GAMES 128-130: I Hate the Mets!

GAME 128 - August 27: Mets 2, Astros 1
GAME 129 - August 28: Astros 4, Mets 1
GAME 130 - August 29: Mets 5, Astros 1

Before I realized that I'd be completely overwhelmed at the office in August and September (end of the government fiscal year blues), I had thought about going up to New York to see the Astros play the Mets. I thought that it would be a fun way to celebrate my son Josh's birthday, going to Brooklyn to hang out over the Sabbath with him and his pregnant wife Katie, then taking him out for a Sunday afternoon ballgame.  Josh is the only one of my kids who more than tolerates my love of The Game -- he came all the way to DC for the day to take me to an Astros-Nats game a couple of years ago. (Backe started, Astros won 5-0, temp was miserable - close to 100.

Anyway, I never actually got a chance to run this idea past Josh before I realized that I'd most likely have to be at the office on Sundays in August/September. But now I'm just as glad I didn't make it, given how disappointing today's game turned out. (I would have liked to see Katie with a big belly though!)

Overall it wasn't that bad a series, although the Astros came out on the short end. They continued their trend of solid starting pitching in the first two games. Despite a Friday night loss, Figueroa pitched another quality start - giving up only 2 runs (1 unearned) in 7 innings. His teammates weren't much help;  Mets' starter Mike Pelfrey shut them down for 8 innings. They got 9 hits, but only managed to eke out a single run in the 9th inning. Too little too late...

I tuned in after the Sabbath in time to see the Astros come out on top in Game 2 Saturday night. A little run support goes a long way for Myers, who did it again -- his 27th consecutive 6+ inning game. This time he threw 7 shutout innings, allowing 6 hits and a walk, striking out 6. The Astros batters defied Santana, scoring a pair of runs in the first inning, and another pair in the fifth for good measure. Carlos Lee, starting at first base, went 2 for 3 with a homer and 3 RBIs, and a couple of flat out (literally) good fielding plays. He's turned around quite a bit in the past few weeks. (He doesn't seem to be keeping up that Slacker title that my friend and fellow-blogger Austin bestowed on him.)

I was at work for 11 hours today, with Game 3 right in the middle of it. So I didn't get to see Bud Lite  break the streak of quality starts for Astros pitchers, giving up 5 runs by the time he came out in the sixth inning. All but 1 of the Mets' runs came in a 4 run second inning, featuring 2 walks, a double, and 2 singles. The Astros got plenty of base runners on 9 hits and 2 walks, but only managed to get one all the way home. That's been their other recent theme -- low run scoring, despite lots of hits. I like the good starting pitching theme better.

What with Thursday's afternoon game, Sabbath games, and work-on-Sunday games, I haven't gotten to watch much live baseball recently and I've entirely abandoned my friends on Twitter. I'm really hoping to get home in time for tomorrow night's 8:05 first pitch against the Cards. Tweet you then!

GAMES 124-127: Friends and Family and Foes in Filly...

GAME 124 - August 23: Astros 3, Phillies 2
GAME 125 - August 24: Astros 4, Phillies 2 [16 innings]
GAME 126 - August 25: Astros 3, Phillies 1
GAME 127 - August 26: Astros 5, Phillies 1

With a four game series in the City of Brotherly Love, one might have thought that there would have been a pretty good chance of facing our beloved Brother Roy. But when Oswalt pitched seven innings of shutout ball against the Nationals on Sunday, it didn't seem likely that the Astros would see much of the Wiz on the field. Surprise! Oswalt was called in to face his old teammates, but it was not how one might have predicted. With Tuesday night's game droning on into lots of extra innings, Oswalt got a chance for heroics when he was brought in in the fifteenth inning. But it wasn't a mound appearance -- he was swapped in to be the Phillies' left fielder, batting cleanup! It's the kind of odd move that a manager finds himself making when his bench is totally gone and one of his players gets ejected.  As luck would have it, Houston pulled ahead in the sixteenth, and it was Roy Oswalt standing at the plate for the Phillies, with two out and two on in the bottom of the inning. A homer would have won it for the Phillies, who are battling for the NL East lead. But he grounded out and his old Astros teammates partied for the second night in a row.  Don't you just LOVE this game?

In a bizarre twist, the lowly Astros swept the contending Phillies in four hard-fought close games, all characterized by terrific starting pitching on both sides. Here's how the Astros starters continued to squash the opposition:

Game 1, Monday: Myers gets the win with another 7 innings, 2 runs on 9 hits, a walk, and 9 Ks.
Game 2, Tuesday: Norris threw 6 innings, givoing up 1 run on 5 hits, 3 walks, and 4 Ks. But he was long gone before Fulchino (the 7th Astros pitcher) got the win in the 16th inning.
Game 3, Wednesday: Happ earns a win on 6 1/3 innings of 2-run ball. Mills uses 3 of his exhausted relievers to finish off the 7th, before Lyons throws 2 innings for the save.
Game 4, Thursday: The Astros give Wandy solo runs in each of the first 4 innings, plus another in the 7th for good luck - more than enough for his win on 7 innings, 1 run on 5 hits and 6 Ks.

