thinking "blowout." However, as I tweeted to whoever might be following:

"Dodgers on their 2nd pitcher in the 2nd inning. But don't get too smug Astros Fans! We've lost one of these 4 run first inning games before"

I wasn't actually predicting that they'd go off and try to DO that. Just about then, I noticed that Roy O was about to pitch the ninth inning of a 3-0 game against the *(^&*% Mets (my least favorite team). So I decided that with that nice 4-run lead, Nelson Figueroa could just hold the fort while I watched the Wiz secure a complete-game shutout. Oswalt did great, got the win, putting the Phillies in sole ownership of the NL East (at least until the Braves play tonight). It's just what Oswalt wanted - to play for a contender, to make a difference. He's been pitching great, has made a difference for the Phillies -- more power to him. I'll cheer for him, as long as he's not playing the Astros. That game over, I returned to the Astros game, and find that the 4-game lead is now evaporated, and that it's now a tie. Geez! I take my eyes off them for a lousy half inning, and look what happens!

So, not a blowout, not a walk in the park, not a slam-bam done-deal. Instead it looks like it's going to be another close game, tie game, wait-until-the-last-minute game. Figueroa didn't make it out of the fifth inning, leaving the game with two outs and two on, no chance to win it, but still a chance to lose. These days, a rarity - not a quality start. Chacin came in, walked the next batter to load the bases, and then got that third out to end the threat. For his one-third inning bit of work, Chacin ended up being the pitcher of record when the Astros put a pair of runs on the board with a trio of doubles (Wallace, Castro, Blum) in the bottom of the inning. Carlos Lee, who had passed up a chance or two for real heroics earlier in the game, hit a solo homer in the eighth inning to give the Astros a nice calm 3 run lead. Brydak, Fulchino, Abad, Lindstrom, and Lyon combined for the other 4 innings, shutting down the Dodgers on just 2 hits.

So the Astros tied the series with a comfortable win. I was thinking that, if it really did turn into a blowout, they could afford the luxury of pulling a Mike Hampton deal on Ausmus -- throwing him a nice fat fastball over the plate and letting him take his chances. Sure enough, Ausmus came up in the ninth inning, but it wasn't good buddy Hampton on the plate. Ausmus grounded out to Lyon to finish off his 0 for 4 day. He got a nice standing O from the Astros fans after his last Houston at-bat before retirement. Of course, many of us are hoping to see him back again soon, and not wearing a blue jersey next time.

With 19 games to go, the Astros are just 7 games under .500. They're not going anywhere near the playoffs, of course, but there's still a chance to finish the season in the win column. It would take a heroic run, but hey -- there's always something to hope for. Other things to hope for: Hunter Pence is at 84 RBI - can he reach 100? Carlos Lee too (he's at 83)? Let's also hope that Brett Myers throws a complete game tomorrow. The Dodgers series really wore out our bullpen! And while we're at it - peace in the Middle East? Okay, I'm being greedy. Bring on the Brewers!

GAMES 137-138: Happy New Year!

2010-09-07T23:59:00.000-04:00

GAME 137 - September 6: Cubs 5, Astros 4
GAME 138 - September 7: Astros 7, Cubs 3

I'm going to have to write this blog up quickly, then get back to cooking for Rosh Hashanah. I won't be able to record the tie-breaker game for this Chicago series -- or even see the outcome -- until Saturday night after the double-header holiday/Sabbath combo ends.

I came home from work late tonight, turned on the computer, and logged into mlb.tv just in time to see Brett Wallace hit his first major league home run. Anyone who hears me rant and rave on Twitter will know that I've been predicting this milestone event in just about every game since Wallace started. So finally tonight I was right. Other features of this crazy win included:

* Michael Bourn going 1-2-3 (single, double, triple), with 2 runs, 3 RBI, and of course a stolen base.

* National League Player of the Week Hunter Pence hitting an RBI double.

* Nelson Figueroa getting another win, pitching 5 innings, giving up 3 runs.

* Then, Byrdak, Melancon, and Abad preserving his win with 4 totally lights-out innings.

Nice game. Luckily I keep my iMac on my kitchen counter, so I could watch while chopping onions, making soup, sauteeing veggies, making spicy tomato sauce, roasting beets, and a bunch of other stuff that will result in my Rosh Hashana guests actually getting a meal tomorrow evening.

Yesterday afternoon's game started out fun, with a 4-run second inning. I was hoping that was a sign of a blow out, but unfortunately, the run-scoring stopped there for the Astros. Meanwhile, the Cubs just kept creeping up on Wandy, tying it up in the fifth, and then getting the go-ahead run off of Lopez in the eighth. I think the turning point of the game for me was when Bourn doubled, and then Kepp was sent out to sac bunt in the fourth inning. Reminded me of the WAY-TOO-MANY wasted outs sacrificed under the previous management last year. Bourn was eventually tagged out at home, and spiked in the face for his troubles. The high point of the game was CJ's homer in the second inning. The low point was Brian Bogusevic's first big-league start, with a bunch of his Chicago buddies in the stands -- he had a pair of strikeouts, and hit into two double plays. Better luck next time, kid.

So don't look for any blog updates from me until Sunday, when I'll have 4 games to catch up on, not mentioning the one to be played that day. I'll be busy celebrating Rosh Hashana with family and friends. Happy New Year! Let's hope that this time next year, we'll look back on a wonderful year of health, happiness, prosperity -- and that the Astros will be on their way to the playoffs!

GAMES 134-136: A Cure for Snake Bite

2010-09-05T20:59:00.000-04:00

GAME 134 - September 3: Dbacks 4, Astros 3
GAME 135 - September 4: Astros 6, Dbacks 5
GAME 136 - September 5: Astros 3, Dbacks 2

Another winning series for the Astros. It's always fun to win, even when you're not going to the playoffs. Even when the team you beat is in last place. The Snakes are not having a good year. If it weren't for Pittsburgh (already eliminated!), the Diamondbacks would be the worst team in the league. Astros fans can sympathize with that situation, having been there not long ago. But since we sold off our big stars and started playing the kids, we're having some fun. Hey - the Astros are only 8 games under .500 now. They could still finish with a winning season. That's my new ever-optimistic prediction.

Despite the Diamondback's lowly rank in the standings, they did come into this series having won 6 of their previous 7 games. So it wasn't a breeze, as you can see from the scores above. All three games were won or lost by a single run. Both of the Astros wins ended with the tying Diamondback run in scoring position.

Brett Myers is really getting to be a bore. He's so predictable this year. In Friday night's opener, he did what he always does: Pitched another 6 innings, his 28th consecutive 6+ inning start. With his ERA hovering around 3 and the consistency of his performances, he's become quite a reliable inning eater. All this good throwing isn't necessarily resulting in a big win record though, he's only 10-7, with Friday night's no decision illustrating why. His team mates got plenty of hits (11), but only plated single runs in 3 innings. Myers, who hit a double, was one of the runners who scored. The game went into the bottom of the 8th inning tied, before Wilton Lopez gave up an RBI sac fly for the winning Snake bite.

Norris did not have a quality start on Saturday night, but he was really only an unfortunate pitch away from one. With the game out West, when I tuned in at the end of the Sabbath, it was still in the first inning and the Astros had a quick 1-0 lead. The Dbacks tied it up in the bottom of the inning, and added another in the second. Things stayed tight at 2-1 until the fifth. Then, with 2 outs in the bottom of the inning, Bud Lite gave up a 3-run homer to give the Snakes a 5-1 lead. But this isn't your old roll-over-and-die Astros team from the past -- this is the new don't-cry-come-from-behind team! The Astros got one run back in the sixth (still leaving Bud holding the bag for a loss), and then knocked in four more in the eighth to take -- and keep -- the lead. The hero of the game was Carlos Lee, who has suddenly surged in RBIs into the respectable range, with 34 RBIs in the past 34 games. He may even hit 100 this year, go figure! (A comeback from El Cabernet would be a good thing, since we're stuck with him for 2 more years.)

Astros.com ran a headline for Sunday's game that said "Astros take lead early, never look back." Hah! I bet they were looking back over their shoulders the whole came, watching the Diamondbacks creeping up on them! Before the game, I was tweeting about how fun it would be if something special happened today -- a no-hitter, a blowout. Then when Pence hit a 3-run homer before the Astros had even logged their first out of the game, I was pretty hopeful for a massive pile of runs. That was not to be -- the Astros did put runners on base (including Sanchez on third, twice), but never scored again. Meanwhile, Happ allowed solo homers in the 3rd and 4th innings to make it a really close game. Happ kept the Diamondbacks quiet for the rest of his 7 innings, and the Lindstrom-Lyon duo took it from there.

Special mention for these games goes to Angel Sanchez, who got two singles Friday, a single and a triple on Saturday, and another triple on Sunday. Pence has been hitting well (and with power), including his 22nd homer on Sunday -- his BA is now over .290.

GAMES 131-133: It's Not in the Cards... for St Louis

2010-09-03T19:32:00.002-04:00

GAME 131 - August 30: Astros 3, Cardinals 0
GAME 132 - August 31: Astros 3, Cardinals 0 (Happy Birthday Josh!)

GAME 133 - September 30: Astros , Cardinals

September!!! It's still almost 100 outside, but the calendar says it's September. Fall's just around the corner. Baseball season's coming to a close -- for the Astros at least. Things have been quite entertaining recently, but that hole they dug at the beginning of the season will mean that our guys will be relaxing at home come October.

So now that we're playing the kids, the Astros have started to win. And not just against loser teams, either. First they swept the Phillies. Now the Cardinals. Two teams that now find themselves in second place in their divisions. The Astros may not be going to the playoffs but they are still a team that counts -- as a spoiler for those teams with aspirations of post-season fun and games. Baseball games, that is.

Who knows -- we may still end up with a winning season! We're just 9 games under .500, with 29 games still to go. And we were 8-2 in our last 10 games. Do the math. It's possible. (Note that we are not yet mathematically eliminated, but I'm not making any claims in that department. I'm not looking to be a total fool!)

So we swept the Cardinals this week, leaving them 8 games behind the Reds going into this weekend's series between the two teams. We won against St Louis the same way we've been winning against other teams -- with terrific starting pitching. This time it was the triumphant trio of Happ, Wandy, and Figeuroa who got the honors. Happ threw a complete game shutout on Monday night, giving up only 2 hits. It was a great comeback for him, after his previous embarrassing start against the Cardinals -- his only poor performance since joining the Astros. This time he was lights out. Vindication!

Wandy showed up Tuesday night, and nearly duplicated the performance, with 7 shutout innings, allowing just 2 hits. It was a pretty stunning show against the formidable Chris Carpenter, who lost the duel on one 3-run inning. This continues a fantastic run for him in the second half -- his ERA is just 1.65 in his past 13 starts, with a 8-2 record.

Wednesday afternoon, Figueroa was quite a bit less dominating, but earned the win anyway. After allowing 2 runs in the first inning, he kept the Cards scoreless for another 4 innings, despite a couple of bases-loaded situations. The bullpen kept things going, and a big 3 run homer by Pence in the fifth made Figgy a winner.

The starting pitching has been outstanding, and the bullpen's no slouch either. The Astros hitters haven't exactly been tearing the cover off the ball -- the team is still in last or next to last place in nearly every offensive stat category. But there have been some players who've been hitting well. Pence is hitting hard, and has raised his batting average to .288 with 21 homers. Considering where he came from at the start of the season, that means some serious over .300 time since then. Even El Caballo is coming along, with a big string of August RBIs. More like the guy he better be to earn his massive paycheck over the next two years!

Now that it's September, there are some new faces in the clubhouse. But I'll have to talk about that next time. Gotta light for Shabbat!!!

GAMES 128-130: I Hate the Mets!

2010-08-29T20:40:00.000-04:00

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!

GAMES 124-127: Friends and Family and Foes in Filly...

2010-08-29T19:53:00.001-04:00

GAME 124 - August 23: Astros 3, Phillies 2
GAME 125 - August 24: Astros 4, Phillies 2 [16 innings]
GAME 126 - August 25: Astros 3, Phillies 1
GAME 127 - August 26: Astros 5, Phillies 1

With a four game series in the City of Brotherly Love, one might have thought that there would have been a pretty good chance of facing our beloved Brother Roy. But when Oswalt pitched seven innings of shutout ball against the Nationals on Sunday, it didn't seem likely that the Astros would see much of the Wiz on the field. Surprise! Oswalt was called in to face his old teammates, but it was not how one might have predicted. With Tuesday night's game droning on into lots of extra innings, Oswalt got a chance for heroics when he was brought in in the fifteenth inning. But it wasn't a mound appearance -- he was swapped in to be the Phillies' left fielder, batting cleanup! It's the kind of odd move that a manager finds himself making when his bench is totally gone and one of his players gets ejected. As luck would have it, Houston pulled ahead in the sixteenth, and it was Roy Oswalt standing at the plate for the Phillies, with two out and two on in the bottom of the inning. A homer would have won it for the Phillies, who are battling for the NL East lead. But he grounded out and his old Astros teammates partied for the second night in a row. Don't you just LOVE this game?

