GAME 58 - June 7: Rockies 5, Astros 1
GAME 59 - June 8: Astros 4, Rockies 3
GAME 60 - June 9: Astros 6, Rockies 2
GAME 61 - June 10: Astros 5, Rockies 4
This was a really big week for baseball lovers, with the 2010 Draft and Stephen Strasburg's ML debut competing with the Astros four-game series in Denver for my attention. I have to talk about Strasburg first, since everyone else is talking about him, from Jason Stark to David Letterman. I'm sure if I Googled, I might even find a congratulatory quote from President Obama. So here's my take...
I have a confession to make. If it had been the Astros playing the Nationals last Tuesday evening, I would have had to cheer for the Nats. I can't help it. With all the hype about Strasburg over the last year -- and especially in the last week or two -- it was such a setup for disappointment. Instead, it was an incredible pitching performance by a young man who's only one month older than my youngest daughter. It was not just an amazing start for a rookie -- it would have been a fantastic game even for an ace. While the 99 MPH fast ball and the 14 strikeouts in 7 innings garnered most of the headlines, I think I was most impressed with Strasburg's curveball. How was a kid like that throwing those nasty curves, with most of them coming in for strikes? No, actually, I was even more impressed with his composure. He just didn't seem to be fazed by it, and once or twice, he even allowed himself a small smile. I think the kid was having fun. I don't think that I'm going to change my allegiance from the Astros to the Nats, but I do plan to start watching more Nats games -- every five days when Strasburg is pitching. What a treat.
With the 2010 Draft taking place the same week, Strasburg's debut raised one idea in my head. I've been claiming that the Astros are going to turn this sinking ship around and start winning lots of games (and come back to win the Pennant - might as well be totally optimistic). But what if they don't? Would it really be so terrible to be absolutely, positively the worst team in the Major Leagues, if it meant that you could get the first pick in the first round of next year's draft? If you lucked out and there was another Strasburg to be had by the lucky first-pick team? And if you had, say, a spare $15 mil laying around to sign him with. Just a thought... Not a serious one - I get the impressing that players like Strasburg come along once in a decade (or a generation!), not every year. But somebody out of every draft is going to turn out to be a future superstar. If we're going to have a crappy season, may as well go all the way.
Now about this week's Astros games...
The Astros went to Denver with high hopes, anxious to keep their winning streak going. They got off to a disappointing start to the four-game series against the Rockies, with another no-run-support game for Wandy. After pitching 7 innings, giving up 3 runs on 9 hits and 3 walks, with an unusually low 2 strikeouts, Wandy ended up earning the loss, his 8th of the season. It wasn't that the Astros didn't get any base runners -- they had 9 hits and 3 walks to work with. But they only managed to turn them into a single run, scored in the ninth inning. Too little, too late.
The rest of the series went much better. Each of the games was close, but the Astros managed to prevail at the end. The only one that doesn't look close was Game 3, whose 2-2 tie ended in the tenth inning with a two-out grand slam from Carlos Lee. It was the second night in the row that Lee had saved the game with his bat. In the eighth inning of Game 2, El Caballo had blooped a single into left to give the Astros their go-ahead run. While his batting average is still abysmally low (.224), it's creeping up. More importantly, Lee is starting to hit for power and to get RBIs, and is looking more like a Caballo than a Cabro all the time.
The Astros starting pitching was excellent in Denver, despite Mile High Stadium's reputation for being a big hitters ballpark. All of the Astros starters pitched quality starts. Moehler threw 8 innings on Tuesday night, giving up 3 runs in the first inning, and then shutting down the Rockies through the eighth. On Wednesday, Paulino had another terrific game, giving up only 2 runs and striking out 7 in his 8 innings on the mound. Due to the Astros' late-inning heroics in both these games, neither of them got a decision. On Thursday afternoon, it was Roy O's turn to shine. After two consecutive less than stellar starts, he was due for a nice game and he got it -- giving up 2 runs on 4 hits in 7 innings. This time, however, the Astros didn't have to play come-from-behind, and Oswalt managed to eke out a rare win. He's only got a 3.16 ERA with 11 quality starts this season, but unfortunately that only translates into a 4-8 record.
The outcome of this trio of wins is yet another series win for the Astros, pushing their record in June to 8-2. More importantly, they are no longer the worst team in the league -- not even tied! They are not even in last place in the Central Division - on a 5-game losing streak, that honor goes to the Pirates. The Astros now are ahead of two teams, and within half a game of the Brewers. So things are looking up, heading to New York for a weekend series against stiffer competition -- the Yankees.
All this good playing, amazing defense, clutch hitting, and good pitching may end up backfiring against the Astros long term, if it means that they don't get low picks in next year's player draft. The team had three picks the first day -- two in the first round, and one after for not resigning free-agent Valverde. They first picked a couple of high school: Delino DeShields Jr (a Michael Bourn type speedy outfielder whose Sr was a major league player for years) and Mike Foltynewicz (a hard-throwing right handed pitcher). They then selected a college-aged switch-hitting third baseman, Mike Kvasnicka, for their third pick. Supposedly these guys want to sign and play, and the Astros hope not to repeat the fiasco of the 2007 draft. I don't know much about these guys, or about any of the many other youngsters drafted in the rest of the week. Getting to know more about them will be something fun to do in the off season, in preparation for seeing new faces next March at Spring Training.
Time to shut down for the Sabbath. Hope to come back 25 hours from now to find that I have my choice of two Astros wins over the Yankees to watch tomorrow night. One can always dream.
Shabbat Shalom!
Friday, June 11, 2010
Sunday, June 6, 2010
GAMES 55-57: Guess What! The Astros are NOT the Worst Team in the NL
GAME 55 - June 4: Astros 3, Cubs 1
GAME 56 - June 5: Cubs 8, Astros 5
GAME 57 - June 6: Astros 6, Cubs 3
By the end of the week-long homestand, in which the Astros won 5 of their 7 games, the team has attained a milestone of sorts: The Astros are no longer the worst team in the National League. They're tied with the Diamondbacks for that distinction. I know, it's a pretty dubious claim, but for a team that was alone in the cellar, it's one step at a time to get out. And with Pittsburgh and Milwaukee within a game's reach, the second step could be soon.
The two wins in the weekend series against the Cubs featured solid starting pitching, combined with a basic need that has eluded Houston all season: Good hitting from the heart of the order. All season, Bourn has been the leadoff hitter we've wanted him to be and Keppinger has been better than expected, while our power guys have been in a grotesque slump. Pence started coming back a few weeks ago, Berkman's starting to heat up, and Lee - well, he's improving, especially in the power department. In the past two weeks, Berkman's batting average has improved from .233 to .266, and Pence's from .250 to .277. These are semi-respectable batting averages, and given where these guys were a month ago, it shows a tremendous improvement. If they keep it up, at this rate, they'll be back where they ought to be by the All Star Game. (It's a pretty fair bet that Houston won't be represented there this year!) Lee's batting average is just .217, but given how long he spent under .200, it's at least headed in the right direction. More importantly, he's started to hit for power.
In the two games that Houston won in this weekend's series, the three went 9 for 18 with 4 walks and 2 stolen bases. In the game in the middle that they lost, they went 2 for 11, with 1 walk. It's kind of a "duh," but it shows the value of getting significant action out of the heart of the order. Now, if we could just get a big boost in the extra-base hit department...
The two games that Houston won also featured excellent starting pitching. Paulino, who went into Friday night's game with the absolute worst run support in the league, pitched another beauty. He threw 8 innings, giving up only 1 run on 5 hits and 2 walks, striking out 7. His fastball is clocking at second highest average in the league. A bit of help from the offense (1 run scored in the first and another two in the fifth) was all he needed to finally (!) earn his first win of the season. When I watched this Sabbath eve game on Sunday morning, I noted one thing that was not apparent from the box score: In the first inning, Berkman hit an RBI single, but got hung up between first and second on a bad base-running move for the second out. This was followed by a double by Lee and a pair of walks to load the bases. Feliz flied out to right to end the inning. Had Berkman stayed on first, and the rest of the scenario played out, Houston would have gotten at least a couple more runs in the first inning. Happily the Astros won, but in a year where runs have been scarce, it's a shame to lose any on messy base running.
Myers had another solid start in Sunday's win - he pitched 6 2/3 innings, giving up 2 runs on 8 hits and a walk, striking out 6. In his usual fashion, he allowed a mess of base runners and then (for the most part) wiggled out of trouble without too much damage. Mills lifted him with 2 outs and 2 on in the seventh, bringing in Lopez to get the last out of the inning. I won't say Myers went out kicking and screaming, but he was clearly not happy to get pulled. For all that I've had misgivings about Brett Myers, from his off-the-field history, he's turned out to be quite a good addition to the rotation this year. He's pitched well, and he's a scrappy fighter. With his ERA right around 3, he's the only Astros starter with a winning record so far this season. Myers got good backup from the pen. Lopez gave up a run in the eighth, but Lyon and Lindstrom combined to finish it up. The Astros got off to a quick lead in the first inning, with base hits from the first 5 batters, including a homer by Lee.
