GAMES 30-31 - May 2-3: Double the Pleasure, Double the Fun

Friday, May 2: Houston 7, Milwaukee
Saturday, May 3: Houston 6, Milwaukee 2

Word for the Day: Back-to-back. Consecutive; successive.

The back-to-back homers that fueled these back-to-back wins were just one of many similarities in the pair of Astros' games that kicked off this series against the Brewers. Watching both games after the Sabbath ended, I found myself starting to blend the two together, so I'll just write them up in one entry.

The dominant feature of both games was The Big Inning, kicked off by consecutive home runs. In Friday night's game, it was a rare threesome: With the Astros trailing 4-2 in the 6th, Tejada, Berkman, and Lee whacked back-to-back-to-back homers to rescue the game for Roy O, who was pretty much done for the night. (The last time the Astros pulled this off was in 2004, with Beltran, Bagwell, and Berkman.)

Saturday night, a less likely pair of Killer Bees launched back-to-back homers: Backe and Bourn. With the game tied 1-1 in the 5th, the Brewers' pitcher Parra underestimated the two of them. Backe, a former position player, can swing the bat pretty well, and Bourn has more pop than he's given credit for. The two home runs kicked off a five-run hitting spree - they were followed by Matsui's single and steal, Tejada's RBI double, Berkman's single to move Tejada to third, a wild pitch that allowed Tejada to score, Lee's walk to move Berkman to second... and then Ned Yost woke up and pulled the starting pitcher. But the damage was not yet done: Lee and Berkman both moved up on a passed ball, and Pence singled to left to drive in Berkman. All this happened before the first out. By the time the Astros batted around and Backe came back up to make the third out, the Astros had taken a 6-1 lead.

The second dominant feature of both games was stellar relief pitching that allowed the Astros' Big Innings to stand and determine the final score. Friday night, Geary, Brocail, and Valverde each pitched a scoreless inning. Saturday night, Villareal, Wright, and Valverde combined to preserve Backe's win. The relief pitchers are so critical to the Astros' chance of success this season that I think a few words about each of them are in order.

As in his previous appearance, when he loaded the bases with consecutive walks, Geary put three bad guys on base on Friday night. The last time, Cooper pulled Geary; Wright came in with the bases loaded and no outs, and knocked out three batters to save Geary's ERA from some ugly calculations. This time, after Geary had loaded them up with a single and a pair of walks, Roy O's precarious two-run lead looked pretty vulnerable. But Coop stuck with Geary who managed to get out of the inning with no further damage.

Brocail's 8th inning performance in Friday night's game was masterful: Each of his three batters took a first strike looking, before biting and putting the ball harmlessly in play - a ground ball, a fly ball, and a popup. It only took Brocail 7 pitches to knock down the side. Aside from his perfectly terrible appearance on April 22, when he gave up 4 ERs in 1/3 inning he's been incredible. In 16 appearances, he's only given up one other ER, only walked 2 batters (a stat that is near and dear to Coop's heart!), hasn't hit anyone, hasn't thrown any wild pitches, hasn't lost anybody's games. This has been what the Astros have come to expect from the 40-year-old veteran - just plain ol' solid reliable pitching. How do you spell r-e-l-i-e-f?

Villareal has been a bit of a Dr Jekyll-Mr Hyde story this season. When Cooper brought him in to pitch in the sixth inning of Saturday's game, Backe had given back one run and loaded the bases on a single and three walks. With a 6-2 lead and two outs, one had to wonder if this would be the Oscar Villareal who gives out home runs like they are vitamins, or the one who gets the key outs? It only took one pitch to find out: Pinch-hitter Tony Gwynn grounded out to end the scary inning. Villareal came back out for a 1-2-3 seventh inning, capped by a pair of Ks.

Young lefty Wesley Wright continues to show his value. Coming in after Villareal had walked the lead-off batter in the eighth, he put out the heart of the Brewer's order on three fly balls. So far this Rule 5 draftee is looking like a very good pick for the Astros. Although he is diminutive in stature, he seems to have a big reserve of confidence and has generally been able to deal quietly with tough situations and other pitcher's messes.

I saved Valverde for last, as is befitting for a closer. After a perfectly gruesome start to the season, in which his ERA topped 12 and the Houston sports-writers joined some of the nastier blog junkies in screeching for tar and feathers, Valverde has settled down. Following this pair of scoreless innings, he has cut his ERA in half (to 6.0) and the lynch mobs have quieted down. That doesn't mean that Valverde isn't prone to dramatic situations. Friday night he entered the game with a 3-run lead - after the bad start to the season, no one would call it a "comfortable 3-run lead" with Valverde on the mound - and got off to an ominous start. He plunked Prince Fielder with a pitch. The he struck out Corey Hart for the first out. Bill Hall's fielders choice erased Hart, but Hall ended up on second after Matsui's throwing error (his third error of the game!). A wild pitch put Hall on third base, before Valverde struck out JJ Hardy to end the game. It was a lot of action, but it still distills down to a very nice line: 0 ER, 0 hits, 0 BB, 2 Ks, and a save. While there's no guarantee that the Bad Boy won't come back, Valerde's last 7 appearances have been a manager's dream: He has thrown 7.2 innings, given up 0 runs, earned or otherwise, on 3 hits, struck out 11, walked 3, and logged 5 of his 6 saves of the season.

Although the relief pitching was the bigger story in these two games, a few words about the starting pitching are always appropriate. Roy O and Backe had some interesting similarities in their games. They each pitched around 6 innings, gave up 2 or 3 ERs on 5 or 6 hits, including first inning home runs, and 4 or 5 walks. They each pitched some nice clean innings, and they each got into one or two sketchy situations. The fielding behind them was uneven - Oswalt was hurt by a pair of errors on a single play, while Backe was helped by a pair of double plays. Both aimed to help themselves at the plate - Oswalt with a single and Backe with a home run - to preserve a 6 game hitting streak by the Astros' pitchers. All in all, the starting pitchers did fine - they both logged wins, but neither of them will remember this game as the pinnacle of mound performance for this season.

On the subject of fielding errors: The Astros continue to lead the league in fewest errors, with a measly 12 for the year - and 3 of them were earned by Matsui in Friday night's game. The first 2 were on a single play: Matsui mishandled fielding the ball on the first play of the game (error 1), and then in his rush to throw to first, he lobbed the ball into the dugout (error 2). His third error in the 9th inning was a similar throwing gaffe. I have to agree with the Astros' announcers, though - in both of the throwing errors, Matsui would have saved himself the error by just holding onto the ball and conceding the hit. While that might have been the wiser fielding decision, the attempt to get the runner shows more aggressive fielding. The Astros 31 DPs (third in the league) reflects this fielding energy as well. In the longer run this season, aggressive fielding - plus big bats - could be the key to success.

A couple more items to note about this great start to the home stand: As of Friday night's game, the Astros fielded their real 2008 starting lineup for the first time this season. With Wiggington back from the DL, and Matsui now at second, we are finally getting to see the team that was predicted to be on the field. So far, so good: The Astros are back to 1 game under .500 - anyone care for a sweep on Sunday?