Kudos to the bullpen too, with special mention of the Astros' new acquisition, Melancon, who threw 3 scoreless innings in relief in the Tuesday marathon.

Nice to have such a great series in Philly, from which some of our current players were acquired (Bourn, Myers, Happ), and some of our other players have landed (Oswalt, Lidge). Not to mention our General Manager, Ed Wade, whose Philly background probably accounts for some of that give and take.

GAMES 121-123: Sleeping with the Fishes

GAME 121 - August 20: Marlins 9, Astros 0
GAME 122 - August 21: Marlins 6, Astros 3
GAME 123 - August 22: Astros 2, Marlins 1

Going into the last quarter of a disappointing season, there have been lots of changes in the Astros clubhouse - Oswalt gone, Berkman gone, new kids on the block. Now Pedro Feliz is gone, traded to the Cards in trade for a young pitcher. Jeff Keppinger is out with a broken big toe. Lindstrom is on the DL. Tommy Manzella is back.  Fernando Abad and Anderson Hernandez called up. Lots of changes - making the game a lot more interesting than the start of this miserable season.

Main story in the weekend series against the Marlins: The starting pitching continues to be solid. Despite the scores (not even close) in the two losses in this Fish Story, the starters aren't the cause. Friday night's 9-0 blowout started out as a 1-0 game for the first 5 innings. Happ gave up a pair of runs in the sixth, but the game was still not too bad. But Fulchino gave up 4 runs in the seventh, and Abad added another pair in the eighth to make it look really ugly. As you might imagine, I didn't bother to watch this one after the Sabbath ended.

Saturday night's game was looking good for Wandy, who had a 2-0 lead going through 5 innings. I joined in after the Sabbath, just in time to see the Astros lose the lead in a 3 run sixth. Only 2 of the runs were earned, giving Wandy a very respectable line: 2 earned runs in 6 innings on 7 hits, 1 walk, and 10 strikeouts. The Astros did come back in the 9th to score that extra run, but it was too little too late -- Melancon had given up three more runs (2 unearned) in the seventh, resulting in that 6-3 loss. The three  unearned runs were thanks to a trio of fielding errors by our youngsters -- one for Wallace and 2 for CJ.

Sunday the Astros avoided a sweep with a beautiful start by Nelson Figueroa, who's making a case for his position in Houston's rotation. He pitched six innings, giving up 1 run on 4 hits and a walk, striking out 7. That wasn't good enough for a win, since the Astros only eked out a single run on his watch - a sac fly by Pence. After Figueroa was done, Pence knocked in the go-ahead run in the eigtht, with a solo homer (#19). The new close-out duo, Lopez and Lyon combined for 3 shutout innings to get the Astros a weekend win.

To net it out -- solid starters, inconsistent bullpen. And a pretty much stalled offense -- only 5 runs in the 3 game series. You gotta find something to like, if you're going to watch a losing season, and I like that starting pitching.

GAMES 117-120: Robbing our Starters...

GAME 117 - August 16: Mets 3, Astros 1
GAME 118 - August 17: Astros 4, Mets 3
GAME 119 - August 18: Mets 3, Astros 2
GAME 120 - August 19: Astros 3, Mets 2

How's that for a close series? Every game won or lost on the last pitch.... But isn't that the great thing about baseball - there's no clock, and theoretically every game is won or lost on the last pitch. I believe in miracles...

Another week of terrific starting pitching. It's been a long time since the Astros lost a game on a bad start.  Here's what the Mets series looked like:

Monday - Wandy pitches 7 innings, giving up 1 run on 4 hits, 3 BB, and 6 Ks. Game tied 1-1 until the 9th inning, when Lindstrom gave up the winning runs.

Tuesday - Figeuroa gets his first start as an Astro, giving up 2 runs (1 earned) in 5 innings. Astros score 3 for him in the first inning, but the Mets tie it up in the 8th. Melancon gave up the tying run, but ended up with the win when the Astros got a big run in the bottom of the 8th. Lopez closes for his first big-league save.

Wednesday: Myers does it again - another 7 innings, giving up 2 runs on 7 hits, 3 BBs, and 4 Ks. The Astros didn't score until the 8th inning, and then tied it up 2-2 in the ninth on a Blum homer. I got home from work at about midnight (don't ask!), and the game was still going. Lots of relievers got their turn, but by the 14th inning, it was Chacin who gave the Mets their winning run.

Thursday: Norris threw 7 innings, giving up a pair of runs in the fourth, but looked like he would be on the losing end of the game until Carlos Lee hit a 3-run homer in the bottom of the seventh. Lopez and Lyon closed it out nicely, and Bud Lite got the win.

See the trend?  Lots of nice starting pitching, lots of no-Ds for their trouble. But who can complain about good starting pitching? And who can complain about guys coming up with big hits in the late innings? How many times in the past have we bemoaned the Astros inability to come from behind? Well, now they do it routinely. It just doesn't do much for our starters' win-loss records.

