GAME 40 - May 13: Forgettable...

San Francisco 4, Houston 2

Quote of the Day: "This was a night of bad defense, mental errors and weak hitting." (Alyson Footer, on a game not to remember)

These West Coast road games don't end until well after midnight my time, here in the Washington DC area. So I don't get a chance to write them up until the next day. I don't generally have a problem remembering the game a day or two later, with a little help from the pitch-by-pitch and box score to resurrect the details.

But Tuesday night's loss was just, well, forgettable.

Nothing much really memorable happened, or at least nothing much from the Astros. Berkman kept his hitting streak going - but that was more due to a generous call by the scorer, who marked his third inning ground ball a hit, rather than an E3. Bourn let a hit turn into a double in the first inning when he seemed to forget to throw the ball back to the infield after getting it. (It was ruled a double, not an error.) Towles let a run score on a passed ball. Pence and Matsui crashed into each other in a failed attempt to catch a pop fly in right field. Happily neither of them came away with more than bruises - for a moment I envisioned something like the Lee-Everett leg-snapper. Backe lost, but didn't really pitch that bad, once he got out of the first inning. Byrdak, Villareal, and Wright were nearly perfect in the 2 innings they shared. Lee got a homer and was responsible for both Astros RBIs. But the Giants pitcher hit a home run too. Happily, both the Cards and the Cubs lost, so no set-back in the standings.

That's about a wrap. It's 10:15. Time to watch the next game...