In the losing record department, Oswalt made a mess out of the Saturday night game. When I turned on the computer after the Sabbath ended, the score was 8-3 in the eighth inning. I watched the rest of the game, as much to see and hear Jeff Bagwell (who's in the broadcast booth for Saturday home games) as anything. The Astros did eke out a pair of runs in the bottom of the ninth, but it was too little too late. They got into trouble early and often in this game, with Oswalt's seven innings accounting for 6 runs on 9 hits, including a pair of homers. After ten solid starts to kick off the season, Roy ("Available to the Highest Contending Bidder") Oswalt has not fared well in this homestand. Last week he gave up 4 runs and was booted out of the game in the third inning - not his fault, really, but you could tell he was pretty pissed off. Last night, he just had a bad game. Can't win 'em all. Unfortunately, for Oswalt, he can't seem to win hardly any this season. It's not hard to see why he's looking for a change in scenery.
Astros are off to Denver for the next 4 games, and then to New York for a weekend series against the Yankees. Too bad I have to work - this would be a fun week to visit my sisters in Denver and then my sons and daughters-in-law in NY. It's going to be hard to decide which ball game to watch Tuesday night - the Astros or the Nats. I don't generally follow the Nationals, even though they are my "local" team here in Maryland, but for Stephen Strasburg's ML debut, I could make an exception.
GAME 56 - June 5: Cubs 8, Astros 5
GAME 57 - June 6: Astros 6, Cubs 3
By the end of the week-long homestand, in which the Astros won 5 of their 7 games, the team has attained a milestone of sorts: The Astros are no longer the worst team in the National League. They're tied with the Diamondbacks for that distinction. I know, it's a pretty dubious claim, but for a team that was alone in the cellar, it's one step at a time to get out. And with Pittsburgh and Milwaukee within a game's reach, the second step could be soon.
The two wins in the weekend series against the Cubs featured solid starting pitching, combined with a basic need that has eluded Houston all season: Good hitting from the heart of the order. All season, Bourn has been the leadoff hitter we've wanted him to be and Keppinger has been better than expected, while our power guys have been in a grotesque slump. Pence started coming back a few weeks ago, Berkman's starting to heat up, and Lee - well, he's improving, especially in the power department. In the past two weeks, Berkman's batting average has improved from .233 to .266, and Pence's from .250 to .277. These are semi-respectable batting averages, and given where these guys were a month ago, it shows a tremendous improvement. If they keep it up, at this rate, they'll be back where they ought to be by the All Star Game. (It's a pretty fair bet that Houston won't be represented there this year!) Lee's batting average is just .217, but given how long he spent under .200, it's at least headed in the right direction. More importantly, he's started to hit for power.
In the two games that Houston won in this weekend's series, the three went 9 for 18 with 4 walks and 2 stolen bases. In the game in the middle that they lost, they went 2 for 11, with 1 walk. It's kind of a "duh," but it shows the value of getting significant action out of the heart of the order. Now, if we could just get a big boost in the extra-base hit department...
The two games that Houston won also featured excellent starting pitching. Paulino, who went into Friday night's game with the absolute worst run support in the league, pitched another beauty. He threw 8 innings, giving up only 1 run on 5 hits and 2 walks, striking out 7. His fastball is clocking at second highest average in the league. A bit of help from the offense (1 run scored in the first and another two in the fifth) was all he needed to finally (!) earn his first win of the season. When I watched this Sabbath eve game on Sunday morning, I noted one thing that was not apparent from the box score: In the first inning, Berkman hit an RBI single, but got hung up between first and second on a bad base-running move for the second out. This was followed by a double by Lee and a pair of walks to load the bases. Feliz flied out to right to end the inning. Had Berkman stayed on first, and the rest of the scenario played out, Houston would have gotten at least a couple more runs in the first inning. Happily the Astros won, but in a year where runs have been scarce, it's a shame to lose any on messy base running.
Myers had another solid start in Sunday's win - he pitched 6 2/3 innings, giving up 2 runs on 8 hits and a walk, striking out 6. In his usual fashion, he allowed a mess of base runners and then (for the most part) wiggled out of trouble without too much damage. Mills lifted him with 2 outs and 2 on in the seventh, bringing in Lopez to get the last out of the inning. I won't say Myers went out kicking and screaming, but he was clearly not happy to get pulled. For all that I've had misgivings about Brett Myers, from his off-the-field history, he's turned out to be quite a good addition to the rotation this year. He's pitched well, and he's a scrappy fighter. With his ERA right around 3, he's the only Astros starter with a winning record so far this season. Myers got good backup from the pen. Lopez gave up a run in the eighth, but Lyon and Lindstrom combined to finish it up. The Astros got off to a quick lead in the first inning, with base hits from the first 5 batters, including a homer by Lee.
In the losing record department, Oswalt made a mess out of the Saturday night game. When I turned on the computer after the Sabbath ended, the score was 8-3 in the eighth inning. I watched the rest of the game, as much to see and hear Jeff Bagwell (who's in the broadcast booth for Saturday home games) as anything. The Astros did eke out a pair of runs in the bottom of the ninth, but it was too little too late. They got into trouble early and often in this game, with Oswalt's seven innings accounting for 6 runs on 9 hits, including a pair of homers. After ten solid starts to kick off the season, Roy ("Available to the Highest Contending Bidder") Oswalt has not fared well in this homestand. Last week he gave up 4 runs and was booted out of the game in the third inning - not his fault, really, but you could tell he was pretty pissed off. Last night, he just had a bad game. Can't win 'em all. Unfortunately, for Oswalt, he can't seem to win hardly any this season. It's not hard to see why he's looking for a change in scenery.
Astros are off to Denver for the next 4 games, and then to New York for a weekend series against the Yankees. Too bad I have to work - this would be a fun week to visit my sisters in Denver and then my sons and daughters-in-law in NY. It's going to be hard to decide which ball game to watch Tuesday night - the Astros or the Nats. I don't generally follow the Nationals, even though they are my "local" team here in Maryland, but for Stephen Strasburg's ML debut, I could make an exception.
Friday, June 4, 2010
GAMES 52-54: A Perfect Shame...
GAME 52 - June 1: Astros 8, Nationals 7
GAME 53 - June 2: Astros 5, Nationals 1
GAME 54 - June 3: Astros 6, Nationals 4
The Astros bounced back from a very depressing Memorial Day, winning the rest of the four-game series with the Nats. In all three of these games, the Astros played like a real baseball team - they got clutch hits and scored runs, made some fantastic defensive plays, and pitched well (or well enough). Two of the four games ended up with walk-off hits, after Lindstrom had blown the save. Happily, neither case resulted in an Astros player getting injured, like the Angels player whose leg was broken in the melee at the plate after hitting a walk-off grand slam last weekend.
Before I talk about the games, I want to make an observation about sportsmanship. Monday's Astros game was ugly - not only because of the blowout score, but also because of the bad feelings associated with the aggressive behavior of the plate umpire, Bill Hohn. A day after he ejected Oswalt, who had done nothing more than yell at himself for a bad pitch (not facing the umpire), he was apparently given a "stern" talking to by the powers that be in MLB. Replays of the inning didn't show any behavior on Oswalt's part that warranted being thrown out; Hohn seemed to be on the attack. If he apologized for this, I never heard about it.
Compare this to what happened Wednesday night, when another umpire, Jim Joyce, miscalled what would have been the 27th out of a perfect game for Tigers' pitcher Armando Galarraga. It was clear that the play at first, which he called safe, was actual an out -- it wasn't even really close. The players and the Detroit home-town crowd went berserk. The game ended with a Tigers win when the next batter made what should have been the 28th out. Joyce, admitting afterwards that he'd made a terrible mistake, was humble and clearly horribly upset by it. He apologized to Galarraga. The next night Joyce was scheduled to ump behind the plate -- a clear set up for ump abuse. He could have gotten out of it, but he's a pro, and didn't ask. The Tigers decided to have Galarraga carry the lineup card out to the umpires before the game, to set up the situation for a public face-to-face meeting and handshake between him and a visibly emotional Joyce.
So what happened here? The ump who should be unanimously reviled for a dreadful mistake ended up getting a lot of public sympathy for his tearful remorse, and the cheated pitcher was seen as exhibiting tremendous sportsmanship. It's times like this that one can gripe about the way that baseball handles umping errors, but still feel that they've seen the true grace of sportsmanship. That's baseball at its best - how can anyone not love this game? Meanwhile, back in Houston, a much lesser ump mistake (booting Oswalt for no good reason) ended up with just bad feelings all around. The bad guy in the perfect shame story might actually be Commissioner Bud Selig, who has the authority -- should he choose to use it -- to overturn the call and award the perfect game. Apparently, he's chosen not to use it.