The Astros may not be winning all their games, but they sure have made it fun to watch them, win or lose.

GAMES 112-116: Astros Starters Looking Good

GAME 112 - August 10: Braves 4, Astros 2
GAME 113 - August 11: Braves 8, Astros 2
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
GAME 114 - August 13: Astros 4, Pirates 1
GAME 115 - August 14: Astros 3, Pirates 2
GAME 116 - August 15: Astros 8, Pirates 2

Despite the mixed results in the win-loss column, this week has featured two main themes: Very sharp pitching from the Astros starting rotation and late inning offense to deny those starters much run support.

Even the two losses to the Braves last week began with quality starts, which were spoiled by glitches in  the bullpen. On Tuesday Happ redeemed his previous miserable start with 6 1/3 innings of one-run ball, giving up only 2 hits and striking out 6. He wasn't on target to win the game anyway, since the Astros didn't take their precarious 2-1 lead until the bottom of the eighth. But Lindstrom blew his second consecutive save situation with a pair of homers in the ninth inning. Lindstrom beat himself up about it after the game, while Mills stuck by him as Houston's closer ("He's the guy"). But just in case, Lindstrom's been getting tests on his back done, and hasn't pitched since. (Nothing's shown up on the MRI, checking out the back spasms that have been bothering him, and he's supposedly available to pitch.)

Wednesday afternoon 8-2 score doesn't look much like a close game until you check out the boxes -- Wandy had pitched another good start, giving up 2 runs (1 earned) and striking out 9 in his 7 innings. But it was a 6-run tenth inning that put the game out of reach for the Astros. This time it was Lyons who was the goat, with a little bit of help from Fulchino. After pitching a perfect ninth, he gave up two runs and loaded the bases before Mills brought in Fulchino save the day. BAM! SLAM! Four more runs (three charged to Lyons) made it a runaway. The Astros went down appropriately meekly in the bottom of the inning.

The Sabbath games against the Pirates got off to similar starts, but with more favorable outcomes. It made for a very nice late night of watching baseball after the Sabbath ended! Both games continued the recent pattern of good starting pitching and late Astros offense. However, the pairing of Lopez and Lyon to finish off the games put the Astros ahead. In Friday night's game, Brett Myers did it again -- another 7 inning start, holding the Pirates to only 1 run, while the Astros failed to score even once on his watch. They finally came through in the bottom of the eighth, with a big 3-run boom from El Caballo and a trio of singles to plate Houston's fourth run. Lyon gave a scare with a leadoff walk and a single to start the ninth, but then got a strikeout and double play to end the threat.

Given the Astros recent propensity for late-inning offense, I should have anticipated some fun Saturday night, when I turned on the computer after the Sabbath. Coming in on the bottom of the seventh, with 2 outs, and the Astros down 2-1, I was just in time to see the come-from-behind action. What I'd missed (and watched later Saturday night on the archived game) was the starting pitching drama, one of the best of the year. It didn't look good for Bud Norris in the first couple of innings. The first three batters reached on a triple, homer, and thowing error respectively, putting the Pirates ahead 2-0 before the first out was recorded. Then Norris struck out the next three batters, righting the ship. The pitching struggles weren't over for Bud Lite though -- in the second inning he loaded the bases on two singles and an intentional walk. But he got out of that jam without any runs scoring, and then he shut down the Pirates for the next 5 innings. When the dust cleared, Norris had an Astros' season best 14 strikeouts. After the two runs in the first, he'd done all that he could do get that win, including hitting a single and double of his own.

Happily, the Astros came though for Bud in the bottom of the seventh: Quintero led off with a single. Bourgeois, pinch running for Q, got to second on Norris' sac bunt. Sanchez's single scored Bourgeois to tie the game. Then Pence doubled to score Sanchez and put the Astros ahead. It was Pence's third extra-base hit of the game - he also hit a solo homer to kick off the fourth and another double. As in Friday night's game, Lopez and Lyon threw successful eighth and ninth innings, respectively, to give the Astros the win.

Today's finale was more of the same -- a real nice start for J. A. Happ, with the offense coming through just in time to give him a chance for the win. Happ threw 6 innings, giving up 2 runs on 3 hits and 4 walks, with 5 strikeouts. HAPPily for him, Mills allowed him to stay in the game despite a pair of one-out walks in the sixth. He got out of the mess with a wild and crazy double play: Kepp fielded the ball, threw to Sanchez to get the runner coming into second. Sanchez threw to Wallace at first too late to get the batter out. But Pedro Alvarez unwisely tried to make it home from second, and Wallace shot the ball over to Castro to tag him out to end the inning. That was a lucky break for Happ, since it left him as the pitcher of record when the Astros put 4 runs on the board in the bottom of the inning.

