GAME 3: There's Only One Thing to Conclude...

GAME 3 - April 7: Giants 10, Astros 4

The Astros have a PERFECT record: Five days into the season, they are the only team in the whole MLB without a win. How beautiful is that? There is only one possible thing to conclude:

          ***** We are going to win the pennant. *****

I'll have to give some thought to how I can really justify this prediction. Right now it's just a hunch.

I regularly say that there is always something to like in a game, and if I stretch I can probably find something in this miserable loss to clinch the series anti-sweep. How about this: The Astros did not actually spend the whole game behind. There was a brief moment, at the bottom of the seventh inning, when the Astros scored 3 runs and tied up the game 4-4. It's a stretch, but I kind of liked that. I liked Cory Sullivan's pinch-hit 2-RBI triple too. And two more double plays.

What I didn't like could fill up a few pages, starting with the meltdown of the bullpen in the rest of the game. And sadly, it was my current favorite reliever, Sammy Gervacio, who turned up the heat to start the melting. He only threw 9 pitches, but managed to give up 2 runs on 2 hits, made a throwing error, earned the loss, and (by far the worst thing) came out of the game with an injured shoulder. He's diagnosed with a rotator cuff inflammation and on the 15 day DL.

Sampson finished up his inning without any further damage. But Fulchino was tagged for  ER in the ninth (Moehler taking over for him and allowing one of his runners to score). Okay, some days are worse than others, but my favorite thing in the previous losses was how good the bullpen was. Bummer.

Nothing much to say about Brett Myers in his first start as an Astro. He pitched 6 innings, gave up 12 of the Giants' 19 hits, allowed 4 ER. Not quite good enough to get into the range of "quality" start. I'm not really crazy about him to begin with, but I will hold my nose and cheer this season, as long as he's wearing our uni. Like Wandy, he did manage to get a hit - I do like when a pitcher helps himself.

The next thing I don't like in this game - and in this series - is the lack of walks. So far this season, the Astros have accumulated a total of 2 BBs, both by Keppinger in Game 2. I guess that an expert might diagnose this as the batters being aggressive, but given the dismal offensive performance in the series, perhaps it's worth being a little picky about what to swing at. Maybe I'll ask Morgan Ensberg about this in his Baseball IQ blog. (If you haven't seen this blog, RUN-DON'T-WALK to it. It's totally terrific.)

I can't end this blog so dismally, especially as I'm about to shut down my computer for my usual baseball-free Sabbath. So here's one more thing to like: My video of Gervacio pitching at Spring Training is now over 9300 views. Even the video of him picking off the runner is almost to 3000 views. I have no idea who are all these folks watching my baseball videos, but I sure hope they're cheering for the Astros this weekend. We need all the help we can get. It's a long way to that pennant!!!

GAMES 1-2: It's a tradition (to start the season with a loss)

GAME 1 - April 5: Giants 5, Astros 2
GAME 2 - April 6: Giants 3, Astros 0

For the eighth consecutive year, Roy Oswalt took the mound on Opening Day, and for the fourth consecutive year, the Astros lost their season opener. I'm thinking that there's a message in there somewhere, but I'm not sure what it is. Oswalt didn't pitch badly - he gave up 3 runs on 7 hits in 6 innings, with all 3 runs scored in one shaky second inning. But he didn't get any help from his teammates at the plate - they didn't manage to score any runs until the ninth inning when they eked out a pair. Too little too late. I think I saw this movie before...

The trend continued when Wandy took the mound in Game 2. His line looked very similar to Oswalt's - 3 runs on 7 hits in 6 innings, with all 3 runs scored in his shaky sixth inning. And like Oswalt, Wandy got no help from Astros batters. Although he did his best - hitting a single on his first at bat - the rest of the team managed to escape scoring for the full nine innings.