One other interesting note from the near-perfect game: I heard a lot of comments about the erroneous call being "tragic." It was extremely unfortunate. It was a damn shame. But it wasn't a tragedy. It would have been tragic if that fateful pitch had resulted in a liner that hit a player (or ump) in the head and killed them. This was a game, played by professionals, not life and death.
Meanwhile, back to the Nats games. One could be snide about it and say that it was "just the Nationals." However, when you're as far down as the Astros, playing a Nationals team that's got a .500 record, a little respect is warranted. The Nationals are doing much better than anyone expected this season, and with super-prospect Stephen Strasburg coming up for his debut next week, they are a team to watch. The Astros played some good ballgames against the Nats, while Washington was sunk by errors and blown saves.
I'll talk about Tuesday and Thursday's games together, since they had similar patterns: In both games, Houston took an early lead, which they then squandered on bad pitching by Lindstrom in the top of the ninth. And in both games, the Washington closer Matt Capps got down to the last out before giving up a walkoff hit to a player whose problematical fielding had contributed to the Nats lead. Tuesday it was Berkman who had made a fielding error in the fifth that led to 3 unearned runs for the Nats. In the ninth, after Lindstrom had blown a save opportunity by giving up 2 runs, the Astros managed to load the bases (thanks in part to a Nats error). That brought up Berkman with two outs. On a 1-2 count, he "checked" his swing, according to the plate umpire. A strike would have been the third out, ending the game, but the appeal went to (who else?) third base ump Bill Hohn (the same!) who upheld the no-swing call. (The replay sure looked like a strike.) Puma knocked the next pitch into left field, scoring a pair of runs to win the game.
On Thursday, it was Carlos Lee who went from goat to hero on a single swing. He had made an unfortunate (but not erroneous) play on a 2 out blooper in the top of the ninth, which resulted in the Nats tying the game. Lindstrom allowed another run to score, giving the Nats the lead heading into the bottom of the ninth. Berkman got lucky again - he hit a 2-out liner to right, which should have been caught to end the game. But the Nats' Guzman, who already had 2 errors at short before being moved to right field, lost the ball in the lights and it dropped. Then Lee the Goat went back to his Stallion status with a big fat walkoff homer. It was funny to watch him approach the plate after running the bases -- he had both hands out like he was pleading with his jubilant teammates not to clobber him. (I'm sure he was aware of the broken leg in Anaheim.)
Compared to these nail-biters, Wednesday's game appears (from the 5-1 score) to be a walk in the park. But it also had it's nerve-wracking moments. Wandy only gave up 1 run on 5 hits, 3 walks, and 8 strikeouts. But he threw so many pitches in the process that he was at 115 after just 5 innings. Good run support (including a homer by Lee) and solid relief pitching by Lopez, Brydak, Daigle, and Chacin kept the Nats from stealing away Wandy's chance at his third season win. The Astros also benefited from Washington errors in this game - including a single play that resulted in TWO errors for Nats shortstop Ian Desmond. It was, by the way, Casey Daigle's first major league appearance since 2006. Daigle was called up that day to fill in for Sampson, who's on the DL.
GAME 53 - June 2: Astros 5, Nationals 1
GAME 54 - June 3: Astros 6, Nationals 4
The Astros bounced back from a very depressing Memorial Day, winning the rest of the four-game series with the Nats. In all three of these games, the Astros played like a real baseball team - they got clutch hits and scored runs, made some fantastic defensive plays, and pitched well (or well enough). Two of the four games ended up with walk-off hits, after Lindstrom had blown the save. Happily, neither case resulted in an Astros player getting injured, like the Angels player whose leg was broken in the melee at the plate after hitting a walk-off grand slam last weekend.
Before I talk about the games, I want to make an observation about sportsmanship. Monday's Astros game was ugly - not only because of the blowout score, but also because of the bad feelings associated with the aggressive behavior of the plate umpire, Bill Hohn. A day after he ejected Oswalt, who had done nothing more than yell at himself for a bad pitch (not facing the umpire), he was apparently given a "stern" talking to by the powers that be in MLB. Replays of the inning didn't show any behavior on Oswalt's part that warranted being thrown out; Hohn seemed to be on the attack. If he apologized for this, I never heard about it.
Compare this to what happened Wednesday night, when another umpire, Jim Joyce, miscalled what would have been the 27th out of a perfect game for Tigers' pitcher Armando Galarraga. It was clear that the play at first, which he called safe, was actual an out -- it wasn't even really close. The players and the Detroit home-town crowd went berserk. The game ended with a Tigers win when the next batter made what should have been the 28th out. Joyce, admitting afterwards that he'd made a terrible mistake, was humble and clearly horribly upset by it. He apologized to Galarraga. The next night Joyce was scheduled to ump behind the plate -- a clear set up for ump abuse. He could have gotten out of it, but he's a pro, and didn't ask. The Tigers decided to have Galarraga carry the lineup card out to the umpires before the game, to set up the situation for a public face-to-face meeting and handshake between him and a visibly emotional Joyce.
So what happened here? The ump who should be unanimously reviled for a dreadful mistake ended up getting a lot of public sympathy for his tearful remorse, and the cheated pitcher was seen as exhibiting tremendous sportsmanship. It's times like this that one can gripe about the way that baseball handles umping errors, but still feel that they've seen the true grace of sportsmanship. That's baseball at its best - how can anyone not love this game? Meanwhile, back in Houston, a much lesser ump mistake (booting Oswalt for no good reason) ended up with just bad feelings all around. The bad guy in the perfect shame story might actually be Commissioner Bud Selig, who has the authority -- should he choose to use it -- to overturn the call and award the perfect game. Apparently, he's chosen not to use it.
One other interesting note from the near-perfect game: I heard a lot of comments about the erroneous call being "tragic." It was extremely unfortunate. It was a damn shame. But it wasn't a tragedy. It would have been tragic if that fateful pitch had resulted in a liner that hit a player (or ump) in the head and killed them. This was a game, played by professionals, not life and death.
Meanwhile, back to the Nats games. One could be snide about it and say that it was "just the Nationals." However, when you're as far down as the Astros, playing a Nationals team that's got a .500 record, a little respect is warranted. The Nationals are doing much better than anyone expected this season, and with super-prospect Stephen Strasburg coming up for his debut next week, they are a team to watch. The Astros played some good ballgames against the Nats, while Washington was sunk by errors and blown saves.
I'll talk about Tuesday and Thursday's games together, since they had similar patterns: In both games, Houston took an early lead, which they then squandered on bad pitching by Lindstrom in the top of the ninth. And in both games, the Washington closer Matt Capps got down to the last out before giving up a walkoff hit to a player whose problematical fielding had contributed to the Nats lead. Tuesday it was Berkman who had made a fielding error in the fifth that led to 3 unearned runs for the Nats. In the ninth, after Lindstrom had blown a save opportunity by giving up 2 runs, the Astros managed to load the bases (thanks in part to a Nats error). That brought up Berkman with two outs. On a 1-2 count, he "checked" his swing, according to the plate umpire. A strike would have been the third out, ending the game, but the appeal went to (who else?) third base ump Bill Hohn (the same!) who upheld the no-swing call. (The replay sure looked like a strike.) Puma knocked the next pitch into left field, scoring a pair of runs to win the game.
On Thursday, it was Carlos Lee who went from goat to hero on a single swing. He had made an unfortunate (but not erroneous) play on a 2 out blooper in the top of the ninth, which resulted in the Nats tying the game. Lindstrom allowed another run to score, giving the Nats the lead heading into the bottom of the ninth. Berkman got lucky again - he hit a 2-out liner to right, which should have been caught to end the game. But the Nats' Guzman, who already had 2 errors at short before being moved to right field, lost the ball in the lights and it dropped. Then Lee the Goat went back to his Stallion status with a big fat walkoff homer. It was funny to watch him approach the plate after running the bases -- he had both hands out like he was pleading with his jubilant teammates not to clobber him. (I'm sure he was aware of the broken leg in Anaheim.)
Compared to these nail-biters, Wednesday's game appears (from the 5-1 score) to be a walk in the park. But it also had it's nerve-wracking moments. Wandy only gave up 1 run on 5 hits, 3 walks, and 8 strikeouts. But he threw so many pitches in the process that he was at 115 after just 5 innings. Good run support (including a homer by Lee) and solid relief pitching by Lopez, Brydak, Daigle, and Chacin kept the Nats from stealing away Wandy's chance at his third season win. The Astros also benefited from Washington errors in this game - including a single play that resulted in TWO errors for Nats shortstop Ian Desmond. It was, by the way, Casey Daigle's first major league appearance since 2006. Daigle was called up that day to fill in for Sampson, who's on the DL.