With the Astros ahead 5-2 going into the seventh inning, Mills finally gave Mark Melancon (our Berkman trade result) his Astros debut. Although Melancon had said that he was getting "anxious," as game by game went by without a chance to pitch, he sure didn't look like it on the mound. It took him a grand total of 8 pitches (7 strikes) to take down the side on a pair of called strikeouts and a groundout. Byrdak and Fulchino finished up the game. Fulchino came in to pitch in the ninth with Byrdak's two runners on and no outs. He had much better luck than his last appearance on Wednesday, when he gave up a grand slam. He put down the next 3 Pirates to seal the deal. The Astros swept the Pirates at Minute Maid Park -- not only this series, but the whole season series, all 9 games. They should boycott orange juice in Pittsburgh.

I really focused this blog posting on starting pitching, since it's been so effective this past week. Although the Astros have had pretty modest scores over 4 of the past 5 games since I last posted, there has been some really nice hitting too. First place goes to Chris Johnson, who's looking like a Rookie of the Year contender with his .360 batting average and .935 OPS.. He got another 3 hits today, including a rare Astros home run. It's kind of ironic that we went out and got Pedro Feliz for third base this year, not knowing what a huge season CJ would have -- at least so far!

Pence has been a monster recently. Another 3 hits today, two of them doubles -- that's 4 doubles in the past 2 games. His batting average is now up to a season-high .285.  Even Carlos Lee has picked up the pace lately. (Dare we hope that his grotesque season start was an aberration, and he'll be of some value to the team over the rest of his outlandishly expensive contract?) And of course it's fun to watch the kids on the team: Wallace, Sanchez, Castro, Norris.

In other baseball news: Carlos Lee gave a new twist to the meaning of a powerful backswing in today's game, whomping the poor plate ump on the head with his bat. The umpire, Alan Porter, ended up with 5 stitches, but apparently not a cracked skull... Poor Chipper Jones made a terrific play against the Astros on Tuesday, robbing Hunter Pence of a hit. But it wasn't worth it -- he tore  the ACL in his left knee and will be out on rehab for the rest of the season. Bummer for a contender... Lance Berkman has picked up the pace a bit wearing his new pinstripes. He's batted .333 with a 1.044 OPS in the past week. But in today's game, he stepped on the Royal's pitcher's foot on first base while trying to beat out a double play, and jammed his right ankle. He's day to day... The Wiz was throwing a lot of changeups in LA this week when he pitched seven shutout innings against his old battery mate Brad Ausmus and the Dodgers.

GAME 111: Win a Few, Lose a Few... Isn't this FUN?

GAME 111 - August 9: Astros 10, Braves 4

Seven games up. Four games down. One up... The Astros are on a roller coaster these days as their mostly-young team fields different lineups, rotations, and bullpens in what is essentially a really extended Spring Training. The games might count, and the road trips are longer, but with the outcome not really in doubt, they are free to try out various configurations in preparation for fielding what we all hope will be a much better team next year. Why wait till March?

A day after our baby-faced starter wannabe got clobbered, Wesley Wright found himself on his way back to Round Rock. Wright's a lefty, with good but inconsistent stuff, so I'm guessing he'll be back before long. In his place, the Astros brought up their new acquisition in the Berkman trade, Mark Melancon (apparently pronounced "Melanson") to join the bullpen. Now Nelson Figueroa, picked up last month from the Phillies off waivers, will get his chance to try out for the rotation with a start planned for the weekend. 

Meanwhile, we're getting lots of looks at our youngsters, with CJ, Sanchez, and Wallace playing daily, and Castro alternating with Q behind the plate. The exciting thing is the way that they have helped to redefine our anemic offense. Where a few months ago, the BAs for our line up seemed to average somewhere in the embarrassingly low .200s, they've moved up into much more respectable territory. CJ leads the pack batting over .350, newbie Wallace is at .333 (admittedly a very small sample), Kepp's in the .290s, Sanchez close to that, Pence around .275. Even Carlos Lee eked his batting average up over .250! Since the All Star Break, the team's BA has jumped about 10 points -- considering that it's late in the season, and it takes a lot to impact the stats, that's a huge improvement. How big an improvement? Well, here's a fun stat: In the last 7 days, the Astros have the highest team batting average in the league -- a quite respectable .329. They've led the league in runs scored -- 45 to the next highest Reds at 36. And all that with only 1 (ONE!) home run. This is a very scrappy lineup. Unfortunately, during that same time period, our pitchers have notched a league-worst ERA of 6.62, accounting for that ugly stretch of losses. Win a few, lose a few... 

Overall, watching the Astros has become a lot more interesting since they shuffled the deck and threw out some of the money cards. When the post-season's not a consideration, the wins are fun, and the losses are... oh well, who cares? Last night's game is a good example. The Astros had some fun at the plate, taking advantage of really bad fielding by the Braves (3 errors), and came up with a big win. The game was mucking along with so-so starts by two rookies. Bud Lite started for the Astros and Mike Minor made his big league debut for the Braves. Each lasted through 6 innings, each gave up 4 runs on some hits, a walk or two, striking out a few batters. Nothing on either side to make banner headlines, but not embarrassing for either of them. At the end of 6 innings, the game was tied 4-4. 

