Astros Fan in Exile: Smack Down Those Angry Birds!

GAME 36: Orioles 4, Astros 3
GAME 37: Orioles 5, Astros 4
GAME 38: Astros 5, Orioles 2

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For a team that's playing .316 ball (alas, that's the win-loss record, not the team BA), the Astros don't really look that bad. True, they only took their requisite single win in the Baltimore series this weekend, but the losses were close ones. And the win... well, just wait - I've got new photos! Robert and I were at the Mother's Day game yesterday.

I missed the Friday night game, due to the Sabbath, but the play-by-play shows a ninth inning rally that put runners on the corners with no outs, and the Astros coming within a run of tying it up. Saturday night's game was a heart-breaker: With Houston trailing 3-2, two on and two outs in the ninth, Altuve hit a two-run single to put the Astros ahead. They went to the bottom of the ninth leading... and then the rain delay came. Almost an hour later, when the game resumed, Bass blew the save, allowing a pinch-hit run to tie the game, and then Clemens gave up the walk-off double in the bottom of the tenth for the Astros loss. On a cheerier note, both of these games had good starting pitching. Feldman threw 6 innings in his return from the DL Friday night, giving up 2 runs on solo homers, striking out 6 and walking none. On Saturday night, McHugh pitched into the 7th inning, giving up 2 runs on 7 hits, still keeping his ERA under 3. (Looks like he'd like to maintain that spot on the big league rotation!) So, two losses - but like the Tiger series before, the games were close ones against division-leading teams. With a season like this, you've got to be happy with small signs of improvement!

On to Sunday's day game, which Robert and I attended. I bought tickets on the third base line, 4 rows back - about where I normally like to sit at Spring Training, but without the bullpen right in front of us. I figured that would keep Robert from getting too bored (he's not a baseball fan), just watching out for foul balls. In lieu of batting practice, there was a long parade of little league teams, marching around the stadium. Many had team jerseys with major league team names - I felt sorry for the few poor kids who had to show up at a Baltimore game wearing Astros jerseys! Meanwhile, a number of the Astros were sporting pink armbands, bats, cleats, etc, in honor of Mother's Day.

The game got off to a great start for the Astros - a pair of walks, followed by a 3-run homer to deep center field for our DH, Jason Castro. (Check out the pink cleats!) Orioles starter, Chris Tillman, must have beat himself up a bit over that -- those quick 3 runs turned out to be the difference in the game.

Like the other starting pitchers in this series, Jarred Cosart had a good game, throwing 6 innings of 2 run ball. Both runs came in a series of 4 consecutive singles in the third inning.

Marc Krauss gave Cosart a bit of breathing room with a 2-run homer in the top of the 7th, putting the Astros ahead by 3.

After that, it was a question of whether our beleaguered bullpen could hold onto the 5-2 lead. The new guy on the team, Tony Sipp, made it look pretty easy - he pitched 1-2-3 7th and 8th innings, shutting down his 6 batters with 5 Ks and a ground ball.

In a deja vu, 2005 kind of moment, Chad Qualls came in to close. Other than a hit batter, he pitched an uneventful ninth for the save.

Other game notes: Altuve had another multi-hit game - two singles and a double. Was hoping to catch a photo of him stealing base, but there wasn't any theft going on in this game. Says something about a team when the only guy in the lineup with a batting average over .250 is the 5'6" second baseman! Altuve's a really fun player to watch and to photograph. (Unfortunately, I don't have ANY pictures of him batting - every time he was up to the plate, the third base coach blocked my view.)

It was exciting to get to see George Springer play, although I was disappointed that I wasn't treated to a Springer Dinger. Although he got a nice pair of hits the night before (double and homer #2), he was 0 for 5 in this game, with 4 strikeouts. In all he had 8 Ks over the weekend - still some work to do to get used to that major league pitching!

Oh yeah - did I mention that we won the game!?! That's our one win for this series.

I was sorry that there weren't more Astros fans at the game. Besides Robert and myself, I only saw one other guy in the stands with an Astros jersey. (Maybe I should have splurged and bought tickets right over the Astros dugout!) But after the game, I came across Rob Witt (AKA #1 Santa), a fellow Astros Tweeter, and we exchanged some nice memories of Astros games past! Follow Rob on Twitter here. And follow ME on Twitter here!