Monday, May 31, 2010
GAME 51: I'm on Strike
GAME 51 - May 31: Nationals 14, Astros 4
I got up early today so that I could do some gardening before the temperature hit 90. It was not pleasant; I hate hot weather. But I kept reminding myself that after a few hours of misery, I'd be able to reward myself with a cool shower, a glass of wine, and the pleasure of watching Roy Oswalt on the mound for the Astros.
I should have known that things weren't going to be hunky dory when I logged onto mlb.tv, and it told me that the game was blacked out - for me. The Astros were playing at home, but their opponents were my "local" team (the one I don't cheer for), so I wasn't allowed to watch the game online. I grumbled and clicked on the radio broadcast, which was not blacked out. After a few minutes, it occurred to me that since it was a local game, it was probably on television. What a concept: baseball on television. I never watch TV, but my husband does, so we do have one. Sure enough, the game was on TV, but I was stuck with the MASN broadcast. After an inning or so, I realized that I didn't really need to listen to the Washington broadcasters. I muted the TV, and turned on mlb.tv's Houston radio stream on my laptop. Little problems, easy to solve. I settled in to watch the game.
The Astros had big problems, hard to solve. From the start, Oswalt was clearly unhappy with umpire Bill Hohn's pitch calling. In the third inning, after one particular strike that was called a ball, the camera caught the Wiz turning away with a kind of weird smile. Not a good kind of smile. A couple of minutes later, Oswalt was ejected, the Astros were down 4-1, and the game was on its way to complete and crazy meltdown.
I said in the title that I'm on strike, and I am. Strike 1. I'm not going to tell you how the Nationals ended up beating us by 10 runs today. You can read it on astros.com or in the Chronicle. I'm done for the day.
But you know what Scarlett said: Tomorrow is another day.
I got up early today so that I could do some gardening before the temperature hit 90. It was not pleasant; I hate hot weather. But I kept reminding myself that after a few hours of misery, I'd be able to reward myself with a cool shower, a glass of wine, and the pleasure of watching Roy Oswalt on the mound for the Astros.
I should have known that things weren't going to be hunky dory when I logged onto mlb.tv, and it told me that the game was blacked out - for me. The Astros were playing at home, but their opponents were my "local" team (the one I don't cheer for), so I wasn't allowed to watch the game online. I grumbled and clicked on the radio broadcast, which was not blacked out. After a few minutes, it occurred to me that since it was a local game, it was probably on television. What a concept: baseball on television. I never watch TV, but my husband does, so we do have one. Sure enough, the game was on TV, but I was stuck with the MASN broadcast. After an inning or so, I realized that I didn't really need to listen to the Washington broadcasters. I muted the TV, and turned on mlb.tv's Houston radio stream on my laptop. Little problems, easy to solve. I settled in to watch the game.
The Astros had big problems, hard to solve. From the start, Oswalt was clearly unhappy with umpire Bill Hohn's pitch calling. In the third inning, after one particular strike that was called a ball, the camera caught the Wiz turning away with a kind of weird smile. Not a good kind of smile. A couple of minutes later, Oswalt was ejected, the Astros were down 4-1, and the game was on its way to complete and crazy meltdown.
I said in the title that I'm on strike, and I am. Strike 1. I'm not going to tell you how the Nationals ended up beating us by 10 runs today. You can read it on astros.com or in the Chronicle. I'm done for the day.
But you know what Scarlett said: Tomorrow is another day.
Sunday, May 30, 2010
GAMES 46-50: Has the Chronicle Run the Tombstone Yet?
GAME 46 - May 26: Astros 5, Brewers 0
GAME 47 - May 27: Brewers 4, Astros 3
GAME 48 - May 28: Reds 15, Astros 6
GAME 49 - May 29: Reds 12, Astros 2
GAME 50 - May 30: Astros 2, Reds 0
The Astros' run into the Memorial Day Weekend begs for a special kind of memorial: The Tombstone labeled RIP for the Astros season. Like the one that the Houston Chronicle ran in 2005:
I've always kind of thought that that it was that in-your-face loss of faith by the hometown rag that turned the Astros around in 2005. Here's the headline from Jose de Jesus Ortiz's column that day: "It's June 1; Astros season pretty much over." And here's what I said in my game diary that day: "I know I'm a sucker for the Astros. But I'm not giving up yet." Really - you can read my 2005 game diary here.
Last week when the Astros hit 15-30 there was a lot of banter about how that magic number was somehow going to result in another pennant in 2010 -- a lot of it coming from me. And a whole lot more banter about how that was wishful, or even delusional, thinking. Some of the latter came from cranks and bashers, but much of it was from thoughtful and reasonable people, like fellow blogger River Austin and Astros social media director Alyson Footer. I admit that I kind of lean towards their point of view when I'm being thoughtful and reasonable. Or when I'm just plain frustrated, like last night when I checked the scoreboard after the Sabbath ended and saw that the Reds had outscored the Astros 27-8 in the Friday and Saturday games.
But then I go back and read snippets from my game diary in the first third of the 2005 season, and I'm overwhelmed with how awful that team was, and how similar the problems were. Take the June 1 game, which the Astros won 4-1 over the Reds. Quote from then-manager Garner: "As long as it was one more than they had." That was in response being asked what he thought of the Astros scoring FOUR (count 'em, 4!) runs in one game. Sound familiar? Do you remember how the Astros were shut out TEN TIMES in the first two full months of the season? How the Pirates shut out the Astros in both games of a two-game series? In the first two months, the Astros were unbelievably inept at scoring runs, and it was unthinkable that even their 1-2-3 punch of pitchers (Oswalt, Clemens, and Pettitte) could dig them out of the hole they were hiding in. If you want to feel any hope whatsoever for this equally horrible season, go back and read my game diaries from May, 2005 - they're on my Astros Fan in Exile website (or just click here).
More reasonable and less optimistic minds than mine will point out that when they did turn around, the 2005 Astros actually had a lot better raw materials to work with, starting with that Trynamic Trio of starting pitchers. With Oswalt (if he isn't traded) and Wandy (if he can repeat or beat last year), we've got a Dynamic Duo, but the rest is up for grabs. The bullpen, in general, has been performing - I've been impressed by that since Spring Training. And, although the batting has been (FILL IN YOUR OWN CURSE WORD HERE), the power potential of this lineup is tremendous. I cannot explain what would cause players like Berkman, Pence, and Lee to hit as badly as they did in the start of this season. But in case you weren't paying attention, these guys aren't batting under .200 anymore. Pence has made a huge jump - his batting average is up to .278 and he's knocked in 8 homers, most of them in recent games. Berkman hasn't made quite as flamboyant improvement, but the general direction has been up. Lee, well, I don't know what to say about El Caballo. The Astros have also shown a willingness to cut out some of their non-performing starters to give other players a chance - so long Matsui, welcome Keppinger.
Seems to me that, if you go back and look at the roster from 2005, our current team should be churning out a lot more runs than the team that won the Pennant (and then, by the way, failed to produce runs in the World Series). The 2005 Astros ended up ranking pretty low in most of the batting categories except for getting hit by pitches. No one on that lineup hit .300 in 2005. They did have guys who could hit long balls - that was the year Ensberg hit 36 homers, with Lane (26), Biggio (26), and Berkman (24) doing their fair share. But overall, despite the horrible stats to start this season, I think the current Astros team will turn out to be better offensively than the 2005 gang. Defensively, it's a solid team also - except perhaps for Carlos Lee in left. He's just painful to watch.
This is a long rambling excuse for saying that I haven't yet written off the 2010 Astros. In my heart of hearts, I don't really BELIEVE they will make the playoffs (okay, Austin?), but I do think that they are incredibly underperforming, and that they can have a winning season. I don't really think that they are worse than the 2005 team that won the Pennant. But I will admit that the 2005 Astros might have just been an freaky aberration of baseball history - the last chance for Biggio and Bagwell to play in the World Series just kind of magically happened.
I guess I should throw in a few words about the ball games listed at the top of this blog. Game 46, Oswalt's first start since he asked to be traded, looked like his audition for a role on a contending team. He did just about everything right in his tenth quality start of the season: He shut out the Brewers for 8 innings, giving up only 4 hits and 1 walks, and striking out 9. His ERA is down to 2.35, and only the Astros abysmal inability to score on his watch can account for his 3-6 record. This guy should be one of the top winners in the league. If he was annoyed with all of the no-decisions the Astros handed him last year, he's got to be fuming over the losses he's been stuck with so far this year. Hard to blame him for wanting a trade, but of course I'm hoping that he doesn't get it. He must have been just about in shock in last Wednesday's game, with the Astros scoring in 4 of the first 5 innings. This game was a perfect example of what would go right if the middle of our lineup would just get hits: Pence, Lee, and Berkman (batting 3, 4, and 5) went 7 for 12, with a couple of walks also, and batted in 4 of the 5 runs. Sure, they weren't batting against a Cy Young contender (Narveson), but this is how the heart of the order is supposed to bat!
