GAME 35 - May 8: Can't Win 'em All

Washington 8, Houston 3

Word for the Day: "Ugh." Exclamation of disgust, annoyance, or dislike.

So let me tell you about my day: I went to this after-work company event for "Women in Leadership," drank a beer, networked with my chick friends from the office, heard an inspirational speaker, had a nice time. But by 7:30 when it ended, I was ready to roll - I figured that I would miss the first couple of innings of the Astros 8 PM game, but I'd be able to catch most of the Astros series sweeper against the Nationals.

Got a friend to drop me off at a subway station in Virginia, but she let me off on the wrong side of the Kiss & Ride, and I wandered around in the dark for a while before I found the entrance. Then I waited 15 minutes for the next train. That train huffed and puffed (figuratively speaking - it's electric), and had engine problems that required everyone to be offloaded at Rosslyn. Next train that passed was dark. We all got on the third train.

Everyone on the train was already grumpy when we pulled into Foggy Bottom and the drunk GWU students got on by forcing open the doors. Since the Metro folks are always warning that messing with the doors will break them, that pissed off the tired riders even more, and a verbal discussion ensued between some of the students and other riders. The discussion was getting pretty heated, and I was thinking of getting on the emergency call phone to report the problem to the driver. Meanwhile, a very large and somewhat scary gentleman sitting in front of me started to mutter, "I been at work since 4 AM and don't need those muthahfuckahs to break the door and screw my ride," and other similar sentiments. Just at that point, we pulled into Metro Center, and I got off. Of course there was no security guard on the platform to report the incident to.

Eventually my Red Line train came, and I rode out to my stop at Grovesnor-Strathmore. The Strathmore part of the station name comes from the music center of the same name, which shares the parking lot. That evening's concert by the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra had just ended. The good news was that I didn't need to pay for parking, as they open the gates for the concert crowd. The bad news was that it took a really long time to get out of the parking lot.

I did eventually get home, around 10:30 - three hours after I left the Tower Club, which is only 15 minutes from my house - by car. I should have just called my husband for a ride, live and learn.

So it was that when I logged into MLB.TV for the end of the game, I was pretty sure that it was going to be a bad game to match the rest of the evening. And it was - the Astros were down 7-1 in the middle of the eighth when I turned on the game. They did manage to eke out a couple of runs in the bottom of the inning, gave one back in the ninth, and ended up losing 8-3.

A few game notes: Backe pitched pretty well for his 6 innings, giving up 4 runs on 6 hits, 3 BBs, and 9 Ks. He also got a hit in the 5th inning and did a bit of base running, which might have contributed a bit to his having trouble getting through the sixth. Byrdak pitched a perfect 7th in relief, but Villareal had a lousy 8th, giving up 3 ERs on 3 hits, a pair of walks, and a wild pitch that scored a run. Wright broke his streak of nearly flawless recent pitching in the 9th. The first couple of batters got on (one on an infield hit), before he induced a double play that scored a runner. The next batter flied out to end the 9th. Although he gave up an RBI, Wright actually pitched pretty well. Houston backed up the pitchers with 3 DPs in the game.

The Astros got 10 hits, all but one of them singles, but didn't manage to put much together in terms of runs. Berkman got 2 more hits, driving his BA up to .368. Tejada got a pair of hits, and scored 2 of the Astros' 3 runs.

I got all the rest of my game info, after the middle of the 8th from Alyson Footer, the pitch-by-pitch and box score. I didn't have the heart to watch the rest of the game on the mlb.tv archive.

Next up: Big Road Trip out West. Dodgers (hot), Giant (not), and then back to Texas for the annual duke-it-out with the Rangers. (Maybe they won't beat us 18-3 again this year.)