In a bizarre twist, the lowly Astros swept the contending Phillies in four hard-fought close games, all characterized by terrific starting pitching on both sides. Here's how the Astros starters continued to squash the opposition:

Game 1, Monday: Myers gets the win with another 7 innings, 2 runs on 9 hits, a walk, and 9 Ks.
Game 2, Tuesday: Norris threw 6 innings, givoing up 1 run on 5 hits, 3 walks, and 4 Ks. But he was long gone before Fulchino (the 7th Astros pitcher) got the win in the 16th inning.
Game 3, Wednesday: Happ earns a win on 6 1/3 innings of 2-run ball. Mills uses 3 of his exhausted relievers to finish off the 7th, before Lyons throws 2 innings for the save.
Game 4, Thursday: The Astros give Wandy solo runs in each of the first 4 innings, plus another in the 7th for good luck - more than enough for his win on 7 innings, 1 run on 5 hits and 6 Ks.

Kudos to the bullpen too, with special mention of the Astros' new acquisition, Melancon, who threw 3 scoreless innings in relief in the Tuesday marathon.

Nice to have such a great series in Philly, from which some of our current players were acquired (Bourn, Myers, Happ), and some of our other players have landed (Oswalt, Lidge). Not to mention our General Manager, Ed Wade, whose Philly background probably accounts for some of that give and take.

GAMES 121-123: Sleeping with the Fishes

2010-08-25T20:36:00.000-04:00

GAME 121 - August 20: Marlins 9, Astros 0
GAME 122 - August 21: Marlins 6, Astros 3
GAME 123 - August 22: Astros 2, Marlins 1

Going into the last quarter of a disappointing season, there have been lots of changes in the Astros clubhouse - Oswalt gone, Berkman gone, new kids on the block. Now Pedro Feliz is gone, traded to the Cards in trade for a young pitcher. Jeff Keppinger is out with a broken big toe. Lindstrom is on the DL. Tommy Manzella is back. Fernando Abad and Anderson Hernandez called up. Lots of changes - making the game a lot more interesting than the start of this miserable season.

Main story in the weekend series against the Marlins: The starting pitching continues to be solid. Despite the scores (not even close) in the two losses in this Fish Story, the starters aren't the cause. Friday night's 9-0 blowout started out as a 1-0 game for the first 5 innings. Happ gave up a pair of runs in the sixth, but the game was still not too bad. But Fulchino gave up 4 runs in the seventh, and Abad added another pair in the eighth to make it look really ugly. As you might imagine, I didn't bother to watch this one after the Sabbath ended.

Saturday night's game was looking good for Wandy, who had a 2-0 lead going through 5 innings. I joined in after the Sabbath, just in time to see the Astros lose the lead in a 3 run sixth. Only 2 of the runs were earned, giving Wandy a very respectable line: 2 earned runs in 6 innings on 7 hits, 1 walk, and 10 strikeouts. The Astros did come back in the 9th to score that extra run, but it was too little too late -- Melancon had given up three more runs (2 unearned) in the seventh, resulting in that 6-3 loss. The three unearned runs were thanks to a trio of fielding errors by our youngsters -- one for Wallace and 2 for CJ.

Sunday the Astros avoided a sweep with a beautiful start by Nelson Figueroa, who's making a case for his position in Houston's rotation. He pitched six innings, giving up 1 run on 4 hits and a walk, striking out 7. That wasn't good enough for a win, since the Astros only eked out a single run on his watch - a sac fly by Pence. After Figueroa was done, Pence knocked in the go-ahead run in the eigtht, with a solo homer (#19). The new close-out duo, Lopez and Lyon combined for 3 shutout innings to get the Astros a weekend win.

To net it out -- solid starters, inconsistent bullpen. And a pretty much stalled offense -- only 5 runs in the 3 game series. You gotta find something to like, if you're going to watch a losing season, and I like that starting pitching.

GAMES 117-120: Robbing our Starters...

2010-08-20T19:45:00.000-04:00

GAME 117 - August 16: Mets 3, Astros 1
GAME 118 - August 17: Astros 4, Mets 3
GAME 119 - August 18: Mets 3, Astros 2
GAME 120 - August 19: Astros 3, Mets 2

How's that for a close series? Every game won or lost on the last pitch.... But isn't that the great thing about baseball - there's no clock, and theoretically every game is won or lost on the last pitch. I believe in miracles...

Another week of terrific starting pitching. It's been a long time since the Astros lost a game on a bad start. Here's what the Mets series looked like:

Monday - Wandy pitches 7 innings, giving up 1 run on 4 hits, 3 BB, and 6 Ks. Game tied 1-1 until the 9th inning, when Lindstrom gave up the winning runs.

Tuesday - Figeuroa gets his first start as an Astro, giving up 2 runs (1 earned) in 5 innings. Astros score 3 for him in the first inning, but the Mets tie it up in the 8th. Melancon gave up the tying run, but ended up with the win when the Astros got a big run in the bottom of the 8th. Lopez closes for his first big-league save.

Wednesday: Myers does it again - another 7 innings, giving up 2 runs on 7 hits, 3 BBs, and 4 Ks. The Astros didn't score until the 8th inning, and then tied it up 2-2 in the ninth on a Blum homer. I got home from work at about midnight (don't ask!), and the game was still going. Lots of relievers got their turn, but by the 14th inning, it was Chacin who gave the Mets their winning run.

Thursday: Norris threw 7 innings, giving up a pair of runs in the fourth, but looked like he would be on the losing end of the game until Carlos Lee hit a 3-run homer in the bottom of the seventh. Lopez and Lyon closed it out nicely, and Bud Lite got the win.

See the trend? Lots of nice starting pitching, lots of no-Ds for their trouble. But who can complain about good starting pitching? And who can complain about guys coming up with big hits in the late innings? How many times in the past have we bemoaned the Astros inability to come from behind? Well, now they do it routinely. It just doesn't do much for our starters' win-loss records.

The Astros may not be winning all their games, but they sure have made it fun to watch them, win or lose.

GAMES 112-116: Astros Starters Looking Good

2010-08-15T18:04:00.003-04:00

GAME 112 - August 10: Braves 4, Astros 2
GAME 113 - August 11: Braves 8, Astros 2
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
GAME 114 - August 13: Astros 4, Pirates 1
GAME 115 - August 14: Astros 3, Pirates 2
GAME 116 - August 15: Astros 8, Pirates 2

Despite the mixed results in the win-loss column, this week has featured two main themes: Very sharp pitching from the Astros starting rotation and late inning offense to deny those starters much run support.

Even the two losses to the Braves last week began with quality starts, which were spoiled by glitches in the bullpen. On Tuesday Happ redeemed his previous miserable start with 6 1/3 innings of one-run ball, giving up only 2 hits and striking out 6. He wasn't on target to win the game anyway, since the Astros didn't take their precarious 2-1 lead until the bottom of the eighth. But Lindstrom blew his second consecutive save situation with a pair of homers in the ninth inning. Lindstrom beat himself up about it after the game, while Mills stuck by him as Houston's closer ("He's the guy"). But just in case, Lindstrom's been getting tests on his back done, and hasn't pitched since. (Nothing's shown up on the MRI, checking out the back spasms that have been bothering him, and he's supposedly available to pitch.)

Wednesday afternoon 8-2 score doesn't look much like a close game until you check out the boxes -- Wandy had pitched another good start, giving up 2 runs (1 earned) and striking out 9 in his 7 innings. But it was a 6-run tenth inning that put the game out of reach for the Astros. This time it was Lyons who was the goat, with a little bit of help from Fulchino. After pitching a perfect ninth, he gave up two runs and loaded the bases before Mills brought in Fulchino save the day. BAM! SLAM! Four more runs (three charged to Lyons) made it a runaway. The Astros went down appropriately meekly in the bottom of the inning.

The Sabbath games against the Pirates got off to similar starts, but with more favorable outcomes. It made for a very nice late night of watching baseball after the Sabbath ended! Both games continued the recent pattern of good starting pitching and late Astros offense. However, the pairing of Lopez and Lyon to finish off the games put the Astros ahead. In Friday night's game, Brett Myers did it again -- another 7 inning start, holding the Pirates to only 1 run, while the Astros failed to score even once on his watch. They finally came through in the bottom of the eighth, with a big 3-run boom from El Caballo and a trio of singles to plate Houston's fourth run. Lyon gave a scare with a leadoff walk and a single to start the ninth, but then got a strikeout and double play to end the threat.

Given the Astros recent propensity for late-inning offense, I should have anticipated some fun Saturday night, when I turned on the computer after the Sabbath. Coming in on the bottom of the seventh, with 2 outs, and the Astros down 2-1, I was just in time to see the come-from-behind action. What I'd missed (and watched later Saturday night on the archived game) was the starting pitching drama, one of the best of the year. It didn't look good for Bud Norris in the first couple of innings. The first three batters reached on a triple, homer, and thowing error respectively, putting the Pirates ahead 2-0 before the first out was recorded. Then Norris struck out the next three batters, righting the ship. The pitching struggles weren't over for Bud Lite though -- in the second inning he loaded the bases on two singles and an intentional walk. But he got out of that jam without any runs scoring, and then he shut down the Pirates for the next 5 innings. When the dust cleared, Norris had an Astros' season best 14 strikeouts. After the two runs in the first, he'd done all that he could do get that win, including hitting a single and double of his own.

Happily, the Astros came though for Bud in the bottom of the seventh: Quintero led off with a single. Bourgeois, pinch running for Q, got to second on Norris' sac bunt. Sanchez's single scored Bourgeois to tie the game. Then Pence doubled to score Sanchez and put the Astros ahead. It was Pence's third extra-base hit of the game - he also hit a solo homer to kick off the fourth and another double. As in Friday night's game, Lopez and Lyon threw successful eighth and ninth innings, respectively, to give the Astros the win.

Today's finale was more of the same -- a real nice start for J. A. Happ, with the offense coming through just in time to give him a chance for the win. Happ threw 6 innings, giving up 2 runs on 3 hits and 4 walks, with 5 strikeouts. HAPPily for him, Mills allowed him to stay in the game despite a pair of one-out walks in the sixth. He got out of the mess with a wild and crazy double play: Kepp fielded the ball, threw to Sanchez to get the runner coming into second. Sanchez threw to Wallace at first too late to get the batter out. But Pedro Alvarez unwisely tried to make it home from second, and Wallace shot the ball over to Castro to tag him out to end the inning. That was a lucky break for Happ, since it left him as the pitcher of record when the Astros put 4 runs on the board in the bottom of the inning.

With the Astros ahead 5-2 going into the seventh inning, Mills finally gave Mark Melancon (our Berkman trade result) his Astros debut. Although Melancon had said that he was getting "anxious," as game by game went by without a chance to pitch, he sure didn't look like it on the mound. It took him a grand total of 8 pitches (7 strikes) to take down the side on a pair of called strikeouts and a groundout. Byrdak and Fulchino finished up the game. Fulchino came in to pitch in the ninth with Byrdak's two runners on and no outs. He had much better luck than his last appearance on Wednesday, when he gave up a grand slam. He put down the next 3 Pirates to seal the deal. The Astros swept the Pirates at Minute Maid Park -- not only this series, but the whole season series, all 9 games. They should boycott orange juice in Pittsburgh.

I really focused this blog posting on starting pitching, since it's been so effective this past week. Although the Astros have had pretty modest scores over 4 of the past 5 games since I last posted, there has been some really nice hitting too. First place goes to Chris Johnson, who's looking like a Rookie of the Year contender with his .360 batting average and .935 OPS.. He got another 3 hits today, including a rare Astros home run. It's kind of ironic that we went out and got Pedro Feliz for third base this year, not knowing what a huge season CJ would have -- at least so far!

Pence has been a monster recently. Another 3 hits today, two of them doubles -- that's 4 doubles in the past 2 games. His batting average is now up to a season-high .285. Even Carlos Lee has picked up the pace lately. (Dare we hope that his grotesque season start was an aberration, and he'll be of some value to the team over the rest of his outlandishly expensive contract?) And of course it's fun to watch the kids on the team: Wallace, Sanchez, Castro, Norris.

In other baseball news: Carlos Lee gave a new twist to the meaning of a powerful backswing in today's game, whomping the poor plate ump on the head with his bat. The umpire, Alan Porter, ended up with 5 stitches, but apparently not a cracked skull... Poor Chipper Jones made a terrific play against the Astros on Tuesday, robbing Hunter Pence of a hit. But it wasn't worth it -- he tore the ACL in his left knee and will be out on rehab for the rest of the season. Bummer for a contender... Lance Berkman has picked up the pace a bit wearing his new pinstripes. He's batted .333 with a 1.044 OPS in the past week. But in today's game, he stepped on the Royal's pitcher's foot on first base while trying to beat out a double play, and jammed his right ankle. He's day to day... The Wiz was throwing a lot of changeups in LA this week when he pitched seven shutout innings against his old battery mate Brad Ausmus and the Dodgers.