I missed Thursday afternoon's game, while I was keeping my husband company in the hospital as he had a medical procedure done. I did follow it off and on, using my Blackberry, keeping an eye on the Astros' slim lead. Right up until Lindstrom gave up the tying run in the bottom of the ninth and then walked in the winning run in the tenth. And no, I didn't watch the video of that game on the archive when I got home. I was already gloomy enough that my 14-year old Saturn died on the way back home from the hospital (clutch just stopped clutching). We did get home safely, abandoning the car in a bus lane. And the good news is that my husband checked out with excellent results. I'll have to buy a new car, but can keep the same husband.
The Astros moved to Division-leading Cincinnati for the weekend. I don't watch ballgames on the Sabbath, so I missed hours of angst as the Reds clobbered the Astros, 15-6 on Friday night and 12-2 on Saturday. The Reds' Friday starter may be a Cy Young contender - but not until some time in the future. This was his ML debut. The Astros were not able to capitalize on the opportunity, however; they only scored 2 runs off of him in his 6 inning start. They actually put up a crooked number in the 8th, but too little, too late - the Reds were seriously into double digits. Wandy had another poor start, giving up 8 earned runs in less than 4 innings. I only watched one half inning of this debacle: The bottom of the 8th, when the Astros were down 14-6, and Mills had already used Chacin, Fulchino, Byrdak, and Lopez. Not wanting to burn up any more of the bullpen in what appeared to be a sure-thing loss, Mills brought in backup catcher Kevin Cash to pitch. He gave up 1 run on 3 hits - not bad in the context of this game. The other pitchers were worse.
I turned on my computer in the late innings of Saturday night's game, saw that the Astros were behind 11-1, and decided to play TextTwist on my iPod Touch instead. Brian Moehler, moved to the starting rotation to replace Bud Norris (who's on the DL), outdid Wandy, giving up his 8 ER in less than 3 innings. Wesley Wright, recently called back up to the Astros, contributed 3 runs in the last 4 innings. Ultimately, the Astros went on to lose 12-2, after having given up 6 homers to the Reds. My cousin Bill in Dayton can send me a thank you note for our sacrifice.
I started this game report with a shutout performance by Roy Oswalt, with rare run support from his teammates. I end it with a similarly excellent shutout performance by Felipe Paulino. He'll probably get a sympathetic pat on the back from the Wiz. The Astros stranded runners right and left without scoring a single run during Paulino's watch. Paulino was awesome - in 8 innings, he gave up no runs on 4 hits, 4 walks, striking out 5 with that 97 MPH fast ball going. At the plate, he went 2 for 3, to maintain his position as the Astros' highest BA.
Before the game, Alyson Footer tweeted that she was not entertaining suggestions from fans that the Astros should sack Mills because of the team's poor record. I think Mills showed great management in this game, especially in his handling of his starting pitcher in the 8th. Paulino's pitch count was okay, but it was a hot afternoon, very enervating. He led off the inning with a 4 pitch walk, then got the next 2 batters, and walked another. That brought Jay Bruce to the plate - a guy who hit 2 homers in last night's game. Mills let Paulino stay in - it was his shutout to lose, and possibly still to win. Bruce grounded out to end the threat. The message Mills sent to Paulino was pretty clear - he was giving him every chance possible to earn his first W of the season.
Unfortunately his team mates weren't in on the plan. They failed to score in the ninth inning, and Paulino got a no-decision. Lyon pitched a nail-biting ninth, giving up a single and a pair of walks to load up the bases with 2 outs. The count on the next batter was 2-2, and the broadcasters were wondering if the Astros would end a game by walking in a run for the second time this week. I was tweeting that I'd rather lose on a hit than walk in a run, when the batter hit a fly ball to the gap in right center -- looked like a hit for sure. But Pence galloped over and made a running catch to push the game into extra innings. To give credit where it is due, Lyon did make an excellent - and very gutsy - fielding play on a bunt. With runners on first and second and no outs, he threw to third to knock out the lead runner. Just barely. (Or if you believe Alyson Footer, a generous call from the third base ump.)
The broadcasters took time to mention that the last time the Astros took a scoreless game into extra innings was back in 2005. They didn't mention the outcome, but I looked it up in my game diary - it was against the Braves, and the Astros lost 1-0 in 12 innings. That game had started with 7 scoreless innings from Clemens - back in 2005 the Astros did to the Rocket what they are doing this year to the Wiz.
If the Astros had lost today's game, the Big Puma would probably have renamed himself the Big Goat. He came up in the first and third innings with two runners on, and both times hit into double plays, then grounded out to end the 5th with two runners stranded, and lined out in the 8th. All in all, a miserable day. Some folks might think that he was doomed when he came up to bat in the tenth inning with two runners on and two outs. I preferred to think that he was just OVERDUE for a hit. Sure enough, he drove the first pitch he saw into right field for a double, scoring both runners. Goat to Hero in a single swing!!! Carlos Lee apparently thought that with all the great Astros pitching, nothing more was required, and he lined out to complete his 0 for 5 day. Thankfully, Lindstrom did not make things too interesting in the bottom of the tenth, ending the game with a nice swinging strikeout for his 11th save. Despite the fact that he was arguably the worst Astros pitcher of the day, Lyon got the win - his fourth of the season. Sadly (for our starters), he now leads the team in wins.
So, the Astros were outscored 27-10 in Cincinnati, but managed to eke out a win, spoiling the sweep and breaking a nine-game losing streak (dating back to last season) in Great American Ballpark. It was a lousy road trip, and they are still 16 games under .500, and 12.5 games behind in the division. And they are still the worst team in the league and second worst in the majors. But at least they won today and can go home happy with that. I think I'll have another glass of Rioja.
GAME 47 - May 27: Brewers 4, Astros 3
GAME 48 - May 28: Reds 15, Astros 6
GAME 49 - May 29: Reds 12, Astros 2
GAME 50 - May 30: Astros 2, Reds 0
The Astros' run into the Memorial Day Weekend begs for a special kind of memorial: The Tombstone labeled RIP for the Astros season. Like the one that the Houston Chronicle ran in 2005:
I've always kind of thought that that it was that in-your-face loss of faith by the hometown rag that turned the Astros around in 2005. Here's the headline from Jose de Jesus Ortiz's column that day: "It's June 1; Astros season pretty much over." And here's what I said in my game diary that day: "I know I'm a sucker for the Astros. But I'm not giving up yet." Really - you can read my 2005 game diary here.
Last week when the Astros hit 15-30 there was a lot of banter about how that magic number was somehow going to result in another pennant in 2010 -- a lot of it coming from me. And a whole lot more banter about how that was wishful, or even delusional, thinking. Some of the latter came from cranks and bashers, but much of it was from thoughtful and reasonable people, like fellow blogger River Austin and Astros social media director Alyson Footer. I admit that I kind of lean towards their point of view when I'm being thoughtful and reasonable. Or when I'm just plain frustrated, like last night when I checked the scoreboard after the Sabbath ended and saw that the Reds had outscored the Astros 27-8 in the Friday and Saturday games.
But then I go back and read snippets from my game diary in the first third of the 2005 season, and I'm overwhelmed with how awful that team was, and how similar the problems were. Take the June 1 game, which the Astros won 4-1 over the Reds. Quote from then-manager Garner: "As long as it was one more than they had." That was in response being asked what he thought of the Astros scoring FOUR (count 'em, 4!) runs in one game. Sound familiar? Do you remember how the Astros were shut out TEN TIMES in the first two full months of the season? How the Pirates shut out the Astros in both games of a two-game series? In the first two months, the Astros were unbelievably inept at scoring runs, and it was unthinkable that even their 1-2-3 punch of pitchers (Oswalt, Clemens, and Pettitte) could dig them out of the hole they were hiding in. If you want to feel any hope whatsoever for this equally horrible season, go back and read my game diaries from May, 2005 - they're on my Astros Fan in Exile website (or just click here).