I seem to recall having seen this pattern before, and it doesn't necessarily mean gloom and doom is certain. But it does mean that watching the Astros games lacks that certain je ne sais quoi. Actually, I do know what - the fun of WINNING. Or even just base running. I'm not going to bother with the excuses about what great pitching the Giants have - sure they do, and sure do lots of other teams. That gets to be a dull refrain pretty quickly. Having griped about the lousy outcomes of these games, I have to point out that there's almost always something to like in a game, even a loss. So I'll finish this blog posting up with a few of my favorite things...

I actually didn't get to watch the first game, since it was played during the end-of-Passover holiday and I forego using the computer as part of my religious observance. I did go back to watch just one half-inning of the game on the mlb.tv archive after the holiday ended. It was the top of the ninth when Sammy Gervacio pitched. I even, uncharacteristically, watched it on the other team's broadcast, because I wanted to hear what their commentators had to say about Gervacio's odd set up. The Giants broadcasters weren't quite as hilarious (and insulting) as the Mets guys were during Spring Training, but they did find him to be a bit unusual. However, after his 1-2-3 inning, striking out 2 of his 3 batters, they admitted that his strange approach was effective. I am really getting a kick out of watching Gervacio pitch - he was terrific at Spring Training, and hopefully will continue to be effective as batters get used to his routine and his sidearm delivery. (On a related note, my You Tube video of Gervacio pitching at Spring Training now has 6700 views - and rising. Click here to see it now.)

My thing to like in Game 2 (which I did get to watch most of, live, once the holiday ended) was Jeff Keppinger. Although the Giants limited the Astros to only 4 hits in the game, Kepp hit 2 doubles, and walked in his other 2 at bats. One of the doubles looked a whole lot like a homer - it seemed to bounce off the railing above the yellow line into the Crawford Box in left field. But the umps, after a replay review, called it a double, and Keppinger was stranded on base. (I agree with the admittedly biased fans in the Crawford Box who swore up and down the ball bounced off the railing - it should have been a homer.)

My third thing to like was the defense - in particular, the 5 double plays in the first two games. We've got an upgraded infield this year, and it will be interesting to see how that plays out over the season. Mills used two different infields in these two games. In Game 1, against righty Tim Lincecum, it was Blum at first, Matsui at second, and Feliz at third, with Manzella at short and Towles behind the plate. In Game 2, against lefty Zito, Mills started Feliz at first, Keppinger at second, and Chris Johnson at third, with Manzella at short and Quintero catching.

There are a whole lot of things not to like much about these first two games, pretty much starting and ending with the offense. The Astros only managed to score in one out of 18 innings. Pence hasn't had a hit yet, and Bourn and Feliz are 1 for 8. No homers yet. And perhaps, more worrisome, only 2 BBs so far - both Keppinger's. (That would probably be higher if Puma were in the lineup, but he's on the DL for now.)

But the pitching (my bigger concern this year) was not bad. The starting pitching for both games was at least solid - both Oswalt and Wandy had "quality" (albeit losing) starts. And 4 of the 6 relief pitchers used in these two games threw scoreless innings (only 1 hit and no BBs between them).

I'm hoping for a better outcome to salvage this opening series in tomorrow afternoon's game. I'll be back at work, now that the Passover holiday is over, but it sure would be nice to watch a win when I get home after a hard day at the office. Maybe even some home runs. Am I being too greedy?

So Close You Can Almost Taste It

I'm talking about matzah, of course. Boxes and boxes of matzah, shmura matzah, matzah balls, matzah farfel kugel, matzah cookies... That's the thing about Passover - wherever you look there's matzah. It actually tastes pretty good, especially slathered in zhug (Yemenite chile paste). And of course, matzah balls...  Okay, I'm joking - it's Astros Opening Day that's SOOOOOO close. Play Ball! 

After weeks of no-account Kissimmee games, tomorrow night the Astros will be suiting up for the real thing. Roy O will, of course, be on the mound for his eighth consecutive opening day start. After all the rainouts and the pulled body parts, his total IP for all of Spring Training only hit 10 innings - 4 of them in the March 16 game I attended. With so little game time this Spring, his back injection last week, and his disappointing season last year, it's hard to predict how Oswalt will do this year. I'd like to be predicting 7 fast innings for him for tomorrow night's opener against the Giants,  but I'm not sure he's up for much of a pitch count yet.