GAME 111: Win a Few, Lose a Few... Isn't this FUN?

2010-08-10T08:22:00.000-04:00

GAME 111 - August 9: Astros 10, Braves 4

Seven games up. Four games down. One up... The Astros are on a roller coaster these days as their mostly-young team fields different lineups, rotations, and bullpens in what is essentially a really extended Spring Training. The games might count, and the road trips are longer, but with the outcome not really in doubt, they are free to try out various configurations in preparation for fielding what we all hope will be a much better team next year. Why wait till March?

A day after our baby-faced starter wannabe got clobbered, Wesley Wright found himself on his way back to Round Rock. Wright's a lefty, with good but inconsistent stuff, so I'm guessing he'll be back before long. In his place, the Astros brought up their new acquisition in the Berkman trade, Mark Melancon (apparently pronounced "Melanson") to join the bullpen. Now Nelson Figueroa, picked up last month from the Phillies off waivers, will get his chance to try out for the rotation with a start planned for the weekend.

Meanwhile, we're getting lots of looks at our youngsters, with CJ, Sanchez, and Wallace playing daily, and Castro alternating with Q behind the plate. The exciting thing is the way that they have helped to redefine our anemic offense. Where a few months ago, the BAs for our line up seemed to average somewhere in the embarrassingly low .200s, they've moved up into much more respectable territory. CJ leads the pack batting over .350, newbie Wallace is at .333 (admittedly a very small sample), Kepp's in the .290s, Sanchez close to that, Pence around .275. Even Carlos Lee eked his batting average up over .250! Since the All Star Break, the team's BA has jumped about 10 points -- considering that it's late in the season, and it takes a lot to impact the stats, that's a huge improvement. How big an improvement? Well, here's a fun stat: In the last 7 days, the Astros have the highest team batting average in the league -- a quite respectable .329. They've led the league in runs scored -- 45 to the next highest Reds at 36. And all that with only 1 (ONE!) home run. This is a very scrappy lineup. Unfortunately, during that same time period, our pitchers have notched a league-worst ERA of 6.62, accounting for that ugly stretch of losses. Win a few, lose a few...

Overall, watching the Astros has become a lot more interesting since they shuffled the deck and threw out some of the money cards. When the post-season's not a consideration, the wins are fun, and the losses are... oh well, who cares? Last night's game is a good example. The Astros had some fun at the plate, taking advantage of really bad fielding by the Braves (3 errors), and came up with a big win. The game was mucking along with so-so starts by two rookies. Bud Lite started for the Astros and Mike Minor made his big league debut for the Braves. Each lasted through 6 innings, each gave up 4 runs on some hits, a walk or two, striking out a few batters. Nothing on either side to make banner headlines, but not embarrassing for either of them. At the end of 6 innings, the game was tied 4-4.

Then the fun began. In an amazing seventh inning, the Astros looked like they were taking batting practice against a little league team, whose fumbles, bumbles, and wild throws allowed Houston to more than bat around. I should have known -- it was Kyle Farnsworth on the mound for the Braves; he'll always be remembered in Houston for what he did to help us win the pennant in the infamous 18 inning game. Coming into the inning with the score tied, Mills started out with small ball. Blum got a pinch-hit single, and Bourgeois came in to run for him. Farnsworth threw 6 pickoff attempts trying to catch the speedy Bourgeois. The last one went astray and Bourgeois went to second. Bourn grounded out, moving Bourgeois to third with one out. Assuming a squeeze was in the works, Farnsworth pitched at, then out, Sanchez, before walking him on 4 pitches. Kepp singled to score Bourgeois, giving the Astros a 5-4 lead. A wild pitch moved both runners into scoring position. Farnsworth then intentionally walked Pence to load the bases, hoping for a double plan to get out of trouble. Pitching change.

Lee was up, bases loaded, one out. This is the new era El Caballo. Instead of hitting into a double play or a booming grand slam, he lobbed a blooper single into right field. (It was Lee's second bloop of the game -- the first turned out to be an RBI double by the time it fell in No Mans Land between three Braves fielders.) Sanchez scored. Bases still loaded, one out, and CJ comes to the plate. On the scorecard, he got credit for a single to left field, but the end result was an inside-the-park homer. Kepp scored. Pence beat the throw to the plate. Catcher McCann throws to third, hoping to catch Lee, but the ball sails to the outfield fence, and everybody comes home. Astros lead 10-4.

Multi-hit game for Bourn, Keppinger, Lee, CJ, Wallace. The bullpen contributed 2 1/3 innings of no-hit pitching to hold down the fort - Byrdak got the win for his 1/3 inning in the seventh. Pence made a terrific outfield assist to spoil a two-out RBI "single" in Minor's first big-league at bat. Lots of fun all around.

Did I mention how awesome it is to see Jeff Bagwell wearing #5 in the dugout? Does anyone think that he has NOTHING to do with all this fun?

Can't wait for tonight's game!

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

2010-08-08T19:11:00.000-04:00

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.

GAMES 105-106: The New Era Continues...

2010-08-04T17:03:00.000-04:00

GAME 105 - August 2: Astros 9, Cardinals 4
GAME 106 - August 3: Astros 18, Cardinals 4

   Quote of the Day: "18-4? Are you kidding me?" (my sister Elizabeth, on Facebook)

The Astros may be 12 games under .500, in fourth place in their division, but that doesn't mean that baseball can't still be fun. Since the All Star game, they've been playing with a lot of spunk and good results. Since trading their star players last week, they've been unbeatable. Over the weekend, Astros pitchers held the hard-hitting Brewers to 2 runs in 3 games -- that's the same Brewers who are second in the league in slugging and first in homers. Now in St Louis, the Astros are beating up the Cardinals, a team whose pitchers have the third best combined ERA in the league.

The past week, while the Astros were busy blazing blazed their way into a 7 game winning streak, their pitchers had a combined ERA of 1.50. Our team batting average was over .340, with slugging over .530, despite a relatively modest number of homers (just 6). Oh by the way, in those stats, the Astros are leading the league this week. If it weren't for the humongous hole they dug themselves into, at the start of the season, they'd look like (dare I say it?) contenders.

Take last night's game: 18-4? You must be kidding! That's the kind of pounding that happens against the Astros, not by them! Outscoring Pujols & Co 27-8 in the first two games of this series, and extending their winning streak in Busch Stadium to 6 games, is pretty remarkable. Nearly everyone on the team participated in the hitfests - even Carlos Lee. El Caballo seems so energized by all the offensive frenzy that he tried to convert a double into a triple, and almost succeeded (the ump said no, the slo-mo said maybe, it was that close). Here's what the hitting for some of the key players looked like over the first two games of the St Louis series:
   Bourn - 1 for 4, 1 BB, 2 R, 1 SB
   Kepp - 3 for 8, 1 BB, 2 R, 4 RBI
   Pence - 3 for 10, 3 RBI, 1 SB
   CJ - 4 for 8, 2 R, 5 RBI
   Lee - 5 for 8, 3 BB, 5 R, 1 RBI
   Sanchez - 5 for 7, 2 R. 6 RBI
   Wallace - 2 for 4, 1 BB, 2 RBI
   Hernandez - 1 for 3, 1 BB, 2 R
   Bourgeois - 1 for 5, 2 BB, 2 R, 2 RBI
   Feliz - 3 for 6, 2 R, 2 RBI
   JMike - 1 for 3. 1 R

What's amazing in this spate of 27 runs is that there were NO homers, only 1 triple, and 7 doubles -- all the rest of the 34 hits were singles. The team RISP was 21 for 36. What a change!

We've been seeing hot pitching for the past month, and these games were more of the same. Myers had another 6 inning quality start. Norris gave up 4 runs in his 6 innings, but got a ton of run support and earned a win. The bullpen has been stellar - just one run given up (by Figueroa) in 6 relief innings.

Of Special Note: Angel Sanchez came within a homer of going for the cycle in Tuesday night's game. He went 4 for 6, with 2 singles, a double, a triple, and 6 RBIs.

Chris Johnson's season BA is up to .350.

There's only one position player batting under .200 (Castro).

Feliz went 3 for 6 right after being named August's Worst Player in Baseball.

Myers continues his streak - he has not pitched less than 6 innings in any of his starts this season. His ERA is 3.10. It would be nice if that translated to something better than an 8-6 record, but there was that really bad start to the season... He got a no decision in his start Monday night.

Photosynthesis: The further the Astros go into renovating the team with youngsters and new guys, especially those that were recently acquired from trades, the fewer pictures I have to illustrate my blogs. I always take some pictures of Astros prospects from Spring Training (generally the better known ones), but I only have the other teams' younger guys if I happened to snap their pictures during a game. So I don't have any pictures of Brett Wallace or Angel Sanchez to post. I'll have a lot of players to catch up on at Spring Training next year!

GAMES 102-104: The New Era: Baby Bees? Killer Brats?

2010-08-01T18:20:00.000-04:00

GAME 102 - July 30: Astros 5, Brewers 0
GAME 103 - July 31: Astros 6, Brewers 0
GAME 104 - August 1: Astros 5, Brewers 2

Call them the Baby Bees. Or the Killer Brats. Whatever you call them, the new-era Astros are off to a fun start.

With Oswalt and Berkman gone, they went out and swept Milwaukee, outscoring the hard-hitting Brewers 16-2. The Astros starters for this weekend's games are a trio of lefties: J.A. Happ the new guy, Wandy the veteran, and Wesley the kid. Friday night Happ introduced himself to the Houston fans by throwing the first 6 innings of a 5-0 shutout, at the same time Roy O was getting shellacked by the Nats in his first start for the Phillies. Saturday Wandy continued his recent spate of first-class games, throwing 8 scoreless innings, fanning 9. And today, baby-faced Wesley Wright showed that he can be more than a long relievers, with a his first major league win as a starter. I'm not sure whether the Astros have ever before had a sweep in which all three starting/winning pitchers were southpaws. I can't remember when they ever even had a trio of lefty starters in a series. This is certainly a new look for the Astros.

The string of terrific starts actually predated the Oswalt and Berkman trades. Going back to last Sunday, we've got three shutouts (2 for Wandy, one for Happ), two games in which the Cubs were held to a single run (win for Norris and CG for Myers), and today's win in which the Brewers scored their only 2 runs of the series. The only loss in the past week was Tuesday, in which the Astros left 12 runners stranded failed to support Wright in his second try as a starter.

All this great baseball gets the Astros up to a ripping 14 games under .500 -- a net gain since the All Star break (9-6), but we're still not going to the playoffs this year. That means that wins and losses aren't necessarily the most interesting stats for the rest of the season. Kind of like Spring Training - there are lots of things besides the W/L record to be paying attention to. Here's some of the fun stuff that's going on with the Astros, since they signed away their long-time stars:

Brett Wallace got his Major League debut. After the 2008 first-pick for the Cards was traded twice, he might have wondered where his career was headed. But the third time was charmed, and he found himself in an Astros uni on first base a couple of days after he was swapped in Part II of the Oswalt trade. His debut last night showed some nice fielding, but he went 0 for 4 at the plate. He got his first ML hit in today's game, a bloop single. That should take the edge off a bit, and hopefully he'll go on to be a bit more of a slugger. I've seen a couple of commenters suggest that he needs a haircut. I don't think so -- he's wearing the same curly do that Jeff Bagwell's got, but without the chin coiffure to go with it.

Chris Johnson, another of the youth movement that has redefined our infield, finally ended his two-week long hitting streak in today's game. A hitting streak can be constructed of a bunch of 1 for 4 and 1 for 5 games, but not CJ's. Since the All Star break, he's raised his BA from .282 to .341.

When the Astros signed Brett Myers this year, I wasn't too happy, having heard about the less charming aspects of his off-the-field life. But on the field, he's been consistently terrific this year, and that's earned him a new 3-year contract from the Astros. With Roy O gone, the team is looking to Myers and Wandy to be the core of the rotation. The contract extension for Myers includes two year plus an option for 2013, with a total value of almost $30M. Myers, by the way, is still under 30 -- young enough to be part of the team's new brat pack.

It's not only the youngsters who have had some fun over the weekend. Jason Michaels, given a pair of starts and a pinch hitting opportunity, came through for the team big-time. JMike hit a solo homer on Friday night, for the Astros first run, then added on a pair of doubles Saturday. But his most notable contribution came in the final game of the series, when he came to bat with the bases loaded and no outs in the seventh inning, Astros behind 2-0. Mills brought him in to pinch hit for Wallace, preferring his right handed vet over the left handed newbie against a lefty Brewers pitcher. JMike repaid Mills' confidence with a big blast, a grand slam to put the Astros ahead 4-2. It was good timing -- the last chance for the Astros to give Wright run support towards his first starting win.

Jeff Keppinger is another veteran who has found himself in a surprising situation. Since Berkman was traded, Mills has slotted Kepp in the #3 slot of the lineup. How did that work out? He went 2 for 2 with a homer and 2 walks on Friday night, 3 for 5 on Saturday, and 1 for 4 wih a triple today.