More reasonable and less optimistic minds than mine will point out that when they did turn around, the 2005 Astros actually had a lot better raw materials to work with, starting with that Trynamic Trio of starting pitchers. With Oswalt (if he isn't traded) and Wandy (if he can repeat or beat last year), we've got a Dynamic Duo, but the rest is up for grabs. The bullpen, in general, has been performing - I've been impressed by that since Spring Training. And, although the batting has been (FILL IN YOUR OWN CURSE WORD HERE), the power potential of this lineup is tremendous. I cannot explain what would cause players like Berkman, Pence, and Lee to hit as badly as they did in the start of this season. But in case you weren't paying attention, these guys aren't batting under .200 anymore. Pence has made a huge jump - his batting average is up to .278 and he's knocked in 8 homers, most of them in recent games. Berkman hasn't made quite as flamboyant improvement, but the general direction has been up. Lee, well, I don't know what to say about El Caballo. The Astros have also shown a willingness to cut out some of their non-performing starters to give other players a chance - so long Matsui, welcome Keppinger.
Seems to me that, if you go back and look at the roster from 2005, our current team should be churning out a lot more runs than the team that won the Pennant (and then, by the way, failed to produce runs in the World Series). The 2005 Astros ended up ranking pretty low in most of the batting categories except for getting hit by pitches. No one on that lineup hit .300 in 2005. They did have guys who could hit long balls - that was the year Ensberg hit 36 homers, with Lane (26), Biggio (26), and Berkman (24) doing their fair share. But overall, despite the horrible stats to start this season, I think the current Astros team will turn out to be better offensively than the 2005 gang. Defensively, it's a solid team also - except perhaps for Carlos Lee in left. He's just painful to watch.
This is a long rambling excuse for saying that I haven't yet written off the 2010 Astros. In my heart of hearts, I don't really BELIEVE they will make the playoffs (okay, Austin?), but I do think that they are incredibly underperforming, and that they can have a winning season. I don't really think that they are worse than the 2005 team that won the Pennant. But I will admit that the 2005 Astros might have just been an freaky aberration of baseball history - the last chance for Biggio and Bagwell to play in the World Series just kind of magically happened.
I guess I should throw in a few words about the ball games listed at the top of this blog. Game 46, Oswalt's first start since he asked to be traded, looked like his audition for a role on a contending team. He did just about everything right in his tenth quality start of the season: He shut out the Brewers for 8 innings, giving up only 4 hits and 1 walks, and striking out 9. His ERA is down to 2.35, and only the Astros abysmal inability to score on his watch can account for his 3-6 record. This guy should be one of the top winners in the league. If he was annoyed with all of the no-decisions the Astros handed him last year, he's got to be fuming over the losses he's been stuck with so far this year. Hard to blame him for wanting a trade, but of course I'm hoping that he doesn't get it. He must have been just about in shock in last Wednesday's game, with the Astros scoring in 4 of the first 5 innings. This game was a perfect example of what would go right if the middle of our lineup would just get hits: Pence, Lee, and Berkman (batting 3, 4, and 5) went 7 for 12, with a couple of walks also, and batted in 4 of the 5 runs. Sure, they weren't batting against a Cy Young contender (Narveson), but this is how the heart of the order is supposed to bat!
I missed Thursday afternoon's game, while I was keeping my husband company in the hospital as he had a medical procedure done. I did follow it off and on, using my Blackberry, keeping an eye on the Astros' slim lead. Right up until Lindstrom gave up the tying run in the bottom of the ninth and then walked in the winning run in the tenth. And no, I didn't watch the video of that game on the archive when I got home. I was already gloomy enough that my 14-year old Saturn died on the way back home from the hospital (clutch just stopped clutching). We did get home safely, abandoning the car in a bus lane. And the good news is that my husband checked out with excellent results. I'll have to buy a new car, but can keep the same husband.
The Astros moved to Division-leading Cincinnati for the weekend. I don't watch ballgames on the Sabbath, so I missed hours of angst as the Reds clobbered the Astros, 15-6 on Friday night and 12-2 on Saturday. The Reds' Friday starter may be a Cy Young contender - but not until some time in the future. This was his ML debut. The Astros were not able to capitalize on the opportunity, however; they only scored 2 runs off of him in his 6 inning start. They actually put up a crooked number in the 8th, but too little, too late - the Reds were seriously into double digits. Wandy had another poor start, giving up 8 earned runs in less than 4 innings. I only watched one half inning of this debacle: The bottom of the 8th, when the Astros were down 14-6, and Mills had already used Chacin, Fulchino, Byrdak, and Lopez. Not wanting to burn up any more of the bullpen in what appeared to be a sure-thing loss, Mills brought in backup catcher Kevin Cash to pitch. He gave up 1 run on 3 hits - not bad in the context of this game. The other pitchers were worse.
I turned on my computer in the late innings of Saturday night's game, saw that the Astros were behind 11-1, and decided to play TextTwist on my iPod Touch instead. Brian Moehler, moved to the starting rotation to replace Bud Norris (who's on the DL), outdid Wandy, giving up his 8 ER in less than 3 innings. Wesley Wright, recently called back up to the Astros, contributed 3 runs in the last 4 innings. Ultimately, the Astros went on to lose 12-2, after having given up 6 homers to the Reds. My cousin Bill in Dayton can send me a thank you note for our sacrifice.
I started this game report with a shutout performance by Roy Oswalt, with rare run support from his teammates. I end it with a similarly excellent shutout performance by Felipe Paulino. He'll probably get a sympathetic pat on the back from the Wiz. The Astros stranded runners right and left without scoring a single run during Paulino's watch. Paulino was awesome - in 8 innings, he gave up no runs on 4 hits, 4 walks, striking out 5 with that 97 MPH fast ball going. At the plate, he went 2 for 3, to maintain his position as the Astros' highest BA.
Before the game, Alyson Footer tweeted that she was not entertaining suggestions from fans that the Astros should sack Mills because of the team's poor record. I think Mills showed great management in this game, especially in his handling of his starting pitcher in the 8th. Paulino's pitch count was okay, but it was a hot afternoon, very enervating. He led off the inning with a 4 pitch walk, then got the next 2 batters, and walked another. That brought Jay Bruce to the plate - a guy who hit 2 homers in last night's game. Mills let Paulino stay in - it was his shutout to lose, and possibly still to win. Bruce grounded out to end the threat. The message Mills sent to Paulino was pretty clear - he was giving him every chance possible to earn his first W of the season.
Unfortunately his team mates weren't in on the plan. They failed to score in the ninth inning, and Paulino got a no-decision. Lyon pitched a nail-biting ninth, giving up a single and a pair of walks to load up the bases with 2 outs. The count on the next batter was 2-2, and the broadcasters were wondering if the Astros would end a game by walking in a run for the second time this week. I was tweeting that I'd rather lose on a hit than walk in a run, when the batter hit a fly ball to the gap in right center -- looked like a hit for sure. But Pence galloped over and made a running catch to push the game into extra innings. To give credit where it is due, Lyon did make an excellent - and very gutsy - fielding play on a bunt. With runners on first and second and no outs, he threw to third to knock out the lead runner. Just barely. (Or if you believe Alyson Footer, a generous call from the third base ump.)
The broadcasters took time to mention that the last time the Astros took a scoreless game into extra innings was back in 2005. They didn't mention the outcome, but I looked it up in my game diary - it was against the Braves, and the Astros lost 1-0 in 12 innings. That game had started with 7 scoreless innings from Clemens - back in 2005 the Astros did to the Rocket what they are doing this year to the Wiz.
If the Astros had lost today's game, the Big Puma would probably have renamed himself the Big Goat. He came up in the first and third innings with two runners on, and both times hit into double plays, then grounded out to end the 5th with two runners stranded, and lined out in the 8th. All in all, a miserable day. Some folks might think that he was doomed when he came up to bat in the tenth inning with two runners on and two outs. I preferred to think that he was just OVERDUE for a hit. Sure enough, he drove the first pitch he saw into right field for a double, scoring both runners. Goat to Hero in a single swing!!! Carlos Lee apparently thought that with all the great Astros pitching, nothing more was required, and he lined out to complete his 0 for 5 day. Thankfully, Lindstrom did not make things too interesting in the bottom of the tenth, ending the game with a nice swinging strikeout for his 11th save. Despite the fact that he was arguably the worst Astros pitcher of the day, Lyon got the win - his fourth of the season. Sadly (for our starters), he now leads the team in wins.
So, the Astros were outscored 27-10 in Cincinnati, but managed to eke out a win, spoiling the sweep and breaking a nine-game losing streak (dating back to last season) in Great American Ballpark. It was a lousy road trip, and they are still 16 games under .500, and 12.5 games behind in the division. And they are still the worst team in the league and second worst in the majors. But at least they won today and can go home happy with that. I think I'll have another glass of Rioja.
Tuesday, May 25, 2010
GAME 45: To Be or Not To Be... the 2005 Astros?