I won't actually find out until Tuesday night. Right about the time Roy takes the mound tomorrow night, I'll be breaking bread - I mean matzah - with long-time friends, at a holiday meal celebrating the last night of Passover. That means, of course, no TV, radio, or mlb.tv broadcast for me until the holiday ends at 8:17 Tuesday night. If my curiosity gets the best of me, I just may have to go to a neighbor on Tuesday morning to borrow a newspaper to check the box scores.

With only a day to go before the season starts, I should use this blog posting to make some kind of prophetic remarks about the 2010 season. Last year, the Astros frankly sucked. They haven't made any earthshaking changes in the off-season, and they had a losing record in Spring Training. All of the serious professional prognosticators are predicting gloom and doom for the Astros - somewhere close to the bottom of a mediocre division. I was very impressed by the bullpen at the Spring Training games I attended, and the offensive stats for the final roster guys weren't bad at all. But I'll admit that there are some pretty heavy concerns about the rotation.

Happily, I'm a fan, so I'm allowed to indulge in outrageous optimism in the face of not-quite-ideal evidence.  I don't have to worry about ruining my professional reputation by predicting a playoff spot for a team that, by all accounts, is likely to be on the shady side of .500. I can blithely profess my faith that we're going all the way in 2010 - just like we almost did in 2005. To be honest - I did NOT have an epiphany at Spring Training this year, as I did in 2005, when I clearly "saw" Bagwell and Biggio on the team that won the pennant. So for now, I'm going to punt on predictions, hope for the best, and cheer for my guys.

If anyone is reading this, look for me on Twitter on or about 8:18 Tuesday night. I'll be back! Meanwhile, happy Passover, and PLAY BALL - matzah ball!

Back to Exile...

I can't believe that my annual trek to Astros Spring Training is already over. The week went by so fast! I am so incredibly jealous of my fellow Osceola County Stadium fans who go down there for the whole month. Meanwhile, I had to go back to work. Elizabeth and I had to leave the Monday game against the Cards after the 8th inning, because we had early flights. (It didn't help that Wandy got into an endless first inning mess.) So I can honestly say that this year at Spring Training, I never saw the Astros lose a game. They ultimately did lose that Monday game, 6-4, but I wasn't there to see it. (And, egomaniac that I am, I have to think that if I'd just stayed one more inning, the Astros would have managed to eke out a win.)

Before I get too carried away reminiscing about my week in Kissimmee, I want to take a few minutes to post my Fans of the Game and a few player pix from Monday's game against the Cardinals. I have two couples as Fans of the Game. The first, Barbara and Bob from Tomball, were sitting in front of us in the first row of Section 103. (That location practically makes you honorary members of the bullpen!)

The next Fans of the Game are Jack and Patti, who were sitting next to us. Both of them were keeping score, and Jack provided some good insight on the game and the team.

I cannot overstate how fantastic it is to be surrounded at a game by great fans like Barbara, Bob, Jack, and Patti - and the others who I've featured in the past few blog posts. The few regular season games I attend in Washington - always as the fan who's cheering for the Other Team - are generally marred by the number of rude and drunk people who don't seem to care about baseball, but who show up at games and make themselves annoying.

Now a few comments about Monday's game. Wandy lost it in the first inning, giving away 5 ERs to the Cards, a deficit from which the Astros never recovered. However, on the bright side, he did manage to get his act together for the next 3 innings, and left the game without any further scoring damage. Since he didn't have a very good start, I'll forego the usual pitching picture and instead post a shot of Wandy laying down a successful sac bunt. (I love pictures with the ball in the air!)

The relievers continued to pitch well. Gervacio and Lopez each pitched a scoreless pair of innings, each striking out 3 batters. Loux gave up a solo homer in the ninth inning - only the third run allowed by the bullpen in the 5 Spring Training games I attended! Here's a picture of Gervacio; with his crazy pre-pitch poses and snappy sidearm throw, I can't take enough pictures of him!