Then the fun began. In an amazing seventh inning, the Astros looked like they were taking batting practice against a little league team, whose fumbles, bumbles, and wild throws allowed Houston to more than bat around. I should have known -- it was Kyle Farnsworth on the mound for the Braves; he'll always be remembered in Houston for what he did to help us win the pennant in the infamous 18 inning game. Coming into the inning with the score tied, Mills started out with small ball. Blum got a pinch-hit single, and Bourgeois came in to run for him. Farnsworth threw 6 pickoff attempts trying to catch the speedy Bourgeois. The last one went astray and Bourgeois went to second. Bourn grounded out, moving Bourgeois to third with one out. Assuming a squeeze was in the works, Farnsworth pitched at, then out, Sanchez, before walking him on 4 pitches. Kepp singled to score Bourgeois, giving the Astros a 5-4 lead. A wild pitch moved both runners into scoring position. Farnsworth then intentionally walked Pence to load the bases, hoping for a double plan to get out of trouble. Pitching change.

Lee was up, bases loaded, one out. This is the new era El Caballo. Instead of hitting into a double play or a booming grand slam, he lobbed a blooper single into right field. (It was Lee's second bloop of the game -- the first turned out to be an RBI double by the time it fell in No Mans Land between three Braves fielders.) Sanchez scored. Bases still loaded, one out, and CJ comes to the plate. On the scorecard, he got credit for a single to left field, but the end result was an inside-the-park homer. Kepp scored. Pence beat the throw to the plate. Catcher McCann throws to third, hoping to catch Lee, but the ball sails to the outfield fence, and everybody comes home. Astros lead 10-4.

Multi-hit game for Bourn, Keppinger, Lee, CJ, Wallace. The bullpen contributed 2 1/3 innings of no-hit pitching to hold down the fort - Byrdak got the win for his 1/3 inning in the seventh. Pence made a terrific outfield assist to spoil a two-out RBI "single" in Minor's first big-league at bat. Lots of fun all around.

Did I mention how awesome it is to see Jeff Bagwell wearing #5 in the dugout? Does anyone think that he has NOTHING to do with all this fun?

Can't wait for tonight's game!

GAMES 107-110: Can't Win 'Em All!

GAME 107 - August 4: Cardinals 8, Astros 4
GAME 108 - August 6: Brewers 6, Astros 5
GAME 109 - August 7: Brewers 5, Astros 2
GAME 110 - August 8: Brewers 11, Astros 6

Even in my wildest fantasies, I knew that the New Era Astros weren't going to win all the rest of the games of the season. I think I might have known that the tide might be turning when I wrote my last blog posting after the first two of the three games of the Cardinals series. I wanted to grab a chance to write it while the winning streak was still on. Especially with the Chris Carpenter game still to go. I didn't really expect, though, that it would be quite as much of a downturn as it ended up over the weekend.

No big shame in losing to Carpenter - he's been hot this season. However, our new starter Happ got banged up early - he didn't manage to get a single out in the second inning before he'd been tagged for 7 runs on 6 hits and 3 walks. Ugly. The bullpen did a good job finishing up for him: Figueroa, Lopez, Lyon, and Chacin combined for just one more redbird run.  Chris Johnson hit a 2 run homer, Castro hit a triple, and Blum got a pinch RBI hit. But it didn't add up to enough to dig their way out of the hole that Happ dug. It was the end of a long streak of "Winsday" victories for the Astros.

I missed the Friday night heart-breaker, due to the Sabbath, and didn't have the heart to even watch the good parts. Wandy kept the Astros in the game, giving up 3 runs (2 earned) on 8 hits, no walks, and 7 Ks, before coming out with one out and a 4-2 lead in the seventh.  Lopez and Lyon got the Astros through the eighth without any trouble, so Lindstrom came in to close with a comfortable 5-2 lead. We can sum up the ending with two words: Blown Save. Or maybe: Bad Call? Was the winning run actual out at the plate, for the third out? The ump called it safe, game over, but Mills thinks Castro made the tag. Not clear from the replays, but that doesn't matter -- the umps don't use replays for this situation.

I turned on my computer in time for the last two innings of Saturday night's game and things weren't looking good. Brett Myers had done it again - pitched another 6 innings to keep his record going. Myers' third pitch of the game resulted in an inside-the-park homer for speedy Rickie Weeks. (One might wonder if Bourn might have turned the long fly ball into an out, rather than the run it turned into when Bourgeois couldn't get to it.) Two pitches later, Corey Hart doubled, then scored on subsequent ground outs. In the sixth inning, Myers gave up 4 consecutive singles, allowing another pair of Brewers runs. But in between those first two batters and the 4 in the sixth, Myers retired 15 of his 17 opposing batters in another very solid start. Unfortunately, his teammates didn't do much to help him out. Doubles by Pence and Lee drove in two runs for the Astros in the seventh, but it was too little, too late. The Astros outhit the Brewers 11 to 10, but could only manage to push two runners across the plate. All this was before my time -- I came in after the Sabbath ended with the Astros down 5-2. Having just read about the turnover the night before, I was cheering for Trevor Hoffman to blow the save in the ninth. But no such luck: The Astros went down 1-2-3 to end the game.