GAME 45 - May 25: Brewers 6, Astros 0 1
Game 45 of the Astros season starts in a few minutes and I'm wondering: Is it better if the Astros lose tonight, matching the famous 15-30 start of 2005, when they turned it all around and won the pennant? Or is it better to win tonight, indicating that this team is even better than the 2005 team? A hard choice...
This game could really go either way. The Brewers are only 2 games ahead of the totally-last-place Astros, but they don't enjoy a home field advantage, having lost 14 of their 18 home games so far. Familiar pitcher on the mound against us tonight - Randy Wolf is starting for the Brewers. He's not an ace - he's sporting a 5.10 ERA with a 3-4 record. It's a major league catching debut for his battery mate, Jonathan Lucroy. But Houston's starter is our #5, Felipe Paulino with a 5.36 ERA, an 0-6 record, and totally crap run support. So it could really go either way...
I'll update this blog live tonight, in between my Twitter tweets, so that you can share these moments (several hours worth) of indecision with me.
Inning 1: Quick 1-2-3 in the top of the inning. Hope this isn't going to be one of those nights. Losing is one thing; shutouts just suck. Bottom of the inning: Paulino isn't getting a no-hitter tonight. Gave up a single to the leadoff, got the next guy to pop up, but then allowed Ryan Braun to hit the ball over the wall in the deepest part of center field. We're already losing 2-0, 15 minutes into the game.
Inning 2: The Astros got their big chance in the top of the second, as a single and a pair of walks loaded up the bases. With two outs, the guy with the top BA on the team comes to the plate -- Paulino (.385). He clearly wanted to do something to help his own cause, given how lousy his run support is, and he swung mightily. And missed. Struck out to end the inning. Bottom of the inning: What should have been a relatively short inning for Paulino got extended by a 2-out fielding error, allowing the Brewers pitcher to get to first. Astros broadcasters go on about how Wolf should have been an automatic out. Not sure why they say that. With his .292 BA, he's batting better than every player on the Astros lineup tonight, except for Paulino. Next batter gets an infield hit, but the inning ends with a ground out and no more trouble.
Inning 3: Astros go down 1-2-3 to start the inning, with Berkman taking a called strike 3 to end the fun. Bottom of the inning: Paulino's throwing fireballs in the high 90's, but way too many pitches - already over 63 by the end of the third. Allowed another two runners, but wriggled out of it without any runs scoring.
Inning 4: Feliz gets a 2-out walk but Q strikes out looking - that seems to be the most popular way to end Astros innings tonight. Bottom of the inning: Paulino gives up a leadoff single to the rookie Brewer catcher -- looked like it coulda, shoulda been played by Feliz, but wasn't. Gets the next two out, then Q throws out the rookie's attempt to steal second. Still 2-0 with the Astros on the wrong side. Paulino has thrown 82 pitches already.
Inning 5: Manzella lines a single into right for a leadoff hit, but is quickly erased when Paulino hits into a DP. Bourn grounds out and we're still being shut out after 5. Bottom of the inning: Paulino gets out of it with just a walk to Prince Fielder, but he's up to 100 pitches. Would be nice if his spot comes up to bat in the 6th - that would mean that 8 guys came to the plate and maybe we'd have some runs.
Inning 6: No such luck. Kepp, Puma, and the Stallion go down 1-2-3 again. This is not a very inspiring performance by Wolf, and the Astros are being shut out anyway. It's unreal how they make nearly every pitcher look like Cy Young material. Well, at least it gives Paulino another chance to pitch. There's still a chance that the Astros can score on his watch. Bottom of the inning: Paulino has his best inning, downing the Brewers 1-2-3 for the first time all night. With 112 pitches, this is going to be it for him. What's the chance that his teammates will get him a few runs in the 7th?
Inning 7: Pence and Feliz make two quick outs. We're down to Paulino's last chance for redemption. Q and Manzella get back-to-back two-out singles, doubling the Astros hit-count for the game. That brings up JMike to pinchhit for Paulino. Michaels strikes out looking - seems to be the most popular Astros inning killer tonight. Bottom of the inning: Sampson takes over for Paulino, and hits the first batter on the hip. Bad luck. Next batter hits another big homer, doubling the deficit to 4-0. Three singles later it's 5-0, and Sampson's on his way to the showers. Fulchino gives up a ground-rule double, now it's 6-0. Would have been worse if Bourn hadn't made a terrific running play in center field. Jim Deshaies refers to Bourn's glove as being "where triples go to die."
Inning 8: Bourn led off with a big fat K. Kepp got a hit, bringing up the so-called heart of the order -- Berkman, Lee, Pence -- who are a combined 0 for 8 tonight. Puma whiffs for the second out. El Cabrio grounds out to end the fun, another 0 for 4 game for him, helping to keep his BA solidly under .200. Bottom of the inning: Fulchino throws a perfect inning, with a little fielding help from Manzella.
Inning 9: I just updated the score at the top of this blog: Brewers 6, Astros 0. They haven't played the ninth yet, so that may not turn out to be right, but I'm not posting this blog till it's over. I dare the Astros to score a run and make me change it. Hunter Pence is leading off - he hits a 3-1 fast ball into right field for a double. It's only the Astros' sixth hit - and the first extra-base hit -- but hey, we'll take it! Feliz pops up for the first out. Quintero hits a double - Pence scores!!! It's not a shut out!!! I had to change the score after all. Manzella strikes out for the second out. Blummer's pinch-hitting for the Last Chance - and he harmlessly grounds out. Game Over. TILT.
We have attained the Magic Number, Astros Fans: 15-30. Can we go anywhere but up from here??? We shall see.
Tomorrow Oswalt pitches. Will the Astros fail to score a run for him? Who knows? Maybe it will be his last start as an Astro? Will they trade him, like he requested? We shall see...
Game 45 of the Astros season starts in a few minutes and I'm wondering: Is it better if the Astros lose tonight, matching the famous 15-30 start of 2005, when they turned it all around and won the pennant? Or is it better to win tonight, indicating that this team is even better than the 2005 team? A hard choice...
This game could really go either way. The Brewers are only 2 games ahead of the totally-last-place Astros, but they don't enjoy a home field advantage, having lost 14 of their 18 home games so far. Familiar pitcher on the mound against us tonight - Randy Wolf is starting for the Brewers. He's not an ace - he's sporting a 5.10 ERA with a 3-4 record. It's a major league catching debut for his battery mate, Jonathan Lucroy. But Houston's starter is our #5, Felipe Paulino with a 5.36 ERA, an 0-6 record, and totally crap run support. So it could really go either way...
I'll update this blog live tonight, in between my Twitter tweets, so that you can share these moments (several hours worth) of indecision with me.
Inning 1: Quick 1-2-3 in the top of the inning. Hope this isn't going to be one of those nights. Losing is one thing; shutouts just suck. Bottom of the inning: Paulino isn't getting a no-hitter tonight. Gave up a single to the leadoff, got the next guy to pop up, but then allowed Ryan Braun to hit the ball over the wall in the deepest part of center field. We're already losing 2-0, 15 minutes into the game.
Inning 2: The Astros got their big chance in the top of the second, as a single and a pair of walks loaded up the bases. With two outs, the guy with the top BA on the team comes to the plate -- Paulino (.385). He clearly wanted to do something to help his own cause, given how lousy his run support is, and he swung mightily. And missed. Struck out to end the inning. Bottom of the inning: What should have been a relatively short inning for Paulino got extended by a 2-out fielding error, allowing the Brewers pitcher to get to first. Astros broadcasters go on about how Wolf should have been an automatic out. Not sure why they say that. With his .292 BA, he's batting better than every player on the Astros lineup tonight, except for Paulino. Next batter gets an infield hit, but the inning ends with a ground out and no more trouble.
Inning 3: Astros go down 1-2-3 to start the inning, with Berkman taking a called strike 3 to end the fun. Bottom of the inning: Paulino's throwing fireballs in the high 90's, but way too many pitches - already over 63 by the end of the third. Allowed another two runners, but wriggled out of it without any runs scoring.
Inning 4: Feliz gets a 2-out walk but Q strikes out looking - that seems to be the most popular way to end Astros innings tonight. Bottom of the inning: Paulino gives up a leadoff single to the rookie Brewer catcher -- looked like it coulda, shoulda been played by Feliz, but wasn't. Gets the next two out, then Q throws out the rookie's attempt to steal second. Still 2-0 with the Astros on the wrong side. Paulino has thrown 82 pitches already.
Inning 5: Manzella lines a single into right for a leadoff hit, but is quickly erased when Paulino hits into a DP. Bourn grounds out and we're still being shut out after 5. Bottom of the inning: Paulino gets out of it with just a walk to Prince Fielder, but he's up to 100 pitches. Would be nice if his spot comes up to bat in the 6th - that would mean that 8 guys came to the plate and maybe we'd have some runs.