It's funny - back in 2005, my first year at Spring Training, I mainly tried to take photos that were good closeups and in focus. I didn't get much in the way of action shots back then. I have a better camera now (a Canon SX10 - 10 mpixels, 20X optical zoom), but I also have learned to guess where the interesting play will be and to just focus there and hope for some action. My best pictures from Spring Training are definitely the ones where Something Happens. Here are a few from the March 22 game:

Keppinger leaps, but can't keep Greene from stealing second base.

Feliz, the catcher, and the ump all watch the ball fly... out of the stadium.

Towles makes a heads first slide into second base.

Shelton takes a pickoff throw to first base. (I just love those ball-in-the-air pix!)

OOPS!

Lee spent the inning sitting in the bullpen - perhaps to avoid the long walk from left field to the dugout?

I posted a whole lot more pictures from this and other games on the Astros Fans in Exile Facebook group. If you're a Facebook user, you should definitely join this group! If you aren't, you might not be able to see the photos. I'll post more of them on the Astros Fan in Exile website photo album when I have a bit of free time. Hope you like these pictures. Comment on this blog if you do! I never know if anyone is out there!!!

Before I post this blog entry, I have to add one more Fan of the Game picture - this one is of Austin (author of The Bottom Line, an Astros fan blog) and me. We've been reading each other's blogs and tweeting at each other for more than a year, but never met before Spring Training this year. See you online, Austin -- and at Spring Training again next March!

The Game That Wasn't

The weather report said light rain from 10-11 AM, and thunderstorms starting after 3. With Roy Oswalt on the mound, I felt pretty confident that we might be able to squeeze in most, if not all, of a game before getting drenched and fried. Alas, it was not to be. By the 1 PM start time, it was sprinkling and the infield was tarped. Shortly after, the stadium lights went on.  The standing room only crowd that had come to see the Mets was getting restless.

 

Oddly, the Powers That Be decided to start the game just as it started to really rain. Who needs a spitball, when you can throw a snowball? Oswalt gave up a leadoff hit; then struck out the side. In the bottom of the inning, the Astros scored a run, And then it really started to pour and they put back the tarp. A little before 3 they sent us all packing.

I don't have any game pictures today, because I wasn't willing to get my camera all wet just to get my 500th picture of Oswalt on the mound. But I did manage to get a few Fans of the Game pix before the deluge. My special fans are Tracy and Austin from Odessa, Texas. Austin writes an Astros fan blog called The Bottom Line (check it out), and we've chatted online  in blog comments and Twitter, but we'd never met before Spring Training this year. Here they are at the game that never happened:

Next is a real Fan in Exile - Matthew from Queens who was brave enough to come to the game and cheer against the Mets. He's originally from Houston, and still cheers for his hometown team. We met when he tried to decode the writing on my Astros hat - the one with ASTROS written in Hebrew, which I always wear for Spring Training. 

The next Fan of the Game is Elizabeth, who has been working as an usher at the Spring Training games for the past 5 years. Sounds like a dream job to me, even if you have to tell people to go sit down for hours on end. She told us that she'd be glad to be on my website, and that we can't open umbrellas in the stands. (We didn't have one anyway, and we got soaked to the skin.) 

My final Fan of the Game comes from a bit further away. CJ from Hanover, Germany, is a general sports fan and enjoys baseball (which is not a sport that's played in Germany). Since he agreed to cheer for the Astros at this game, I'm giving him an honoray Fan of the Game slot.

Unfortunately, all of us were disappointed today, due to the rain. A Spring Training day without baseball is like, well, a day without baseball. The only bright side today was that the Astros did win their split squad game against Boston. Bud Norris, who was scratched yesterday due to illness, was the starting pitcher, but did not make it far in the game. He got hammered. Happily the Astros did some damage of their own, including homers by Matsui and Johnson, and came out on top, 10-7.

Only one more day of vacation. It's impossible that the week could have gone by so quickly!