After missing out on watching much live baseball since the middle of last week, I was annoyed that I had to be at my office today for a 3 PM meeting. That gave me just enough time to watch the first inning of Sunday's game before I had to leave the house. At first I was optimistic -- against a tough Gallardo, the Astros were getting some nice hits in the top of the first, scoring their first two runs. But then our baby-faced lefty starter wannabe, Wesley Wright, took the mound. Coming off a good start last week against the Brewers, he was clearly hoping for a lot better outcome. But like Happ on Wednesday, he got off to a bad start and it didn't get batter.  The first 6 batters got 3 hits, 2 walks, and an RBI sac fly, accounting for four Brewer runs in the first inning. After a scoreless second,  Wesley was back in trouble, leading off the third inning with a pair of walks, and then giving up a 2-run double. That was it for Wesley's day. His final line: 7 earned runs on 5 hits, 4 walks, and one strikeout in just 2 1/3 innings. Figueroa finished off the inning, allowing Wesley's runner to score and adding another of his own. Then Chacin gave up 3 more runs in the fourth, and it looked like it was going to be a gigantic blowout. But Brydak, Fulchino, and Lopez combined for 4 scoreless innings to keep the game from spiraling into total embarrassment.

I was watching all this happening out of the corner of my eye during my meeting, on the pitch-by-pitch on my Blackberry. This was only minimally less painful than seeing it live on mlb.tv. Meanwhile, the Astros did score 4 more runs after the first inning, ending up with a total of 6 runs on 12 hits -- what would have been considered a huge score for them earlier in the season. Bourn hit a 2 RBI single in the fourth, and Lee and Keppinger each got a RBI in the last two innings of the game.

Obviously, finishing up the weekend being swept in an 11-6 game wasn't much fun. However, let's put today's game into perspective: Wesley Wright wants to be a starter. The Astros want to know if he can be a major league starter. There's one way to find out -- let him start a few games and see what happens. In a losing season like this, the Astros can do that without putting a playoff run in jeopardy. If it turns out that Wright's not major league starter material, so be it. This is certainly the time to find out. And it's not as if they threw a game to a team that's in real contention -- the Brewers are 11 games out in the division. I'm not saying it's fun to watch the Astros lose -- just saying that it's not giving me heart palpitations.  And there are some good things to see also, even in a lopsided loss: Bourn went 3 for 5 with 2 RBI, and 2 runs. Kepp, Pence, and Lee had multi-hit games. Hey, Lee's BA is almost up to .250. We can complain about El Caballo all we want, but in the end he's going to be sitting on our roster for another 2 years - we better hope for the best for him!

Another interesting note to our current four-game losing streak: In 3 of the 4 games, a big part of the blame for the loss belongs to the meltdown of one of our pitchers. Happ and Wright dug giant holes in the first inning or two, while Lindstrom blew a 3-run lead in the ninth. But for the most part, the rest of the team did their part -- the bullpen generally came through well, and the batters got hits and scored some runs. Just not enough to overcome the big inning deficits. We haven't been no-hit or even shut out. I don't like our chances for the playoffs this year - it's too late for miracles -- but I like our chances for the future. Well, I like them better now than a few months ago, at least.

In related news: The Puma has been doing a whole lot of nuthin' for the Yankees. I'm trying to feel bad about it, but my loyalty is stretched pretty thin here. It's not like Berkman was traded against his will.

GAMES 105-106: The New Era Continues...

GAME 105 - August 2: Astros 9, Cardinals 4
GAME 106 - August 3: Astros 18, Cardinals 4


     Quote of the Day: "18-4? Are you kidding me?" (my sister Elizabeth, on Facebook)

The Astros may be 12 games under .500, in fourth place in their division, but that doesn't mean that baseball can't still be fun. Since the All Star game, they've been playing with a lot of spunk and good results. Since trading their star players last week, they've been unbeatable. Over the weekend, Astros pitchers held the hard-hitting Brewers to 2 runs in 3 games -- that's the same Brewers who are second in the league in slugging and first in homers. Now in St Louis, the Astros are beating up the Cardinals, a team whose pitchers have the third best combined ERA in the league.

The past week, while the Astros were busy blazing blazed their way into a 7 game winning streak, their pitchers had a combined ERA of 1.50. Our team batting average was over .340, with slugging over .530, despite a relatively modest number of homers (just 6). Oh by the way, in those stats, the Astros are leading the league this week. If it weren't for the humongous hole they dug themselves into, at the start of the season, they'd look like (dare I say it?) contenders.