One might think that after trading two of their most popular long-time star players in a really terrible year, the Astros might have lost all their fan support. The constant ads for cheap tickets and all-you-can-eat junk food might indicate a certain desperation for butts in seats. But from out here in Exile, I have to say that the Astros have made themselves a lot more interesting since the All Star break. Like most Astros fans, I'll miss the Wiz and the Puma, but I'd rather lose the rest of the season with some fresh new players than lose the rest of the season with the same old vets. There's something to be said for loyalty -- but there's also something to be said for hope.

There's also something to be said for seeing Jeff Bagwell in an Astros uniform in the dugout!

Ending an Era (Part 2)...

2010-08-01T11:13:00.000-04:00

"Now batting fer yer Yankees, Designated Hitter, Laaaaaaaaance Berkman!"

I took a peek at the Gameday for the Yankes @ Rays game last night, to see how the Puma was doing with his new team. I didn't really have the heart to turn on the video and actually see Berkman in his new set of pinstripes (or whatever the Yankees wear on the road). I think I would have been happy for him if he'd been the hero of the game, but honestly, there was a bit of perverse pleasure to see that he was 0 for 4.

Berkman a Yankee. Devout Christian homebody in the Big Apple... how strange is that going to be? Meanwhile, the Little Pumas are looking for new costumes. Maybe the Astros will retire #17 someday. Who knows, maybe Berkman will even come back next year as a free agent? Before I write about who we got in trade, here are a few photo memories of Berkman as an Astro - there are a lot more on my Astros Fan in Exile Photo Album. Except for the first one (which was taken on my only trip to MMP ever in 2004), these photos were taken at Spring Training and the occasional Astros @ Nats games from 2005-2010.

Brings back the memories, huh?

Now on to the future. In trade for the Puma, the Astros acquired two minor league players:

Mark Melancon - 25 year old RHP, playing at the Triple A level, with a little big league time in 2009-2010 seasons. Facts and opinions gleaned from a mix of web sources: Yankees' 9th round draft pick in 2006, had Tommy John surgery in 2006, has a mid-90s fastball, best pitch is his hard curve ball. Some concern about his control, with walks on the rise since last year. If he can get the walks down, he's a potential late inning reliever; if not, he's a guy who will come in to pitch a middle inning. Chances are he'll be up pitching for the Astros before too long, with DL churn, and then we'll see.

Jimmy Paredes - 21 year old Class A level infielder, plays mostly at second base, but can also play short and third. Switch-hitter with lots of speed. Strikes out a lot and makes a lot of errors - but hey, he's still youn. Likely potential to be a utility player, not a big league starter, but who knows - he's still a long way from baked. With coaching he could get better, or drop out, or get traded... there's a long road from low-A to the big leagues.

Neither of these guys are as interesting as the players we got for Oswalt. But sentimentality aside, Berkman hasn't had much of a season, and the Astros weren't planning to take up his option for next year. So a pair of prospects is still better than the nothing they'd have if they hadn't dealt now. And meanwhile, thanks to the Oswalt trade, we've got a replacement in Brett Wallace ready to play.

So long Puma. Good luck in NY - hope the change of clubhouse will turn around your bummer season. Who knows, maybe we'll see you back some day, to finish off your career with the Astros.

In other news, the Nationals clobbered Roy O in his first start with the Phillies...

Ending an Era...

2010-07-30T19:09:00.000-04:00

Oswalt got his wish: He was traded to the Phillies, who -- if they weren't already headed for a pennant -- just upped their chances with another big arm in their rotation. Tonight he will be pitching against the Nationals in a Phillies jersey. I'm sure there's a picture of him wearing one on their website; I haven't really wanted to look. Here are some pictures of him wearing our jersey, just for memories... There are a bunch more on my Astros Fan in Exile Photo Album.

The Astros gave the Phillies the Wiz and $11M to decorate his locker. In return they got a lefty pitcher and a couple of minor leaguers, one of whom they immediately flipped to the Blue Jays. When the dust settled they ended up with:

J.A. (say "Jay") Happ - young lefty starting pitcher in his second big league season, who has only had 3 starts this season, due to an arm strain. But supposedly he's healthy now, and fans will get to see in tonight's game.

Jonathan Villar - 19-year old shortstop, with lots of speed on the base paths, good range and good arm at short. The Phillies signed him from the DR in 2008, and he's in the low minors. He'll be in line behind the Astros 2009 first-round draft pick, Jio Mier. It will be a while before the Astros find out what they've got from him.

Brett Wallace - Minor League first baseman, acquired from the Blue Jays, who got him from Oakland, who got him from the Cards -- their #1 draft pick in 2008. He's been traded around in some big deals, involving marquee players (Holliday, Halladay, and now Oswalt). He started out as a good hitting third baseman, who's been converted into a third baseman. He's a big guy (6'2", 205 lb), who's been hitting around .300 with a nice collection of homers in Triple A for the past couple of seasons. So he could be close to hatching from his position as the starting first baseman in Round Rock. Do the Astros need a new first baseman? They might, depending on whether they hold on to the Puma or let him become a free agent at the end of this season -- or trade him now. Rumors today are that the Yankees are just on the verge of snaring the Puma, and the Red Sox are sniffing around too.

Bagwell. Biggio. Now Oswalt. Maybe Berkman... Bit by bit the Astros' lifers are moving on. I think it will be exciting to watch the team rebuild with younger players. On the other hand, for a fan in exile, who only gets to see the team in person at Spring Training and the occasional road trip to where I live, getting attached to the players is how I stay a fan of my home team. My last trip to the Astrodome was in 1991, when I was on a business trip to Clear Lake with an IBM colleague. We decided to take in a ball game one night -- the Astros lost badly and I noted that the team was mostly young guys. I think I might have seen one of them, a kid named Bagwell, hit a homer that night. Or perhaps I might be just embroidering on my memory. At any rate, back in those days, when the only access to an out-of-town team was a blurb under the box score in the next day's paper, it was hard to stay really connected. Now, with mlb.tv live games and a yearly pilgrimage to Kissimmee, it's much better. Still, it's going to be weird without the heart of the team there.

Goodbye and good luck, Roy O. And maybe Fat Elvis too. Looking forward to seeing you play against the Nats when you come to Washington. I'm not one of those fans who will boo you. But I might not cheer for you either.

GAMES 99-101: What is it About Winsdays?

2010-07-28T21:44:00.000-04:00

GAME 99 - July 26: Cubs 5, Astros 2
GAME 100 - July 27: Astros 6, Cubs 1
GAME 101 - July 28: Astros 8, Cubs 1

I'm writing up this series while watching this afternoon's game on the mlb.tv archive. It's the bottom of the first, and if I didn't already know the outcome, I'd make a couple of predictions:

1. Bud Norris is going to have a really bad day. After loading up the bases with no outs to start the game, he managed to wiggle out with only one unearned run. But it was a shaky start.

2. Carlos Lee is going to piss everybody off. Came up to bat in the bottom of the first with 2 runners in scoring position, and bounced to first to end the inning. So what else is new?

As it turned out, my predictions would prove to be totally off target, as Norris went on to throw 5 more innings without giving up another run, ending the day with 1 unearned run on 4 hits, 3 walks, and 7 strikeouts. And El Caballo, after doing nothing at all to help 4 base runners in his first two at-bats, went on to hit a pair of 2-run homers, accounting for half of Houston's runs today. So go figure. Happily, baseball is full of surprises; otherwise, we could just run the stats and skip the games!

Like last night's game (more on that in a minute), all of the Astros' offensive fun came in late innings. I'm only in the second inning of the recorded game, so I haven't yet seen the Astros score 8 runs in the sixth through eighth innings. They waited so long that they just barely gave Norris the chance to get his first win since the middle of May. The Astros tied the game in the bottom of the sixth, when Puma walked and Pence doubled to score him. Then came the first of Lee's homers, to put the Astros up by 2. In the seventh inning, Berkman doubled, and Lee scored them both with his second homer. In the eighth, the Astros put some icing on the cake, with 3 more runs. Bourgeois led off with a triple (he's really fast!), then scored on Sanchez' single. Berkman and Pence singled, scoring Sanchez. The fourth ball of CJ's walk was a wild pitch, allowing the Puma to score to make it 8-1.

So, while I'm still watching a pretty unexciting third inning, I know from the box score and Gameday pitch-by-pitch that great things are going to be happening about an hour from now. The Astros are going to look like the team we've wished they'd be: Berkman getting on base in all 5 plate appearances (single, double, 3 walks), Lee whacking 2 homers, Pence going 3 for 5, and Bud Lite throwing some sweet baseball. It all added up to yet another Wednesday win -- the 12th consecutive mid-week win for the Astros.

If I just had the past two games to go on, I'd think this team was headed for the pennant. Yesterday's game featured another yet another solid start by Brett Myers - probably his best of the year. I came into the season prepared to dislike Myers, who has some less than savory issues off the field, but it's hard to fault his performance on the mound. He might look like a billy goat in striped pajamas, but he can throw a baseball. Last night, it was a complete game, shutting out the Cubs for the first 8 innings.

It looked for the first six innings like Myers wasn't going to get any offense to help his cause, but in the seventh, Mills maneuvered the Astros into finally scoring a run. He got more than a little help from some really slopping pitching by Houstonian Andrew Cashner, who started the inning by hitting Quintero with a pitch. Mills replaced Q with the speedy Bourgeois, a move that paid off with stolen base. Myers put down a pretty two-strike bunt (while I was tweeting "SWING!") to move Bourgeois to third. The Cubs decided to go for a DP by walking Bourn, and pitching to Sanchez. But the crafty Mills put on the squeeze. Sanchez laid down a great bunt, Bourgeois scored from third, and both runners were safe. Astros lead 1-0!!! But then small ball turned into some pretty big ball. Pence singled, scoring Bourn, and advancing to second while Sanchez was thrown out at third. Lee walked. Kepp was hit by a pitch. And that brought up the Puma with two outs and the bases loaded.

Did I mention that Berkman has a miserable record against the Cubs' lefty starter Ted Lilly (no relation to me), and that he'd fizzled batting right-handed in his first two at bats? Well, by the seventh inning, Lilly was out, and the Puma was batting left handed when he hit that grand slam. SLAMMMMMMM!!!!

With a six run lead, Mills let Myers finish off his gorgeous start. The Cubs got their only run on a leadoff homer in the ninth. No problem -- Myers then went and struck out the next last three batters to end the game. Total line for the game: 9 innings, 1 run, 4 hits, 1 walk, and 12 strikeouts. That performance was, by the way, just what Nationals fans were hoping to see last night, when Strasburg was due to pitch. For a few minutes, I even toyed with the idea of going to the game, instead of coming home to watch my guys. But Stras was a last-minute scratch, and the crowd at Nationals Ballpark booed the poor replacement, Miguel Batista. Bad fan form. Batista and the pen threw a shutout.

It's now in the fifth inning of the recorded game from this afternoon. Even though there hasn't been any Astros scoring, there's always something interesting going on in a ball game. Norris got spiked covering first base -- the culprit was the opposing pitcher, Randy Wells. In a tight game, anything goes. Norris stayed in the game. And Angel Sanchez ended the inning with an awesome fielding play at short. I love good defense.

Unfortunately, the games yesterday and today (great starting pitching, good relief, late-in-the-game offense, homers by Berkman and Lee!!!) weren't really as typical of the season as the first game of this series on Monday -- a 5-2 loss. In his second big league start, Wesley Wright lasted 5 innings (a tad more than last time), giving up 4 runs on 8 hits, a walk, and 4 strikeouts. Meanwhile, his teammates managed to abandon 12 runners, squandering any benefit they might have had from 11 hits, a walk, and an error.

Just got to the sixth inning of today's recorded game. The fun is going to start in a minute, when Pence doubles to score the Puma and tie it up, and then El Caballo's going to knock one into the Chick-fil-A fowl pole (free chicken sandwiches for everybody!)... I'm going to wrap this up now, since you already know how it turns out: Fun and games, homers, and another Winsday!

GAMES 96-98: Has Oswalt Played His Last?

2010-07-28T19:56:00.001-04:00

GAME 96 - July 23: Reds 6, Astros 4
GAME 97 - July 24: Reds 7, Astros 0
GAME 98 - July 25: Astros 4, Reds 0

The chatter gets louder as we get closer to the end-of-July trade deadline, wondering when and where things will be happening for Roy Oswalt. By now, we're all used to the idea that he might be pitching against us soon, and at this point, I'm not even particularly sorry about it. Time to move on to a new phase in our Astro fan lives - it's not as if he asked to be traded in a year in which he's leading the league in wins. But I'd sort of hoped that he'd do something remarkable on his way out. Take over the Astros all-time wins record from Joe Niekro, for sure -- he's only one win away from tying it. Pitch a perfect game - or at least a no-hitter! Unfortunately, if yesterday's loss to the Reds was the last time we'll see the Wiz in an Astros uni, he didn't achieve any of these. He threw a quite unimpressive game, losing it on a first inning homer. He should know by now that the Astros aren't going to score for him. Perfection is the only possibility. Oswalt still has one more chance to pitch for the Astros before the end of the month, if he's not traded to the Phillies or Cards by then. Still time to tie Niekro. Still time for a no hitter. Of course, it would probably be another bad luck loss.