Bullpen Looking Good in Spring Training

Three games into my trip to Astros Spring Training, I had still not seen the bullpen give up a run. Friday's 2-0 win over the Blue Jays was an all-reliever show, as Bud Norris scratched due to a tummy bug. He was replaced by non-roster invitee Josh Banks, who gave up only 2 hits and a walk, striking out 2 in his 3 innings. Lindstrom, Burdak, Fulchino, Gervacio, Lopez, and Corcoran followed, each pitching scoreless innings to complete the shutout - the third of the spring, and the second I'd seen in 3 games. Here's Banks on the mound:

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The highlight of the pitching was Sammy Gervacio, who has adopted a wild pre-pitch routine, that makes the crowd (and possibly opposing batters) crazy. There's really no point in describing it in words - you just have to see it. I'll post a video on YouTube. But meanwhile, here's a picture of his pre-pitch pose;

I think that such an uconventional might make a pitcher an object of some ridicule if he were not throwing well. But Gervacio's doing just fine this spring, and in Friday's game he struck out 3 batters, giving up one hit. I don't know if it's the pre-pitch shtick, his snappy sidearm (pictured below), or just that late in the game he's pitching to the opposing team's farm hands, but it seems to be working.

One thing that seems to be in relatively short supply this spring is the home run. I've only seen a couple of them while I've been there, and a glance at the team stats shows that there haven't been a lot. Corey Sullivan hit one in this game. However, it was not on this pitch:

It's always nice coming to Spring Training and realizing by the third game or so that  you have started to recognize the unfamiliar players who were picked up in the off-season, as well as the NRIs and minor leaguers who are up for a chance at the bigs. This year, there are  a lot of changes in the coaching squad as well, since the whole gang from last year got ditched after the awful season. The weirdest part to me is seeing someone other than Cruz at first base - he was there so long that it seemed that the position was his for life. But he's not there this year - instead it's Bobby Meacham standing by first base. I hear that Cruz has a lot of fan interaction in his new role with the Astros, but we miss him on the field!

As great as it is to see the future of the Astros team out here in Spring Training, it's also fantastic to see the players of the past - and that goes for the Killer Bees more than anyone else. Craig Biggio was at a couple of games this week, and was inundated with requests for autographs and photos. His new life as a high school head coach might be rewarding (especially with his kid on the team), but he looked like he enjoyed being back with the Astros for a few days too.

There won't be any pictures from Saturday's game, since it was the Sabbath. Elizabeth and I walked to the game but didn't take cameras. But I don't miss having pictures from Brett Myers less than lights-out start. Just read the box score.

Astros Fans, Young and Young at Heart

Another quick game at Osceola County Stadium today, as the Astros shut out the Blue Jays 2-0. In the three games I've seen since I arrived, the Astros relievers have not yet given up a run. I'm going to have more to say about this game later, but right now I'm in a bit of a rush -- I've got some really special guests coming over in a little while to join Elizabeth and me for our Sabbath dinner. But first, I want to post my Astros Fans of the Game.

The first is a familiar face at Astros Spring training -- Helen Knowling, also known as the Baking Lady for the cookies that she's baked for the team for years. If you haven't seen her at the game, you've probably heard her cow bell. Mrs. Knowling is a long-time season ticket holder at the ball park, and a great fan.

 

The next Fan of the Game came prepared to cheer - she brought a sign to show her team how she feels. Hope is well named - we should all be hoping for a great season for the Astros. Her cheering paid off, both with a win and a foul ball, which she got autographed after the game. Here she is with Brian Esposito.

 

My next Fan of the Game asked a very common question at baseball games: "Is it the ninth inning yet?" Jonanna  asked this in the third inning, but was rewarded for her patience with a foul ball, which she also got autographed after the game.(This question reminded my sister of the time her then-young daughter asked in the middle of a ballgame: "Mommy, do those men have to pay a lot of money to play that game?") Joanna lives in Tallahassee, but her mom Vanessa was born in Houston, so they were cheering for the Astros

 

Last but not least, here are two fantastic fans, who live in Houston, but who are honorary Fans in Exile anyway - Carole and Bob.

I need to go get dinner ready now, but come back later to see some awesome photos I took at the game today!