GAME 23 - April 24: Another Sweep!

Houston 5, Cincinnati 3

Quote of the Day: "Somebody's got to have the most. It might as well be me." (Berkman, on being the visiting player who has hit the most home runs in Cincinnati's Great American Ball Park - 18)

It wasn't a double-digit blowout, but just half of that was enough to beat the Reds today to sweep the two-game series. That makes two swept series in a row for the Astros, as they logged their 5th consecutive win. With an 11-12 record, Houston is just one game away from .500 - and then on from there!

The star of the show was Lance Berkman, who has a long history of bedeviling the Reds in their own stadium. He went 3 for 3, walked, and stole a base, adding another 3 RBIs to his season total (20, tied for 3rd in the league). The fun began in the first inning, with a two-run homer, and continued with an RBI double in the fifth.

Jack Cassel, who we last saw back in Kissimmee, got his Astros pitching debut. He pitched a pretty nice game, throwing 5 innings, giving up 3 runs on 7 hits, no walks, and a strikeout. I always like a pitcher who helps himself: His single in the second inning scored Towles. It was his first career RBI, and the first RBI by an Astros pitcher this season. The Reds runs were all scored in the first two innings, after that Cassel settled down and froze them out. The Astros hitters were kind - they scored 2 runs in the top of the fifth, so Cassel left the game with a 5-3 lead. Then the poor maligned bullpen came in - and rocked! Byrdak pitched a scoreless 7th, picking off the only runner who got aboard. Brocail, coming back from his dreadful relief appearance on Tuesday, pitched a perfect eighth. Valverde - usually a pretty scary proposition with a close game on the line - knocked down the heart of the Reds' order 1-2-3, finishing up the game with a pair of strikeouts.

Pence is coming back from his horrible start in a big way. He was 2 for 4 in this game, with a double (#7). He extended his hitting streak to 7 games, over which he has raised his batting average from .161 to .268.

I watched this day game late Thursday night. It's going to be a baseball-free weekend for me, as I will be shutting down my computer for the Sabbath and the end of the Passover holiday. We don't subscribe to a newspaper, so I won't even find out how the Astros did until I get back online Sunday night, after the holiday ends. I wonder if I can stay up and watch all three missed games Sunday night?