It's vilely hot in the DC area this weekend, with temperatures and humidity readings reminding me what I hated the most about growing up in Houston. I suspect that my love of baseball began with the building of the Astrodome and the urge to be somewhere -- anywhere -- air conditioned in nasty Houston summer.

I haven't posted much on Astros fashion statements in a while. In my 2005 game journal, I used to note which uni they wore in each game, as well as oddities of hair styles, socks up or down, and so forth. But I do have one thing to say: The Astros should get rid of the throwback uniform games once and for all. For some perverse reason, they always seem to lose in throwback games. Yesterday's 7-0 beating isn't the worst. Remember the July 4th, 2004 shellacking while dressed up as Southwest Airlines planes -- Rangers 18, Astros 3.

Happy ending to an otherwise sorry weekend series against the Reds: At least they didn't sweep us. Wandy did everything anyone could want him to do: Seven shutout innings, 1 hit, 2 walks, 7 Ks. Lyon and Lindstrom each threw a scoreless inning in relief to seal the deal. It wasn't exactly a blowout for the Astros batters, but Michael Bourn led the charge, going 3 for 4 with 2 RBI -- half of the Astros' 4 runs. Cj and Pence were good for the other two runs with solo homers. Unfortunately, I had to spend Sunday in the office, where I put the game on for a little while. Then we had to huddle in the kitchen through a tornado warning and sudden ferocious squall. When I got home, we'd lost power, so I didn't get to watch the happy win straight through.

Cubs coming to town next. Let's see if we can keep taking series from them.

GAMES 90-95: On to the Second Half,,,

2010-07-23T20:20:00.002-04:00

GAME 90 - July 16: Astros 5, Pirates 2
GAME 91 - July 17: Pirates 12, Astros 6
GAME 92 - July 18: Pirates 9, Astros 0

GAME 93 - July 19: Astros 11, Cubs 5
GAME 94 - July 20: Cubs 14, Astros 7
GAME 95 - July 21: Astros 4, Cubs 3

The All Star Game has come and gone. The good news is that the National League won, for the first time in a century or so (they hadn't won in the 21st century)! The bad news is that it happened in a year that the Astros won't benefit from home field advantage in the World Series.

I'm dutifully reporting game scores in my blog, for the sake of completeness. But at this point the wins and losses are about as important as the games in Spring Training. It won't affect the outcome of the season - it's likely to be a gruesome record. Bad enough to give Houston a sweet pick in next year's draft, but unlikely to be bad enough to get the first pick. The Astros, with their 39-56 record (holding at 17 under .500), are still doing much better than Orioles (only 30 wins), and a bit better than the Mariners (sorry, Mom!), Pirates (sorry, Bob!), and DBacks (sorry, snakes and scorpions!).

We're really past the point of watching games for the effect on the record. At this point, it's more about the individual performances, the chance of something amazing happen every time someone yells "Play Ball," and the chance to see the youngsters. Take the game on Tuesday, in which the Astros blew away a 7-1 lead in the fifth inning, and lost 14-7. It was ugly, for sure, and starter Wesley Wright didn't make it out of the inning. He gave up 5 runs in the bottom of the fifth, and you could sure see it coming, after an error put two Cubbies in scoring position with no outs. A hit batter. A walk. A homer (one of three by Aramis Ramirez). Before you know it, the game's tied up, and it was all downhill from there. Bummer? Not really, not totally.

Hey folks, that was little Wesley, the diminutive 25-year-old relief pitcher we got in a Rule 5 deal a few years ago, starting his first big league game. So he was gassed, big deal -- he's a kid trying out for a starter job. He pitched shutout baseball into the fourth, and all 5 of those runs in the fifth were unearned after Kepp's wild throwing error. Who cares if Lefty Wright wins the game (he didn't get the loss, Lyons did) -- in a crappy season like this, the Astros can afford to let a young player like Wright get a try out, experiment with minor league players, fiddle with lineups. It doesn't really matter. The best part of the game for the rest of the season isn't going to be watching El Caballo try to get his BA up to .250, or to wonder if and when the Wiz will get his wish. It's going to be getting to see a preview of future players, who -- just maybe -- will help to lead us to a very different kind of season in a few years. And, of course, seeing Jeff Bagwell in the dugout wearing #5 again.

So I'll try to focus my blog for the second half of the season on the young guys, whether they flame or fizzle. How bad can it be? What's the worst that can happen -- we get first draft pick next year?

Astros in Cincinnati this weekend. Sorry, Cousin Bill -- I'm still hoping we win.

GAMES 87-89: Break Time -- with Bagwell Photos and Video

2010-07-12T20:39:00.000-04:00

GAME 87 - July 9: Cardinals 8, Astros 0
GAME 88 - July 10: Astros 4, Cardinals 1
GAME 89 - July 11: Cardinals 4, Astros 2

This is just a teaser. Keep going -- there are lots more pictures (and a video) of Baggy below...

Time for the mid-season All Star Break. For me, that translates into a full week without any live Astros games -- first the 4 days off, and then the Sabbath games that I catch up on when three stars appear in the Saturday evening sky. A whole week! I'll go into withdrawal! It's just not normal to come home from work and face night after night without watching my guys. Tonight I was so discombobulated that I went to the gym after work by accident.

On the other hand, the weekend Astros series against the Cards hardly left devoted fans panting for more. If I were a Cardinals fan, I'd probably be checking the National League scoreboard all the time (Woohoo - Reds lost again!). As an Astros fan, I'm freed from those tiresome tasks - when you're 17 games under .500 going into the All Star break, the standings aren't meaningful to everyday life.

Here's the one-line version of the Cardinals series: Failure to push across runs Friday and Sunday and a terrific start by Myers Saturday. Rather than focusing on the weekend disappointments, let's just go straight to the big Astros news story: BAGGY'S BACK IN UNIFORM! He's going to be the new pitching coach, taking over after Sean Berry got stuck as the fall guy for the terrible offensive performance of the team so far this year. You can check out the blogs of Alyson Footer, McTaggert, and others to get the details of the new position, and how happy everyone is to have Bagwell back, and how sorry they are for Berry because it wasn't his fault that Astros batters suck. As long as you're here on my blog, you might as well look at some of my pictures of Bagwell from the past 6 years. (If you want to see more, check out the Bagwell page of the photo album on my Astros Fan in Exile website.)

Here's a rare one for me, since almost all of my thousands of Astros pix are taken at Spring Training: Bagwell in 2004, playing a home game in Houston (the only time I've ever been in MMP):

Here's Bagwell playing at Spring Training 2005, the year I had a vision in Kissimmee of the Astros in the World Series. (I know, you're tired of that story.)

Here's Bagwell when he tried to make a comeback (unwelcome by the management) at Spring Training 2006:

Here's Bagwell at Spring Training 2008, a couple of years after he retired, hanging out in the dugout and coaching minor leaguers on the practice field:

Here's Bagwell at Spring Training 2009. I missed him in 2010. :-(

Happily there should be many more opportunities to photograph Bagwell in uniform, including when the Astros come here to play the Nats in September.

There's still a lot more baseball to play before then. (Sorry, Alyson! I know you're tired of this season!) Although we passed the midpoint a week ago, the All Star break feels like the middle of the season. Going into the break with a 36-53 record, on track to lose 97 games this year. I don't think that they will actually manage to accomplish that, given that they've played much better baseball in the last month than in the preceding ones. But, who cares -- if they'll go young, it would be worth losing lots of games for the rest of the year. Who knows, maybe we can really bottom out and get the first pick in next year's draft.

Meanwhile, enjoy your break from the Astros. Cheer for Air Bourn in the All Star game. Maybe they'll put him in as a pinch runner. See you next week!

GAMES 84-86: Clean Sweep! (Even if it's Just the Pirates...)

2010-07-08T21:47:00.000-04:00

GAME 85 - July 6: Astros 6, Pirates 2
GAME 86 - July 7: Astros 6, Pirates 3
GAME 87 - July 8: Astros 2, Pirates 0

SWEEP!!! How cool is that on a hot day? Even if it's just the Pirates, one of only 2 NL teams with a worse record than the Astros this season! Here's what's to like about this sweep - and even the lost series that preceded it...

In the past 8 games, dating back to the last game of the Brewers series, Astros pitchers have held the opposing team to just 16 runs, average of 2 per game, and not more than 3 in any of them. (How's that for fancy stats - and I did the math in my head!) Even better, the starting pitchers in those 8 games have given up only 5 runs in 51 2/3 innings. That comes out to a combined ERA of 0.87. (I used a calculator for that one.) Sweet.

Let's just take a look at Roy O (look fast, while he's still here). In his two starts in the past week, he gave up 0 runs in 16 innings. Seven scoreless innings for a no-decision on Friday, then a one-hitter complete game shutout today. The Wiz might be auditioning for a new job on a team that's going somewhere this year, but we can enjoy watching him while he's still wearing an Astros jersey.

Another thing to like: The Puma found his swing! He's hit 5 homers in the past 4 games, including two in today's sweep. (Oswalt owes him -- those were the only 2 runs the Astros scored to back up his shutout.) Thank heavens for the Crawford Boxes! But hey, a home run is a home run. The first homer, hit in the first inning, to get the Astros off to a good start, was Berkman's 1000th career run scored, all of them for Houston of course. Good timing for this power hitting demo: Berkman's name has been coming up a lot recently in the trade rumor mill. Seriously, can you imagine Fat Elvis in a Yankees uni? NOT!

In other exciting news, someone named LeBron picked Miami. I'm not sure what sport that is, but it's not baseball.

GAMES 80-83: Didn't Miss Much (from the Astros) While I Was Away...

2010-07-05T22:46:00.000-04:00

GAME 80 - July 1: Astros 6, Padres 3
GAME 81 - July 2: Padres 3, Astros 0
GAME 82 - July 3: Padres 1, Astros 0
GAME 83 - July 4: Padres 3, Astros 2

I escaped the 100 degree heat wave in the Washington DC area by flying out to the other Washington, where the 50-something degree weather was downright refreshing. Four days in Seattle, for a delayed celebration of my mom and dad's May birthdays (with Mothers/Fathers Day thrown in for good measure), was a good opportunity to ignore the Astros. Their Independence Day weekend series was a prolonged demonstration of how not to support their starting pitchers. Here's the stats for our rotation in the series:

Game 1: Moehler - 5.2 innings, 1 run on 4 hits, 2 BB, 2 K

Game 2: Oswalt - 7 innings, 0 run on 3 hits, 2 BB, 7 K

Game 3: Norris - 7 innings, 0 runs on 3 hits, 3 BB, 5 K

Game 4: Myers - 6 innings, 2 runs on 4 hits, 1 BB, 2 K

That looks to me like pretty solid starting pitching overall -- and was just enough to earn each of them a no-decision. Let's not talk about the Astros hitting. The fun seemed to end in the tenth inning of Thursday night's game. Michael Bourn hit a tie-breaking two-out triple in the top of the tenth, scoring Quintero and Navarro, both of whom had walked. Bourn then came around to score on Kepp's single, leading to the Astros' 6-3 win to start the series. That was about it in the fun department for Astros batters this weekend, as they went on to score only twice in the next three games. Roy O and Bud Lite were positively cheated in the Shabbat shutouts. (And NO, I did NOT watch these games after the Sabbath ended.)

I think I've already worn out the subject of this series, so let's just get on to other interesting news... A couple of days after the Astros claimed that they weren't looking for another option at short, they picked up a shortstop, Angel Sanchez. The need for additional help in the infield became more acute when Blum (covering short for Manzella, who's out for another month with a broken finger) hurt his elbow while putting on his shirt. No joke. Something popped, and now he's on the DL too. The Angel Sanchez that the Astros got in trade from the Red Sox for Kevin Cash is not the fashion designer. He's a 27-year old minor league shortstop who has only appeared in a handful of major league games -- 8 for the Royals in 2006, and 1 this year with Boston.

In other young player news, Chris Johnson has continued to hit well since he's become the Astros' everyday third baseman a couple of weeks ago. He's gone 17 for 40 with 6 doubles. He's had a few glitches in the fielding department, resulting in 5 errors. Jason Castro hasn't been too exciting at the plate (he's only batting .182), but he's thrown out 6 runners in the 11 games he's played. Hopefully, the Astros will stay with their young blood and keep him in the lineup, even if he can't maintain his current offensive pace.

