GAME 115 - August 8: Lee Hits a Thousand (RBIs)

Houston 9, Cincinnati 5 [10 innings]

Quote of the Day: "Man, that guy knows how to drive in those runs, doesn't he? You hate to see those guys come up in those situations. They're RBI machines." (Reds manager Dusty Baker, on Carlos Lee)

Yeah, that Carlos Lee is a RBI machine all right - his 4-for-5 game Friday night accounted for 3 of the Astros runs, including the two-run double that put them ahead in the tenth inning. This game put him at a cool 100 for the season, and pushed him past the 1000 career RBI mark. What a great run-maker! Too bad his season is over!

But - wait - I'm getting ahead of myself. By the time i saw the result of this game after the Sabbath ended, Carlos Lee had already been injured in the third inning of Saturday night's game. I'll write that bad news up in the next blog. In this game, though, he was a run machine, hitting a solo home run, a 2-run double, a pair of singles, and walking once too. He pushed his BA to .314. Over the past couple of months, he's been one of the most dominant offensive players in the game. Of course, he's not an All Star... enough said.

Houston got off to a very fast start in this game, with a leadoff home run from Matsui, followed by Lee's solo homer later in the first inning. Randy Wolf got off to a good start too - he struck out the side in the second inning. But he ran into trouble in the third inning, when a walk, an error, a double, and a homer added up to a 4-1 Reds lead. The Astros earned back one of the runs in the fifth, on Bourn's RBI single, his second hit of the night. Then they took the lead on Quintero's two-run homer in the top of the seventh.

Wolf's eligibility for the win didn't last long, however. Sampson, relieving Wolf, opened the bottom of the seventh with a double, a single, and a sac fly that allowed the Reds to tie the game at 5-5. But Sampson settled down after that, and did not give up another hit in his 3 innings on the mound. The Astros didn't score over those innings either, so the game went into extra innings.

Just one extra inning, actually. The top of the tenth wasn't looking all that promising after pinch-batter Newhan struck out and then Matsui flied out. But the BLT Sandwich came through: Tejada doubled, Berkman walked, and then Lee blasted a long fly ball to deep right field. Corey Patterson made a long run, and leaped; the ball was actually in his glove but he couldn't hold onto it. Lee ended up with a double, as Tejada and the Puma passed Go and collected their $200. Pence then sent a blast of his own into the left field stands, for another two runs. With a nice four-run lead, Cooper picked young lefty Wright to end the game instead of his closer, who had thrown 31 pitches the night before. Wright set down the Reds 1-2-3 to end the game. (Hey, kid, how does it feel to be a closer - get used to it!)

Some interesting numbers from this game: The Astros scored 8 of their 9 runs with two outs. (Reminder: It's not over till it's over.) Reds pitchers got 15 strikeouts against Astros hitters, including 3 by Pence. Pence redeemed himself with that tenth inning homer, and with a fantastic outfield assist in the fifth that pegged the runner at third. The Astros defense also provided four double plays, to rob the Reds of more opportunities to score.