Inning 6: No such luck. Kepp, Puma, and the Stallion go down 1-2-3 again. This is not a very inspiring performance by Wolf, and the Astros are being shut out anyway. It's unreal how they make nearly every pitcher look like Cy Young material. Well, at least it gives Paulino another chance to pitch. There's still a chance that the Astros can score on his watch. Bottom of the inning: Paulino has his best inning, downing the Brewers 1-2-3 for the first time all night. With 112 pitches, this is going to be it for him. What's the chance that his teammates will get him a few runs in the 7th?
Inning 7: Pence and Feliz make two quick outs. We're down to Paulino's last chance for redemption. Q and Manzella get back-to-back two-out singles, doubling the Astros hit-count for the game. That brings up JMike to pinchhit for Paulino. Michaels strikes out looking - seems to be the most popular Astros inning killer tonight. Bottom of the inning: Sampson takes over for Paulino, and hits the first batter on the hip. Bad luck. Next batter hits another big homer, doubling the deficit to 4-0. Three singles later it's 5-0, and Sampson's on his way to the showers. Fulchino gives up a ground-rule double, now it's 6-0. Would have been worse if Bourn hadn't made a terrific running play in center field. Jim Deshaies refers to Bourn's glove as being "where triples go to die."
Inning 8: Bourn led off with a big fat K. Kepp got a hit, bringing up the so-called heart of the order -- Berkman, Lee, Pence -- who are a combined 0 for 8 tonight. Puma whiffs for the second out. El Cabrio grounds out to end the fun, another 0 for 4 game for him, helping to keep his BA solidly under .200. Bottom of the inning: Fulchino throws a perfect inning, with a little fielding help from Manzella.
Inning 9: I just updated the score at the top of this blog: Brewers 6, Astros 0. They haven't played the ninth yet, so that may not turn out to be right, but I'm not posting this blog till it's over. I dare the Astros to score a run and make me change it. Hunter Pence is leading off - he hits a 3-1 fast ball into right field for a double. It's only the Astros' sixth hit - and the first extra-base hit -- but hey, we'll take it! Feliz pops up for the first out. Quintero hits a double - Pence scores!!! It's not a shut out!!! I had to change the score after all. Manzella strikes out for the second out. Blummer's pinch-hitting for the Last Chance - and he harmlessly grounds out. Game Over. TILT.
We have attained the Magic Number, Astros Fans: 15-30. Can we go anywhere but up from here??? We shall see.
Tomorrow Oswalt pitches. Will the Astros fail to score a run for him? Who knows? Maybe it will be his last start as an Astro? Will they trade him, like he requested? We shall see...
Sunday, May 23, 2010
GAMES 38-44: On Our Way to the Pennant, 2005 Style... Or Maybe Not...
GAME 38 - May 17: Dodgers 6, Astros 2
GAME 39 - May 18: Dodgers 7, Astros 3
GAME 40 - May 19: Astros 7, Rockies 3
GAME 41 - May 20: Rockies 4, Astros 0
GAME 42 - May 21: Astros 2, Tampa Bay 1
GAME 43 - May 22: Tampa Bay 4, Astros 2
GAME 44 - May 23: Tampa Bay 10, Astros 6
It's been a lousy week for the Astros since my last blog posting. They've played so badly that our ace has asked for a trade, after his teammates declined to score even one run in his latest quality loss. I've been missing in action for a good cause: I've been out in California for my daughter's wedding. I'd hoped to be at last Monday's Dodgers game, but my flight was cancelled and we arrived 7 hours late and missed the game. Not that we missed much: It was a rainy night and the Astros lost. Today, while the rest of the family is off to the beach and sightseeing, I watched my first live ballgame since last Sunday. For a short time (when the Astros scored 4 runs in the first inning), I thought they might actually win today. They lost 10-6. I'm not going back to watch the rest of the games from the past week - I'm not a complete masochist. And I'm not going to try to write up the week of games that I missed. You can see the scores above and read the gory details on the Astros web site. Enough said.
Today's game was #44 for the Astros, and at 14-29, they are very close to approximating their awful start from the 2005 season. That year, I thought the Astros would win the pennant, despite the gruesome start - and they actually did. However, as my friend Austin keeps reminding me, this is not the 2005 Astros team. That's true, but folks didn't think much of that 2005 team the first couple of months of the season either. Except for me, of course, but I'm crazy for the Astros. I have to admit that (unlike 2005) I did not get that "vision" of the Astros in the World Series at Spring Training this year. I just like to be optimistic.
The Astros may look like kind of a different team after another couple of months. This week while I have been off in California doing family stuff, the team released Matsui, who was batting .141 and not getting much playing time. They brought up Oswaldo Navarro from Round Rock to take the roster spot. Then, after the team was shutout in his last start, Roy Oswalt let them know that he was interested in being traded to a team that might actually win some games this year. I don't know if Oswalt's desire to move to some other team that understands the term "run support" will amount to anything. Now that he's gone beyond saying "I'll do whatever's the best for the team" to "I'd rather play for a winning team," it might be hard NOT to go ahead and trade him. It would be ironic if the Astros did trade Oswalt, and Pence, Lee, and Berkman immediately went into huge hitting streaks -- kind of an O Henry touch to the season. I would not put that past this Astros team. Not sure who they'd bring up to replace Oswalt - or rather, his spot in the roster. No one would replace the Wiz.
For some bizarre reason, I'm still holding on to the fantasy that on June 1, the Chronicle will run another tombstone RIP, and then the Astros will miraculously start to win. Or maybe not.
On a sad note, former Astros pitcher, salsa singer, and clown Jose Lima died today of a massive heart attack. He was only 37. It was a very sad day for the teammates and fans who treasured his wacky sense of humor, not to mention the great pitching he did for the team in the past. Maybe the Chronicle should just save their Rest in Peace for the real thing.
GAME 39 - May 18: Dodgers 7, Astros 3
GAME 40 - May 19: Astros 7, Rockies 3
GAME 41 - May 20: Rockies 4, Astros 0
GAME 42 - May 21: Astros 2, Tampa Bay 1
GAME 43 - May 22: Tampa Bay 4, Astros 2
GAME 44 - May 23: Tampa Bay 10, Astros 6
It's been a lousy week for the Astros since my last blog posting. They've played so badly that our ace has asked for a trade, after his teammates declined to score even one run in his latest quality loss. I've been missing in action for a good cause: I've been out in California for my daughter's wedding. I'd hoped to be at last Monday's Dodgers game, but my flight was cancelled and we arrived 7 hours late and missed the game. Not that we missed much: It was a rainy night and the Astros lost. Today, while the rest of the family is off to the beach and sightseeing, I watched my first live ballgame since last Sunday. For a short time (when the Astros scored 4 runs in the first inning), I thought they might actually win today. They lost 10-6. I'm not going back to watch the rest of the games from the past week - I'm not a complete masochist. And I'm not going to try to write up the week of games that I missed. You can see the scores above and read the gory details on the Astros web site. Enough said.
Today's game was #44 for the Astros, and at 14-29, they are very close to approximating their awful start from the 2005 season. That year, I thought the Astros would win the pennant, despite the gruesome start - and they actually did. However, as my friend Austin keeps reminding me, this is not the 2005 Astros team. That's true, but folks didn't think much of that 2005 team the first couple of months of the season either. Except for me, of course, but I'm crazy for the Astros. I have to admit that (unlike 2005) I did not get that "vision" of the Astros in the World Series at Spring Training this year. I just like to be optimistic.
The Astros may look like kind of a different team after another couple of months. This week while I have been off in California doing family stuff, the team released Matsui, who was batting .141 and not getting much playing time. They brought up Oswaldo Navarro from Round Rock to take the roster spot. Then, after the team was shutout in his last start, Roy Oswalt let them know that he was interested in being traded to a team that might actually win some games this year. I don't know if Oswalt's desire to move to some other team that understands the term "run support" will amount to anything. Now that he's gone beyond saying "I'll do whatever's the best for the team" to "I'd rather play for a winning team," it might be hard NOT to go ahead and trade him. It would be ironic if the Astros did trade Oswalt, and Pence, Lee, and Berkman immediately went into huge hitting streaks -- kind of an O Henry touch to the season. I would not put that past this Astros team. Not sure who they'd bring up to replace Oswalt - or rather, his spot in the roster. No one would replace the Wiz.
For some bizarre reason, I'm still holding on to the fantasy that on June 1, the Chronicle will run another tombstone RIP, and then the Astros will miraculously start to win. Or maybe not.
On a sad note, former Astros pitcher, salsa singer, and clown Jose Lima died today of a massive heart attack. He was only 37. It was a very sad day for the teammates and fans who treasured his wacky sense of humor, not to mention the great pitching he did for the team in the past. Maybe the Chronicle should just save their Rest in Peace for the real thing.
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