Take last night's game: 18-4? You must be kidding! That's the kind of pounding that happens against the Astros, not by them! Outscoring Pujols & Co 27-8 in the first two games of this series, and extending their winning streak in Busch Stadium to 6 games, is pretty remarkable. Nearly everyone on the team participated in the hitfests - even Carlos Lee. El Caballo seems so energized by all the offensive frenzy that he tried to convert a double into a triple, and almost succeeded (the ump said no, the slo-mo said maybe, it was that close).  Here's what the hitting for some of the key players looked like over the first two games of the St Louis series:
      Bourn - 1 for 4, 1 BB, 2 R, 1 SB
      Kepp - 3 for 8, 1 BB, 2 R, 4 RBI
      Pence - 3 for 10, 3 RBI, 1 SB
      CJ  - 4 for 8, 2 R, 5 RBI
      Lee - 5 for 8, 3 BB,  5 R, 1 RBI
      Sanchez - 5 for 7, 2 R. 6 RBI
      Wallace - 2 for 4, 1 BB, 2 RBI
      Hernandez - 1 for 3, 1 BB, 2 R
      Bourgeois - 1 for 5, 2 BB, 2 R, 2 RBI
      Feliz - 3 for 6, 2 R, 2 RBI
      JMike - 1 for 3. 1 R

What's amazing in this spate of 27 runs is that there were NO homers, only 1 triple, and 7 doubles -- all the rest of the 34 hits were singles. The team RISP was 21 for 36. What a change!

We've been seeing hot pitching for the past month, and these games were more of the same. Myers had another 6 inning quality start. Norris gave up 4 runs in his 6 innings, but got a ton of run support and earned a win. The bullpen has been stellar - just one run given up (by Figueroa) in 6 relief innings.

Of Special Note: Angel Sanchez came within a homer of going for the cycle in Tuesday night's game. He went 4 for 6, with 2 singles, a double, a triple, and 6 RBIs.

Chris Johnson's season BA is up to .350.

There's only one position player batting under .200 (Castro).

Feliz went 3 for 6 right after being named August's Worst Player in Baseball.

Myers continues his streak - he has not pitched less than 6 innings in any of his starts this season. His ERA is 3.10. It would be nice if that translated to something better than an 8-6 record, but there was that really bad start to the season... He got a no decision in his start Monday night.

Photosynthesis: The further the Astros go into renovating the team with youngsters and new guys, especially those that were recently acquired from trades, the fewer pictures I have to illustrate my blogs. I always take some pictures of Astros prospects from Spring Training (generally the better known ones), but I only have the other teams' younger guys if I happened to snap their pictures during a game. So I don't have any pictures of Brett Wallace or Angel Sanchez to post. I'll have a lot of players to catch up on at Spring Training next year!

GAMES 102-104: The New Era: Baby Bees? Killer Brats?

GAME 102 - July 30: Astros 5, Brewers 0
GAME 103 - July 31: Astros 6, Brewers 0
GAME 104 - August 1: Astros 5, Brewers 2

Call them the Baby Bees. Or the Killer Brats. Whatever you call them, the new-era Astros are off to a fun start.

With Oswalt and Berkman gone, they went out and swept Milwaukee, outscoring the hard-hitting Brewers 16-2. The Astros starters for this weekend's games are a trio of lefties: J.A. Happ the new guy, Wandy the veteran, and Wesley the kid. Friday night Happ introduced himself to the Houston fans by throwing the first 6 innings of a 5-0 shutout, at the same time Roy O was getting shellacked by the Nats in his first start for the Phillies. Saturday Wandy continued his recent spate of first-class games, throwing 8 scoreless innings, fanning 9. And today, baby-faced Wesley Wright showed that he can be more than a long relievers, with a his first major league win as a starter. I'm not sure whether the Astros have ever before had a sweep in which all three starting/winning pitchers were southpaws. I can't remember when they ever even had a trio of lefty starters in a series. This is certainly a new look for the Astros.

The string of terrific starts actually predated the Oswalt and Berkman trades. Going back to last Sunday, we've got three shutouts (2 for Wandy, one for Happ), two games in which the Cubs were held to a single run (win for Norris and CG for Myers), and today's win in which the Brewers scored their only 2 runs of the series. The only loss in the past week was Tuesday, in which the Astros left 12 runners stranded failed to support Wright in his second try as a starter.

All this great baseball gets the Astros up to a ripping 14 games under .500 -- a net gain since the All Star break (9-6), but we're still not going to the playoffs this year. That means that wins and losses aren't necessarily the most interesting stats for the rest of the season. Kind of like Spring Training - there are lots of things besides the W/L record to be paying attention to. Here's some of the fun stuff that's going on with the Astros, since they signed away their long-time stars:

Brett Wallace got his Major League debut. After the 2008 first-pick for the Cards was traded twice, he might have wondered where his career was headed. But the third time was charmed, and he found himself in an Astros uni on first base a couple of days after he was swapped in Part II of the Oswalt trade. His debut last night showed some nice fielding, but he went 0 for 4 at the plate. He got his first ML hit in today's game, a bloop single. That should take the edge off a bit, and hopefully he'll go on to be a bit more of a slugger. I've seen a couple of commenters suggest that he needs a haircut. I don't think so -- he's wearing the same curly do that Jeff Bagwell's got, but without the chin coiffure to go with it.