Meanwhile, Bourn has been selected as the lone player to represent the Astros on the All Star roster. It was pretty slim pickings from the team this year, with a good case to be made that none of them should make the trip to Anaheim. But every team gets at least one player, and Bourn is ours. (Probably doesn't hurt that Charlie Manual, this year's NL ASG manager, knows Bourn from his days with the Phillies before the Lidge trade.) It's kind of a shame for Oswalt, who's pitching really well this year. But with all of the great NL pitchers to pick from, why take a guy with a 5-10 record, even if it's not his fault?

Strasburg Watch: Stephen Strasburg had his shortest outing of the year on Saturday, pitching only 5 innings, giving up 2 runs on 4 hits, 3 BBs, and 5 Ks for a no decision. The Nats ultimately won the game 6-5 in the bottom of the ninth. Strasburg wasn't selected for the All Star Game, which (in my opinion) was the right decision. If he's as great as he seems, he'll have plenty of chances in the future. Meanwhile, the NL is full of other deserving pitchers.

Astros are back home now, hosting the Pirates and Cardinals before taking off for the All Star vacation. July is a big month for home games, with a 14-10 split of home to away games.

GAMES 78-79: A Brew with a Nice Finish

2010-06-30T22:19:00.000-04:00

GAME 78 - June 29: Brewers 7, Astros 5
GAME 79 - June 30: Astros 5, Brewers 1

After Tuesday night's big come-from-behinder, I was suckered into believing up until the last out, that the Astros would somehow heroically win last night's game. Myers, uncharacteristically, had given up 7 runs on 4 homers and the odd double to put the Astros in a hole. He hung on for 6 innings, keeping his streak of 6+ inning starts going, but it was hardly a quality start. But the Astros had some pop of their own, scoring 3 runs in the fifth and another in the sixth, thanks to a homer from Feliz, a 3 for 5/2 RBI night for Berkman, and 2 for 4/2RBI game for Bourn. All in all, a respectable performance against the Brewers' ace, Yovani Gallardo. Coming into the ninth inning 3 runs down was a bit of a bummer, but once you get that come-from-behind mojo going, you believe anything is possible. The inning didn't start auspiciously: Bourgeois was a statue, past which one ball and three called strikes whizzed by. Bourn singled, and (of course) stole second, his second SB of the game. Keppinger, however, struck out for the second out. Berkman kept the hope going with a double, scoring Bourn. Lee walked, bringing up Pence - and the go-ahead run - to the plate. Homer, homer, homer, I chanted from my bed, where I was watching the game on my iPod touch and earphones. He grounded out to end the game.

This afternoon I was sitting in a long meeting at the office, getting a little grouchy. At the end the meeting, my colleague Ann P. (a huge Twins fan) remarked that my mood was understandable since my team had lost. The Astros were playing an afternoon game, which had started around the same time at the meeting. But Ann had been in the meeting the whole time, with no sign of a Blackberry or other internet-accessible device. So how did she know the Astros lost? Turned out that she was just giving me the business. I ran back to my office and checked the score online -- the Astros were leading late in the game. So here I am now, eating my dinner with mlb.tv on my iMac, watching Wandy have a good start, and knowing that there's going to be a happy inning. I'm going to pour a glass of wine now and then I'll finish this blog post up when the game's over. Here are some pictures of Wandy from Spring Training to tide you over until I come back...

This game was largely the Wandy Show -- good pitching, good fielding, and (what I always love) supporting himself at the plate. In the pitching department, Wandy threw 7 innings, giving up only a single run on 7 hits, a walk, and 6 strikeouts. With base runners in every inning, he kept his cool, pitched out of trouble, and kept them Brewers from scoring. His best fielding move came in the sixth inning with a runner on second. Wandy he fielded a ground ball, faked a throw to first, and then whirled and threw out the runner, who decided to make a try for third. Sweet. Helping himself at the plate, Wandy put down a perfect bunt for a suicide squeeze, scoring Blum from third. The RBI put Houston ahead 2-1, and they never gave up the lead. The Astros added a trio of runs in the seventh, but it was all insurance, since Wandy and the bullpen had things under control. Lindstrom and Lyon pitched two hitless innings in relief to keep Wandy's "W" intact.

Wandy got some nice support from his teammates, both in fielding and at the plate. Bourn had another terrific catch, leaping at the wall to catch a ball that appeared to be heading out of town. Chris Johnson had another 4-hit game, his second of the roadtrip. Blum got on base in every at bat, with a double, a single, and a pair of walks. Berkman hit a double and walked twice. All in all a fun game, once with very little stress -- especially since I watched it knowing the outcome ahead of time. :-)

So that's it for June - a fantastic month for the Astros! Hey, it's all relative. When you start the first two months of the season as miserably as the Astros have, a .500 month is a huge improvement. We're a long way from getting back to an overall .500 record (still 17 games under), but the overall direction is positive. I'm off to Seattle for a long Fourth of July holiday weekend with my folks and siblings, planning to celebrate my mother's birthday belatedly with a weekend of mah jongg and good food. And maybe some baseball watching too. Tweet me.

GAME 77: A Weeknight Double Header Surprise

2010-06-29T19:25:00.002-04:00

GAME 77 - June 28: Astros 9, Brewers 5

Bonus Game: Braves 5, Nationals 0 (Nats leave Stras hanging out to dry)

Somewhere around 8:30 PM last night, I tweeted:

Guilty admission: the Nats game is much more entertaining than the Astros game tonight

Well, it was! At the end of 6 innings, Strasburg had just struck out the side against the Braves, with a 0-0 score to testify to the quality of his pitching match with Tim Hudson. Meanwhile, the Astros were down 4-0 at the end of 2 innings, after having their own side struck out by Manny Parra. A hard night for Bud Lite Norris, who was just returning to the rotation after his trip to the DL. I was lying on the couch in the family room, watching the Nats game on my TV, with my ancient 12" Dell laptop on my lap (where else?) for the mlb.tv broadcast of the Astros game. And tweeting about both games.

And then things took a mighty spin. Down in Atlanta, Strasburg walked Chipper Jones on 4 pitches to lead off the seventh. The next batter singled. The next batter hit into what looked like a double play, but the Nats shortstop blew the play and both runners were safe. Bases loaded, no outs. Trouble. A sac fly gave the Braves a 1-0 lead. Would have been nice if that were the third out, not the first, but it was just the start of trouble for the Nats. Strasburg lasted one more runner, giving up a single that allowed the second runner to score. But his replacement, Sean Burnett, gave up two hits (one on a ground ball that both the Nats SS and third baseman couldn't handle) for 2 more runs. Down 4-0 now, the Nats switched to Drew Storen. Sac fly made it 5-0. Braves batted around and then some before Chipper Jones struck out to end the mess. Of course, like the last game in which Strasburg pitched, the Nats failed to score at all. So after that first sac fly run that Strasburg gave up, the game was over anyway.

Once Strasburg was pulled, I shut down the stinky old Dell, and came upstairs to resume watching the Astros losing to the Brewers on my nice big iMac with the HDD broadcast. Only something weird happened. Our guys scored a pair of runs in the third to cut the Brewers' lead in half. Then three runs in the sixth, two more in the seventh, and another two in the eighth! Came from behind! Lots of runners (14 hits and 6 walks). Bourn hit his first homer of the year, plus 3 singles, and a stolen base. Pence went 3 for 5, Lee went 2 for 4, Feliz went 3 for 5! It was a bonanza of bases for the Astros, a momentary rise from the cellar of nearly every offensive stat category. And just to make sure that they didn't blow it, the bullpen was excellent. Chacin, Lopez, Brydak, Lyon, and Fulchino combined for 4 scoreless innings, giving up only 3 hits and no walks between them. Lyon struck out all 4 batters he faced, and Fulchino struck out 2 more in the ninth to end the game.

Now THAT was a Great Game! (When was the last time I actually wrote a blog just for one game?) Can they do it again tonight? Brett Myers is going to try. First pitch in about 45 minutes. I'll be tweeting - see you there?

GAMES 71-76: A Hot Week in Texas (Fahrenheit)

2010-06-27T22:52:00.000-04:00

GAME 71 - June 22: Giants 3, Astros 1

GAME 72 - June 23: Astros 6, Giants 3

GAME 73 - June 24: Astros 7, Giants 5

GAME 74 - June 25: Astros 7, Rangers 4

GAME 75 - June 26: Rangers 7, Astros 2

GAME 76 - June 27: Rangers 10, Astros 1

Bonus Game: June 23: Royals 1, Nationals 0 (Strasburg's first loss)

I wasn't the only one who was excited, watching Tuesday night's game as the Astros fielded their new "young" team with Roy Oswalt on the mound facing Tim Lincecum for the third time this season. Alyson Footer tweeted that she was excited too, and some of the usuals I hang out with on Twitter chimed in. We were all hoping that fresh blood, plus Oswalt's reliable arm, would translate into at least a little more fun from the limping Astros. Or better yet, a win for Roy O, who had lost to Lincecum in both previous starts, despite quality starts. Alas, it turned out to be much ado about pretty much nothing that night, as the Astros failed to turn 7 hits (including Jason Castro's first ever), 2 walks, and 3 Giant errors into any meaningful run support for the Wiz. Chris Johnson, Jason Castro, and Tommy Manzella were all in the starting lineup, but other than that, the game went just about the same as so many of Oswalt's starts -- quality pitching, no offense, a loss. Adding injury to insult, Manzella broke his finger on a diving fielding play, and he'll be out for at least six weeks on the DL. It was the seventh loss in a row against the Giants this year, and the fifth game in the Astros latest losing streak. Things were not looking good for this series.

However, the rest of the series was a lot more exciting, as the Astros pulled out a series victory on a pair of sloppy but ultimately winning games. In these two games, Houston players made 6 errors (3 in each), not to mention other fielding miscues that didn't wind up getting the honor of being called errors. Of the Giants' 3 runs on Wednesday and 5 on Thursday, 6 were unearned, courtesy of the Astros' unusually messy fieldwork. Although the newbies accounted for some of the mess (Johnson made 2 fielding errors at third and Castro had a passed ball on Wednesday), it wasn't all their fault. Myers sailed a pickoff, Feliz threw astray, and Blum made two fielding errors from his not-best position at short stop (substituting for Manzella). There was an odd tossing match that turned what looked like a double play into two safe runners. Not that I ever insult the Astros, but there was some tweeting by others that used terms like "little league."

Despite all this mess on the field, the Astros managed to come through with a boatload of base runners, and enough of them crossed the plate to beat the Giants. Houston managed 11 hits plus 3 walks on Wednesday, including doubles by Berkman, Kepp, and Johnson. Myers threw another nice start - 7 innings, giving up 3 runs (1 earned) on 6 hits, 3 walks, and 4 strikeouts, and tried to ensure his win with a pair of singles, an RBI, and a run of his own. Lyon and Lindstrom came in behind him to pitch scoreless eighth and ninth innings for the save.

On Thursday, the Astros made sure Wandy had a chance to return from his recent malaise by scoring 7 runs in the first 3 innings, including a 3-run homer by Pence in the first, and Castro's first major league dinger, a solo bomb in the second. They didn't manage to pull off any more scoring after the third inning, but Wandy looked more like his old self from last year. He threw six innings, giving up 2 unearned runs on 4 hits, 1 walk, and 3 strikeouts. Sampson, Brydak, and Lopez combined to pitch the seventh inning, resulting in 2 more unearned runs, before Lyon and Lindstrom came in to finish. Our closer wanted to make sure we were properly hepped up for the series win, so he gave up a run on 3 hits in the ninth before ending the game with a 3 pitch strikeout.

On that cheerful note, the Astros zipped off to spend a very hot and humid weekend in Arlington to resume their annual loss of the Silver Boot to the Rangers. After being swept last weekend, it would only take one loss to accomplish this milestone and the Rangers were on an 11 game tear. But the Astros didn't just give it away. When I turned on my computer after the Sabbath ended last night, I expected to see the usual pair of Friday/Saturday losses. I had even saved a Samurai Sudoku for a baseball free evening. But to my surprise, the Astros had beat the Rangers on Friday night. The Rangers had 13 hits, three walks, and a pair of Houston errors to work with, but amazingly, the Astros pulled off a win. They did it with 14 hits of their own, including the Puma's first home run in recent history, and a little help from 3 Giants errors. All in all, it was quite a messy game on a rainy night, lasting almost 4 hours. (Watching the game after the Sabbath ended, I didn't get to bed until almost 2 AM.) It was a very good night for our newbie third baseman, Chris Johnson -- he went 4 for 5, driving in 3 runs. Jason Bourgeois got his first start in left field, with Carlos Lee at DH. He went 1 for 4, with a walk and a stolen base. Quintero was back behind the plate, with no apparent problem from being hit in the head with a bat last week. With all this fun, Moehler managed to eke out a win, his first of the season, giving up 3 runs (2 earned) in 5 innings on the mound. Sampson, Chacin, Lopez, and Lindstrom combined to keep the Rangers from stealing the win.

