GAMES 60-61: Dueling with Snakes

June 12: D-backs 8, Houston 1

June 13: Houston 6, D-backs 4

Coming off a nice 7-3 homestand, the Astros were off for a 9-game road trip. First stop in the Snake Pit to play the Diamondbacks...

I missed the Friday night game, due to Sabbath observance. Saturday night, after I saw the result - an 8-1 loss - even my new HD experience did not entice me to watch the game. For completeness, a quick recap: The Astros continue to be stingy with runs in support of their pitchers (it's not possible that every pitcher they face is a CYA candidate) - this time they only managed 2 hits in Dan Haren's complete game. Happily one of the hits was El Caballo's solo homer in the fourth inning, so it wasn't a shutout as well. Houston's starter did not have the same luck: Hampton threw 99 pitches over 5 innings, giving up 3 runs on 8 hits and 5 walks. Backe finished up the game in relief, making another poor case for his place on the roster: In 3 innings, he gave up 5 runs - all scored on a trio of home runs. On the bright side, he struck out 5. (There's always something to like in a game, if you look hard enough.)

Saturday's game was chock full of things to like. I fell asleep reading after our Shabbat lunch guests went home, and overslept until almost 10 PM. By the time I turned on the computer, it was the top of the eighth inning. Oswalt was already out after 7 solid innings, and the Astros were protecting a 3-1 lead for him. It was good timing - I got to watch the Astros put 3 more runs on the board. After Tejada opened the innig with a ground out, Michaels knocked the first pitch deep for a double. Berkman, of course, was intentionally walked. (That has been leading to good things lately.) Pudge followed with a single, scoring Michaels; Puma went to third and Pudge advanced to second on the throw. Matt Kata reached on an infield single, scoring Berkman and moving Pudge to third, a good position for scoring on Maysonet's sac fly. Russ Ortiz, pinch hitting for Oswalt, struck out to end the fun.

With a 6-1 lead going into the bottom of the eighth and Sampson coming to the mound, Oswalt should have been feeling pretty good about his chances for getting that third W. Sampson has been the Astros most reliable reliever, with a long stretch of 0 ERs going. But this was not his night: He walked the first batter, then gave up a single and 2-run double. That was enough for Cooper - he brought in Byrdak (who whiffed his lefty batter) and then Arias, who allowed a double, scoring Sampson's third runner. With the lead back down to 2 runs and a runner in scoring position, Coop did what he hadn't planned to do: He brought in Valverde in a stressful situation. Fresh from more than a month on the DL, Valverde was supposed to get a nice easy inning to pitch his first time out, to work his way back to closing. But no worry - the big guy likes pressure. He took care of his batter to end the inning.

The Astros didn't do anything in the 9th against the D-Backs' Scott Schoeneweis, who was back from an unfortunate break of his own - the sudden death of his wife last month. Hawkins, enjoying his last opportunities to close, got off to a scary start in the bottom of the ninth, allowing a single and a walk. But he then induced a double play (his first of the season - good timing!) and struck out the last batter for the save. Good work all around to keep Oswalt's nice start intact and to earn him a third win.

After watching the hugging and back slapping for a few moments, I went straight to the sixth inning to watch the game's record-book moments: Bourn led off with what would be a double for anyone else, but was a triple for him. After Erstad's fly ball was too short to score Bourn, Tejada took care of matters with an RBI single - his 2000th career hit. Michaels hit a ground ball to third for the second out. Then the Puma knocked the ball out - his 300th career home run. These two big number events had been anticipated for a couple of weeks, with hopes that they would occur in front of a friendly crowd in Houston's homestand. But no luck, and with a nine-game road trip, they were bound to happen on the road. That they happened in the same inning resulted in a nice celebration in the dugout, if not the stands. And once the game was in the books, with a nice W for the Wiz, the Astros had even more reason to party.

At the office, we're expecting an RFP to drop any moment, so I brought home about 500 pages of documents to peruse this weekend. But I'll be done by 4, in time for the rubber match of the series...