Chris Johnson, another of the youth movement that has redefined our infield, finally ended his two-week long hitting streak in today's game. A hitting streak can be constructed of a bunch of 1 for 4 and 1 for 5 games, but not CJ's. Since the All Star break, he's raised his BA from .282 to .341.

When the Astros signed Brett Myers this year, I wasn't too happy, having heard about the less charming aspects of his off-the-field life. But on the field, he's been consistently terrific this year, and that's earned him a new 3-year contract from the Astros. With Roy O gone, the team is looking to Myers and Wandy to be the core of the rotation. The contract extension for Myers includes two year plus an option for 2013, with a total value of almost $30M. Myers, by the way, is still under 30 -- young enough to be part of the team's new brat pack.

It's not only the youngsters who have had some fun over the weekend. Jason Michaels, given a pair of starts and a pinch hitting opportunity, came through for the team big-time. JMike hit a solo homer on Friday night, for the Astros first run, then added on a pair of doubles Saturday. But his most notable contribution came in the final game of the series, when he came to bat with the bases loaded and no outs in the seventh inning, Astros behind 2-0. Mills brought him in to pinch hit for Wallace, preferring his right handed vet over the left handed newbie against a lefty Brewers pitcher. JMike repaid Mills' confidence with a big blast, a grand slam to put the Astros ahead 4-2. It was good timing -- the last chance for the Astros to give Wright run support towards his first starting win.

Jeff Keppinger is another veteran who has found himself in a surprising situation. Since Berkman was traded, Mills has slotted Kepp in the #3 slot of the lineup. How did that work out? He went 2 for 2 with a homer and 2 walks on Friday night, 3 for 5 on Saturday, and 1 for 4 wih a triple today.

One might think that after trading two of their most popular long-time star players in a really terrible year, the Astros might have lost all their fan support. The constant ads for cheap tickets and all-you-can-eat junk food might indicate a certain desperation for butts in seats. But from out here in Exile, I have to say that the Astros have made themselves a lot more interesting since the All Star break. Like most Astros fans, I'll miss the Wiz and the Puma, but I'd rather lose the rest of the season with some fresh new players than lose the rest of the season with the same old vets. There's something to be said for loyalty -- but there's also something to be said for hope.

There's also something to be said for seeing Jeff Bagwell in an Astros uniform in the dugout!

Ending an Era (Part 2)...

"Now batting fer yer Yankees, Designated Hitter, Laaaaaaaaance Berkman!"

I took a peek at the Gameday for the Yankes @ Rays game last night, to see how the Puma was doing with his new team. I didn't really have the heart to turn on the video and actually see Berkman in his new set of pinstripes (or whatever the Yankees wear on the road). I think I would have been happy for him if he'd been the hero of the game, but honestly, there was a bit of perverse pleasure to see that he was 0 for 4.

Berkman a Yankee. Devout Christian homebody in the Big Apple... how strange is that going to be? Meanwhile, the Little Pumas are looking for new costumes. Maybe the Astros will retire #17 someday. Who knows, maybe Berkman will even come back next year as a free agent? Before I write about who we got in trade, here are a few photo memories of Berkman as an Astro - there are a lot more on my Astros Fan in Exile Photo Album. Except for the first one (which was taken on my only trip to MMP ever in 2004), these photos were taken at Spring Training and the occasional Astros @ Nats games from 2005-2010.

Brings back the memories, huh?

Now on to the future. In trade for the Puma, the Astros acquired two minor league players:

Mark Melancon - 25 year old RHP, playing at the Triple A level, with a little big league time in 2009-2010 seasons. Facts and opinions gleaned from a mix of web sources: Yankees' 9th round draft pick in 2006,  had Tommy John surgery in 2006, has a mid-90s fastball, best pitch is his hard curve ball. Some concern about his control, with walks on the rise since last year. If he can get the walks down, he's a potential late inning reliever; if not, he's a guy who will come in to pitch a middle inning. Chances are he'll be up pitching for the Astros before too long, with DL churn, and then we'll see.

Jimmy Paredes - 21 year old Class A level infielder, plays mostly at second base, but can also play short and third. Switch-hitter with lots of speed. Strikes out a lot and makes a lot of errors - but hey, he's still youn. Likely potential to be a utility player, not a big league starter, but who knows - he's still a long way from baked. With coaching he could get better, or drop out, or get traded... there's a long road from low-A to the big leagues.

Neither of these guys are as interesting as the players we got for Oswalt. But sentimentality aside, Berkman hasn't had much of a season, and the Astros weren't planning to take up his option for next year. So a pair of prospects is still better than the nothing they'd have if they hadn't dealt now. And meanwhile, thanks to the Oswalt trade, we've got a replacement in Brett Wallace ready to play.

So long Puma. Good luck in NY - hope the change of clubhouse will turn around your bummer season.  Who knows, maybe we'll see you back some day, to finish off your career with the Astros.

In other news, the Nationals clobbered Roy O in his first start with the Phillies...