Saturday afternoon's scorcher of a game (around 100 on the field for the afternoon match) ended the contention for the Silver Boot. The Astros fielded their junior team, with Johnson, Castro, Bourgeois, and Navarro in the starting lineup, and Josh Banks (just up from Triple A to replace Paulino) on the mound. Bourgeois, leading off in place of Bourn, went 2 for 3 with a double, a walk, and a pair of stolen bases. Jason Michaels, starting in left (with Lee still DHing), hit a 2-run homer in the fourth for Houston's only scoring action. Banks had all the fun he's going to get on this trip to the bigs -- he only lasted 4 innings, giving up 6 earned runs on 8 hits and 4 walks. After the game, Mills charitably summed up the outing by saying "He gave us an outing that at least kept us in the ball game and gave us a chance to win." But really, how often do the Astros win when the bad guys score 6 or more? Maybe it was just the heat. However, with Bud Norris back from DL, Banks was designated for assignment.

Today's game didn't start until 8 my time, when the temp in Arlington had dropped down to about 98 degrees. I looked forward to watching Roy O pitch all day, thinking that we might pull another series win out of the hat and end this week with a net plus. But after a nice quick 1-2-3 first inning, the Wiz melted down, allowing 8 runs in under 5 innings. The Rangers basically treated the Astros pitchers like they were throwing batting practice, while Houston couldn't do more than 6 scattered singles. Final score 10-1. Enough said.

Happily this concludes inter-league play for the season. Another losing record, after being stuck playing the Yankees and the Rangers (twice) -- the two top teams in the American League. There's something seriously unfair about inter-league schedules.

In other baseball news, my favorite non-Astro player Stephen Strasburg got to experience the reality of playing for a losing team. After a no-decision in his last start, he pitched a terrific game on Wednesday -- 95 pitches over 6 innings in a blazing late afternoon game, giving up 1 run on 9 hits and 9 strikeouts, with no walks. What in the world are the Nats thinking, starting the game at 4:30 instead of 7, when it's in the high 90s? Who wants to sit outside and bake, even to see Strasburg? Apparently lots of people - the paid attendance was almost 32,000. Compare that to 21,000 the night before. Unfortunately, those who braved the heat to see Strasburg win were disappointed. The Nats didn't manage to score at all. After a day off, they managed to be swept by the Orioles (!!!) over the weekend. Now that's BAD.

And Now For Something Completely Different...

2010-06-21T18:50:00.000-04:00

Well, now for something kind of different. The Astros are bringing up some of their players from Round Rock. Chris Johnson, Jason Castro, and Jason Bourgeois will all be coming up to the big leagues, while journeymen Cory Sullivan, Casey Daigle, and Kevin Cash have been designated for assignment. According to Alyson Footer, Johnson and Castro will be getting most of the playing time at third and catcher respectively. The Astros can really use an infusion of pop at third base, and Johnson has been doing well in Triple A - batting over .325 with an OPS around .930. Outfielder Bourgeois has also been batting well in Round Rock, and will be a good addition to our short bench.

Here are a couple of my pictures of Johnson from Spring Training:

Here's Bourgeois sliding into third with a triple:

And here's Castro batting:

It's especially good timing for getting Castro up here, after Quintero's head bashing in Sunday's game. He ended up with seven stitches in his head, but apparently did not suffer a concussion or worse. I went back and watched the start of the fourth inning, when the Rangers' shortstop, Andres Blanco, whacked Q in the head with a mighty backswing. The blow knocked Q to the ground, where he lay for a few minutes, before walking off the field accompanied by a trainer holding a bloody pad to his head. At least the umpire didn't call catcher interference on him this time.

When the accident took place, the Astros broadcast wasn't even focused on the field. It was one of those in-case-they-get-bored-with-baseball, let's-entertain-them excursions into the stands to interview fans. I really, really hate fan of the day interviews in the middle of an inning, almost as much as the stupid hotdog or President races and all the guessing games on the scoreboard. Some of us actually want to watch the ball game. Anyway, after Quintero was already down on the ground, the broadcasters managed to get the audio away from the babe in the stands. Luckily Q appears to be okay, but having Castro join the team now is timely.

No word on what will happen to Sullivan, Cash, and Daigle. Neither Sullivan or Cash had been much help offensively (although Cash did pitch an inning in relief). Daigle had a few good relief appearances when he first came up, and then went into a tailspin after allowing a grand slam last week against the Yankees. He's given up runs in the last 5 games he's played.

Adding to the youth movement, it looks like Bud Norris will be back with the Astros after one more rehab start in Round Rock on Tuesday. And Chris Sampson is also due to return from the DL this week.

We may not start winning games, but at least we'll have some new guys to look at while we're losing.

GAMES 65-70: The Thrill of Defeat...

2010-06-20T19:28:00.000-04:00

GAME 65 - June 15: Royals 15, Astros 7
GAME 66 - June 16: Astros 4, Royals 2

GAME 67 - June 17: Royals 5, Astros 2

GAME 68 - June 18: Rangers 9, Astros 3

GAME 69 - June 19: Rangers 5, Astros 1

GAME 70 - June 20: Rangers 5, Astros 4

Late yesterday afternoon, with another hour still left before the end of the Sabbath, I decided to address the tug-of-war between anticipation of hope vs disappointment. So instead of waiting until after dark to find out the outcome of the two Sabbath games I'd missed, I walked home with neighborhood guests who still subscribe to the print edition of the Washington Post. I only stayed for a few minutes -- just long enough to take a glance at the Astros-Rangers box score from Friday night. It was another high score by the opposing team. Another low score by the Astros. In short, another loss.

Actually, I stayed an extra couple of minutes to take a look at the outcome of the Nats game. I'd actually listened to the first 5 innings of that game on the radio before the Sabbath started, while waiting for my dinner guests to arrive. (Sundown's really late this time of year.) It's discouraging when I am taking more interest in every fifth Nationals game -- the ones when Stephen Strasburg pitches, of course -- than the Astros game taking place at the same time. Strasburg did not get a win Friday night - the Nats gave him a lesson about run support (or lack thereof) - and he ended up with a no decision when they lost in extra innings. But he did pitch 7 innings, giving up 1 run on 4 hits, ten more strikeouts, and (unlike his last game) no walks. His 32 strikeouts in his first 3 starts sets a new record - no doubt one of many records he'll break in his rookie year, and in his career. I have never been so excited about a player before. Of course I'm in good company - everyone is nuts for Stephen Strasburg.

Perhaps there is a connection between the Astros' horrible season and Strasburg's rookie year. It's pretty clear that this is not going to be a replay of 2005's bad start and miracle turnaround. Too little, too late... So why not take this pattern all the way -- let's just be this year's version of the Nats from the past couple of seasons. Let's be the worst team and get the first pick. Let's get our own Strasburg. Of course there's a small glitch in this plot: While there's a first pick in every year's draft, there may only be a prospect like Strasburg once in a generation. We'd have to be horrible and then extremely lucky.

So far we're pretty horrible.

We should have had a chance to rebound from last weekend's NY humiliation with a trip to Kansas City. The Royals are barely better than the Astros, record-wise, with poor home turf performance. But we got off to an ominous start: In a game where the Astros batters scored 7 (count 'em - SEVEN! a blowout!) runs, their pitchers gave up 15 to the mediocre Royals. Oops. Luckily, we have Oswalt pitching every fifth day, giving us a rare chance to win. He came through with another quality start in Game 2, typical Wiz style: 100+ pitches, 7 innings, 2 runs on 6 hits, 1 walk, 7 strikeouts. Lyon and Lindstrom threw a scoreless inning each, and the Astros won. Did I mention that they scored more than 2 runs?! Kudos to Jason Michaels, who got the start in left field as El Cab DH'ed. JMike was responsible for 3 of the Astros' 4 runs. In Game 3, Brett Myers looked to be on the path for a pretty hot game of his own, holding the Royals scoreless for 6 innings, while the Astros sat on a pair of first-inning runs. Myers started out the seventh with two quick outs, and then the wheels came off: Three singles and a home run later, the Astros were behind and never came back. Another series loss. Ho hum.

Even in a bad game, there can be interesting moments. In the case of the Game 3 loss, it was a bizarre play in which the umps called an out that never occurred, reversing a double play that should never have happened. With one out in the bottom of the fifth, the Royals had a runner on second base. The batter lined towards short, and Blum was there to field the ball that hit the dirt at his feet. It should have been a simple ground-ball play, but the umpire oddly called it an out, as if Blum had caught the ball. Blum then stepped on second to double up the runner, who had taken off towards third. The Astros fielders, recipients of a lucky bad call by the ump, left the field after the third out had apparently been made.

But in a rare (unheard of?) event, the umps got together and decided to reverse the call, determining that Blum would have made the play at first if the original out call had not occurred. They called the batter out at first, although there had never been a throw, and awarded the runner third base. After a long delay and much arguing by both teams' managers, the game resumed. Ironically, the next play was a liner straight to Blum, who actually did catch the ball this time, for the third out. So no harm done, and the outcome was probably as fair as it could have been. But it did open up a whole can of worms about whether the umpires can get together and just reverse a wrong call. And if they can, why didn't they do that in the botched no-hitter a couple of weeks ago? (I bet Jim Joyce wished they did!)

Meanwhile, it was time to come back home to take on a more formidable opponent in the annual Silver Boot matchup. The Rangers are leading their division, and came into this series on a winning streak. Of course the Astros wanted to be hospitable to their guests, so they allowed them to continue the streak in peace. Friday night's game -- the one I read about in a Washington Post box score -- was another in an ongoing series of really bad starts for Wandy. He's definitely not the same Wandy as last year! This was not just a case of poor run support. Wandy threw two easy innings and then fell apart in the third, giving up 6 runs on 4 hits and 4 walks. That was it for him for the night. Wesley Wright gave up another couple of runs in his two innings, and Daigle gave up another. But the Astros had already lost it back in the third, never coming back out of the hole Wandy dug. He was rewarded with a loss - his league-leading tenth of the season.

Moehler, pitching on Saturday night, had more to complain about in earning his loss. He pitched six innings, allowing a pair of runs on a 2-run homer -- the only hit he gave up. But his pals only eked out a single run (Bourn scored on a wild pitch), to earn poor Moe his 4th loss of the season. Lyon gave up 2 runs in the eighth, and Daigle gave up a his usual run in the ninth, but that was all just window dressing for the Rangers fans.

On Sunday I went to an engagement party for some wonderful young friends. Between toasts and speeches, I took peeks at my Blackberry, happy to see that the Astros were maintaining a lead they'd grabbed with 4 runs in the first two innings. Nice for Paulino, who's been plagued with poor run support for most of the season. I got home just in time to see the Lindstrom blow a save opportunity in the ninth inning, setting up for Daigle to come in to pitch in the tenth. This was clearly going to be the kiss of death. After four good appearances to start off his Astros career, Daigle had allowed runs in his last 4 games, starting with the grand slam he gave up to the Yankees and ending with the previous two games this weekend. He managed to put on the go-ahead run for the Rangers, and earned the loss when Chacin allowed that inherited runner to score. (I'm wondering if perhaps we shouldn't have signed Daigle's wife - softball pitcher Jennie Finch - instead?) I sure hope Chris Sampson is coming back from the DL soon. Anyway, foolish me to think that the Astros would end the week on a high note.

The Diamondbacks have now pulled ahead of us, leaving only the Pirates below us in the race to the NL Center. In the American League, the Orioles have a slam dunk claim on last place. Even if the Astros continue to play this kind of stinky baseball for the rest of the season, it may be a challenge to catch up with Baltimore for the worst-of-the-worst title.

Remind me, when is Strasburg pitching next?

GAMES 62-64: I Don't ♥ NY

2010-06-13T18:12:00.000-04:00

GAME 62 - June 11: Yankees 4, Astros 3
GAME 63 - June 12: Yankees 9, Astros 3
GAME 64 - June 13: Yankees 9, Astros 5

SPECIAL FEATURE: Nats 9, Indians 4

There's always this great anticipation, as my family is making Havdalah on Saturday night, wondering: Which of the Sabbath games did the Astros win? My late Saturday night entertainment is almost always an archived game that I know the result of. Since I cancelled my subscription to the Washington Post a few years ago, I no longer know the outcome of Friday night's game until I turn on the computer after the Sabbath ends. Maybe they won both? Then I could watch one Saturday night and the other Sunday morning before the afternoon game starts. Or, maybe, on a bad weekend, they lost both games? I used to be more of a masochist, forcing myself to watch every game even if I knew it was a stinker. But now, I'm more pragmatic and kind to myself: When I know ahead of time that it's a real loser, I just don't watch it. Or at the most, I watch the good parts -- a half inning here or there that sounds interesting from the game reports. Could be the inning where the Astros scored runs, or a great play, or just an oddity, like the time our backup catcher Cash pitched an inning in a blowout loss.

Yesterday afternoon, as I was lying on the couch reading The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest (finale of the best-selling Swedish trilogy), I was looking forward to a nice evening of baseball, wondering which of the games in NY would be the most entertaining demonstration of the Astros kicking some Yankee butt. I had already warned myself that the Yankees are a tough team, and it's in their billion dollar palace, so don't get too hopeful - it's not likely the Astros can sweep them. So I was cautiously optimistic, and not exactly shocked, to find that the Astros lost both Shabbat games. I spent the evening doing a super sudoku, the 5-in-1 kind.

