GAME 114 - August 7: Oswalt Continues to Mystify the Reds

Houston 7, Cincinnati 4

Quote of the Day: "You always have a good feeling when he's on the mound, particularly since he's had good success against Cincinnati. The numbers say that, and it's just one of those freaky things in the game." (Berkman)

No one quite knows what it is about Roy Oswalt and the Cincinnati Reds, but somehow, he's got their number. That number is now up to 21, as in 21 wins and only 1 loss in his career against them. Whatever it is, it sure was welcome on Thursday night, after the embarrassments in Chicago over the previous couple of days.

Oswalt looked more like his classic self than in many of the earlier games this season. He pitched 7innings, giving up 1 run on 9 hits and 2 walks, striking out 6. It wasn't that he was perfect - there were plenty of base runners including a full house in the first inning. But he just doesn't seem to let it affect him. Bases loaded in the first? Strike out the batter to end the inning. He ended the first three innings with strikeouts. Cooper pulled him after the seventh, when he gave up his first run.

The Astros offense gave Oswalt some help. In what seems to be a new fad this year, they got first blood, scoring in the first inning on Tejada's double and Lee's RBI single. Then they gave Roy O a nice safety net in the third: Matsui, Berkman, and Lee singled for the first run, then Pence cleaned up the bases with a 3-run homer. Berkman scored again in the fifth on Wigginton's sac fly after the Puma had led off the inning with a double. That gave Oswalt a healthy 6-1 lead when he left the game. Much better odds than his last start, when the bullpen preserved his single-run lead to save his win!

The bullpen preserved this one too, but not so cleanly. Wesley Wright gave up a 2-run homer in the eighth to make it 6-3. New Astros reliever LaTroy Hawkins took a roundabout route to getting the third out of the inning, giving up a walk and a single before the inning ended with a harmless popup. The Astros put the score out of a save situation in the top of the ninth. Tejada led off with a single, and moved to third on Berkman's double - Puma's third hit of the game. Tejada scored on Wiggington's second RBI sac fly.

I was skeptical about bringing in Valvede to pitch in the non-save situation. He hasn't seemed to do his best when there's space for mistakes; he performs better when the game is on the line. He got the first two batters of the ninth right away, both on pop outs. But he'd fooled me into thinking that it would be easy: The next Red tripled, then scored on a wild pitch. A single and a walk brought the tying run to the plate. Now the game was on the line. Properly energized, he got the next batter to line out.

Michael Bourn is finally back from his sprained ankle, after missing 10 starts. He went 0 for 5. Doesn't really help to have a guy who can steal bases with impunity if he can't get to first. On a more positive note, the BLT went Triple 3 - Berkman, Lee, and Tejada each got three hits in this game.