That's probably how I should have spent this afternoon, instead of watching a parallel double header. On my antique 12" Dell laptop I watched the Astros @ Yankees game on mlb.tv, wearing headphones. At the same time, on my TV, I watched the HDD MASN broadcast of the Nationals @ Indians game. Or more specifically, I watched Stephen Strasburg pitching that game. It was a little tricky to coordinate the two -- I only wanted to watch the bottoms of the innings from Cleveland, while my bigger interest in the Astros game was the top halves, hoping the Astros would get some hits today.

The Nats game turned out pretty much as I'd hoped -- for the Astros. Strasburg had what any normal person would think was a nice start for a young rookie -- he pitched 5 1/3 innings, giving up only 1 run (solo homer) on 2 hits, 5 walks, and 8 strikeouts. Switching from my earphones to the TV audio, I did hear one of the Nationals broadcasters bemoaning that Strasburg had not had a very good game today. That clearly is the danger of comparing everything from here on to his monumental debut. The main problem for Strasburg today was control -- he was having ongoing problems with the mound, and the groundskeepers had to come out twice to fill in a hole in his landing spot. An inability to work around that probably had something to do with all the walks. And, oh yeah, he's also just a 21 year old kid - he's not perfect. What he did have going for him today was the rest of the Nats team -- they got clutch hits, scored a bunch of runs, and pitched their way out of trouble (mostly). So, good game. Remind me again why I don't cheer for the Nats?

Oh yeah, it's because I'm an Astros fan. The Astros did not fare as well. They did get some runs -- one in the first inning (suckering me into thinking that they might have a big game) and 4 in the sixth (suckering me into thinking they might come-from-behind). But too little, too late. Astros pitchers gave up 9 runs on 9 hits including 2 homers (one a grand slam), 10 (TEN!) walks, a hit batter, and a fielding error. All in all, a big mess. The Astros broadcasters tried to pawn off the cause of the walks on the weather -- it rained through most of the game. But I'm still not certain how it was that the Yankee pitchers were not affected -- they only gave up 2 walks. Perhaps the Astros, with their retractable roof, just aren't used to playing in bad weather? Or maybe it only rained when the Astros were in the field?

At any rate, I don't really want to compare Moehler's bad start to Wandy's yesterday. It was a bad weekend for Astros baseball. Why couldn't we play the Orioles instead of the Yankees? Just to sum up, in case you missed it: I really hate NY. And the Yankees aren't even the NY baseball team that I like the least.

GAMES 58-61: Rocky Mountain High

2010-06-11T18:58:00.000-04:00

GAME 58 - June 7: Rockies 5, Astros 1
GAME 59 - June 8: Astros 4, Rockies 3
GAME 60 - June 9: Astros 6, Rockies 2
GAME 61 - June 10: Astros 5, Rockies 4

This was a really big week for baseball lovers, with the 2010 Draft and Stephen Strasburg's ML debut competing with the Astros four-game series in Denver for my attention. I have to talk about Strasburg first, since everyone else is talking about him, from Jason Stark to David Letterman. I'm sure if I Googled, I might even find a congratulatory quote from President Obama. So here's my take...

I have a confession to make. If it had been the Astros playing the Nationals last Tuesday evening, I would have had to cheer for the Nats. I can't help it. With all the hype about Strasburg over the last year -- and especially in the last week or two -- it was such a setup for disappointment. Instead, it was an incredible pitching performance by a young man who's only one month older than my youngest daughter. It was not just an amazing start for a rookie -- it would have been a fantastic game even for an ace. While the 99 MPH fast ball and the 14 strikeouts in 7 innings garnered most of the headlines, I think I was most impressed with Strasburg's curveball. How was a kid like that throwing those nasty curves, with most of them coming in for strikes? No, actually, I was even more impressed with his composure. He just didn't seem to be fazed by it, and once or twice, he even allowed himself a small smile. I think the kid was having fun. I don't think that I'm going to change my allegiance from the Astros to the Nats, but I do plan to start watching more Nats games -- every five days when Strasburg is pitching. What a treat.

With the 2010 Draft taking place the same week, Strasburg's debut raised one idea in my head. I've been claiming that the Astros are going to turn this sinking ship around and start winning lots of games (and come back to win the Pennant - might as well be totally optimistic). But what if they don't? Would it really be so terrible to be absolutely, positively the worst team in the Major Leagues, if it meant that you could get the first pick in the first round of next year's draft? If you lucked out and there was another Strasburg to be had by the lucky first-pick team? And if you had, say, a spare $15 mil laying around to sign him with. Just a thought... Not a serious one - I get the impressing that players like Strasburg come along once in a decade (or a generation!), not every year. But somebody out of every draft is going to turn out to be a future superstar. If we're going to have a crappy season, may as well go all the way.

Now about this week's Astros games...

The Astros went to Denver with high hopes, anxious to keep their winning streak going. They got off to a disappointing start to the four-game series against the Rockies, with another no-run-support game for Wandy. After pitching 7 innings, giving up 3 runs on 9 hits and 3 walks, with an unusually low 2 strikeouts, Wandy ended up earning the loss, his 8th of the season. It wasn't that the Astros didn't get any base runners -- they had 9 hits and 3 walks to work with. But they only managed to turn them into a single run, scored in the ninth inning. Too little, too late.

The rest of the series went much better. Each of the games was close, but the Astros managed to prevail at the end. The only one that doesn't look close was Game 3, whose 2-2 tie ended in the tenth inning with a two-out grand slam from Carlos Lee. It was the second night in the row that Lee had saved the game with his bat. In the eighth inning of Game 2, El Caballo had blooped a single into left to give the Astros their go-ahead run. While his batting average is still abysmally low (.224), it's creeping up. More importantly, Lee is starting to hit for power and to get RBIs, and is looking more like a Caballo than a Cabro all the time.

The Astros starting pitching was excellent in Denver, despite Mile High Stadium's reputation for being a big hitters ballpark. All of the Astros starters pitched quality starts. Moehler threw 8 innings on Tuesday night, giving up 3 runs in the first inning, and then shutting down the Rockies through the eighth. On Wednesday, Paulino had another terrific game, giving up only 2 runs and striking out 7 in his 8 innings on the mound. Due to the Astros' late-inning heroics in both these games, neither of them got a decision. On Thursday afternoon, it was Roy O's turn to shine. After two consecutive less than stellar starts, he was due for a nice game and he got it -- giving up 2 runs on 4 hits in 7 innings. This time, however, the Astros didn't have to play come-from-behind, and Oswalt managed to eke out a rare win. He's only got a 3.16 ERA with 11 quality starts this season, but unfortunately that only translates into a 4-8 record.

The outcome of this trio of wins is yet another series win for the Astros, pushing their record in June to 8-2. More importantly, they are no longer the worst team in the league -- not even tied! They are not even in last place in the Central Division - on a 5-game losing streak, that honor goes to the Pirates. The Astros now are ahead of two teams, and within half a game of the Brewers. So things are looking up, heading to New York for a weekend series against stiffer competition -- the Yankees.

All this good playing, amazing defense, clutch hitting, and good pitching may end up backfiring against the Astros long term, if it means that they don't get low picks in next year's player draft. The team had three picks the first day -- two in the first round, and one after for not resigning free-agent Valverde. They first picked a couple of high school: Delino DeShields Jr (a Michael Bourn type speedy outfielder whose Sr was a major league player for years) and Mike Foltynewicz (a hard-throwing right handed pitcher). They then selected a college-aged switch-hitting third baseman, Mike Kvasnicka, for their third pick. Supposedly these guys want to sign and play, and the Astros hope not to repeat the fiasco of the 2007 draft. I don't know much about these guys, or about any of the many other youngsters drafted in the rest of the week. Getting to know more about them will be something fun to do in the off season, in preparation for seeing new faces next March at Spring Training.

Time to shut down for the Sabbath. Hope to come back 25 hours from now to find that I have my choice of two Astros wins over the Yankees to watch tomorrow night. One can always dream.

Shabbat Shalom!

GAMES 55-57: Guess What! The Astros are NOT the Worst Team in the NL

2010-06-06T21:51:00.003-04:00

GAME 55 - June 4: Astros 3, Cubs 1
GAME 56 - June 5: Cubs 8, Astros 5
GAME 57 - June 6: Astros 6, Cubs 3

By the end of the week-long homestand, in which the Astros won 5 of their 7 games, the team has attained a milestone of sorts: The Astros are no longer the worst team in the National League. They're tied with the Diamondbacks for that distinction. I know, it's a pretty dubious claim, but for a team that was alone in the cellar, it's one step at a time to get out. And with Pittsburgh and Milwaukee within a game's reach, the second step could be soon.

The two wins in the weekend series against the Cubs featured solid starting pitching, combined with a basic need that has eluded Houston all season: Good hitting from the heart of the order. All season, Bourn has been the leadoff hitter we've wanted him to be and Keppinger has been better than expected, while our power guys have been in a grotesque slump. Pence started coming back a few weeks ago, Berkman's starting to heat up, and Lee - well, he's improving, especially in the power department. In the past two weeks, Berkman's batting average has improved from .233 to .266, and Pence's from .250 to .277. These are semi-respectable batting averages, and given where these guys were a month ago, it shows a tremendous improvement. If they keep it up, at this rate, they'll be back where they ought to be by the All Star Game. (It's a pretty fair bet that Houston won't be represented there this year!) Lee's batting average is just .217, but given how long he spent under .200, it's at least headed in the right direction. More importantly, he's started to hit for power.

In the two games that Houston won in this weekend's series, the three went 9 for 18 with 4 walks and 2 stolen bases. In the game in the middle that they lost, they went 2 for 11, with 1 walk. It's kind of a "duh," but it shows the value of getting significant action out of the heart of the order. Now, if we could just get a big boost in the extra-base hit department...

The two games that Houston won also featured excellent starting pitching. Paulino, who went into Friday night's game with the absolute worst run support in the league, pitched another beauty. He threw 8 innings, giving up only 1 run on 5 hits and 2 walks, striking out 7. His fastball is clocking at second highest average in the league. A bit of help from the offense (1 run scored in the first and another two in the fifth) was all he needed to finally (!) earn his first win of the season. When I watched this Sabbath eve game on Sunday morning, I noted one thing that was not apparent from the box score: In the first inning, Berkman hit an RBI single, but got hung up between first and second on a bad base-running move for the second out. This was followed by a double by Lee and a pair of walks to load the bases. Feliz flied out to right to end the inning. Had Berkman stayed on first, and the rest of the scenario played out, Houston would have gotten at least a couple more runs in the first inning. Happily the Astros won, but in a year where runs have been scarce, it's a shame to lose any on messy base running.

Myers had another solid start in Sunday's win - he pitched 6 2/3 innings, giving up 2 runs on 8 hits and a walk, striking out 6. In his usual fashion, he allowed a mess of base runners and then (for the most part) wiggled out of trouble without too much damage. Mills lifted him with 2 outs and 2 on in the seventh, bringing in Lopez to get the last out of the inning. I won't say Myers went out kicking and screaming, but he was clearly not happy to get pulled. For all that I've had misgivings about Brett Myers, from his off-the-field history, he's turned out to be quite a good addition to the rotation this year. He's pitched well, and he's a scrappy fighter. With his ERA right around 3, he's the only Astros starter with a winning record so far this season. Myers got good backup from the pen. Lopez gave up a run in the eighth, but Lyon and Lindstrom combined to finish it up. The Astros got off to a quick lead in the first inning, with base hits from the first 5 batters, including a homer by Lee.

In the losing record department, Oswalt made a mess out of the Saturday night game. When I turned on the computer after the Sabbath ended, the score was 8-3 in the eighth inning. I watched the rest of the game, as much to see and hear Jeff Bagwell (who's in the broadcast booth for Saturday home games) as anything. The Astros did eke out a pair of runs in the bottom of the ninth, but it was too little too late. They got into trouble early and often in this game, with Oswalt's seven innings accounting for 6 runs on 9 hits, including a pair of homers. After ten solid starts to kick off the season, Roy ("Available to the Highest Contending Bidder") Oswalt has not fared well in this homestand. Last week he gave up 4 runs and was booted out of the game in the third inning - not his fault, really, but you could tell he was pretty pissed off. Last night, he just had a bad game. Can't win 'em all. Unfortunately, for Oswalt, he can't seem to win hardly any this season. It's not hard to see why he's looking for a change in scenery.

Astros are off to Denver for the next 4 games, and then to New York for a weekend series against the Yankees. Too bad I have to work - this would be a fun week to visit my sisters in Denver and then my sons and daughters-in-law in NY. It's going to be hard to decide which ball game to watch Tuesday night - the Astros or the Nats. I don't generally follow the Nationals, even though they are my "local" team here in Maryland, but for Stephen Strasburg's ML debut, I could make an exception.