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Brandon Lyon Has A 2 Inning Save To Back Happ’s Win Over Halliday

Wednesday, August 25th, 2010

Well, I know he dood it, but I don’t know HOW he dood it. He doesn’t have awesome stuff, he went to 5 three ball counts, but somehow he gave up only 5 hits, 2 walks 1 homer, 2 runs over 6.1 IP.  He got a little lucky and unlucky in the 6th, when with Halliday on second and Victorino on first, Polanco hit a ball to the LF wall that Clank misplayed – it really SHOULD have been caught, but he took a bad route, let it hit the ground and bounce off the wall, and Halliday scored, and for some reason I do NOT get, they held Victorino, who is almost Bourn fast, at third. It is absolutely ridiculous that not getting a very catchable ball isn’t called an error, but even Roy Oswalt would have made that play in left. But then Happ then got out Utley and Werth. Amazing.

And when the game first started, I thought that fer SHER Halliday was gonna throw a nono. 11 hitters, 34 pitches, then Pence came to bat, Halliday threw a FB up and in and Pence sent it over the left center wall. SUCH a relief – no  perfect game, no shutout. CJ singled to lead off the 5th, then Wallace GIDP. (The boy is having some trouble adjusting to ML pitching, just like Castro and Manzella and NO, I most positively do NOT want any of those guys sent down. And, in fact, I would like to see Anderson Hernandez and his long ML history of suckage kept mostly on the bench – he’s just Matt Kata all over again.) And Manzella is most definitely exponentially better with the glove than Sanchez. Even though he’s apparently forgotten all his Baggy lessons and is again mostly hitting the ball to short.

Oh yes – so in the 6th, Happ grounded out to lead off, then Michael Bourn, yes, MICHAEL “Mr. Infield Singles” Bourn golfed a pitch like a GOOD 380-400′ into the RF stands. Roy “Ace-Man” Halliday has just given up TWO homers to Astros hitters. I mean, we are talking about the guy who has given up no runs at ALL in 9 of his 26 starts.

In the 7th, CJ doubled to right, then Quintero drove him in with a single to left. And Quintero was most DEFINITELY the game’s hero. No question – not only did he drive in the winning run, but he saved the game before Brandon Lyon picked up a baseball. And this is the story.

Happ, to my surprise, comes out to start the 7th – Wilton Lopez was all warmed up and ready, but no. So Sweeney singles, Ben Francisco hits what SHOULD have been a GIDP ball to 3rd, but Hernandez can’t turn the play in time and it’s a FC.

Then Mills plays musical relievers. He pulls Happ and sends in Lopez, our best reliever, to face Ruiz. Good job, I woulda done the same. Ruiz singles to left, and then Manuel sends lefty Ibanez up to pinch hit for Halliday. But Mills pulls Lopez, HIS BEST RELIEVER, and sends in Byrdak, who gets Ibanez out. Then, Mills pulls Byrdak because he doesn’t want him to face Jimmy Rollins. So he sends in Melancon. (Mills REALLY thinks that Lopez can’t get out either Ibanez or Rollins? Are you KIDDING me????) And Rollins takes a strike, swings and misses, takes a ball, fouls one off, then there’s another ball in the dirt, which Q blocks, then he sees that Francisco has wandered off third, and he fires down to CJ and PICKS OFF FRANCISCO!!!

Amazing.

And then, of course, Brandon Lyon comes in and slams the door – 2 innings, 22 pitches. Gave up a single to Ryan Howard, who poked a ball through the 5.5 hole to beat the shift.

And tomorrow afternoon, it’s Wandy vs Kyle Kendrick. Would be very nice to sweep there Wand-man!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

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Posted in Chris Johnson, J.A. Happ, Quintero | 3 Comments »

Brad Mills And Pedro Feliz Help Braves Beat Astros

Wednesday, August 11th, 2010

As soon as I saw Brad Mills pull Wallace and send in Pedro Worthless Feliz to face Billy Wagner, who had just given up the tying run with a sac-fly to (of course) Chris Johnson in a 2-1 game, I said – we just lost this effing game.

WHY, WHY????? does Mills do unbelieveably STUPID stuff like this??? WHY????? Wallace hits leftys BETTER than rightys and he ALWAYS HAS!!! Better BA, higher slugging. If Mills is really truly incapable of looking at elementary numbers, such as Wallace’s career splits AND Feliz’ stats this year, he should just hang it up.

Of course in the top of the 10th, Feliz makes a crucial error with Ankiel at first – he misses an easy pickoff throw (he isn’t any good with the glove any more), Ankiel goes to second, and he throws the first of TWO intentional walks in the same inning. The ending wasn’t nice, of course, as Fulchino throws a straight FB right down the exact middle of the plate and it is deposited into the stands for a granny – second one he’s given up this year.

Obsession with leftyrighty matchups even when not indicated is Mills’ great failing – that and his obsession with insisting on using his WORST pinch hitter in critical situations.

The gane started out badly for Wandy – he gave up a double to the gap to Melky Cabrera to start the first, then Castro didn’t block a blockable ball and so Melky went to 3rd on a passed ball, then scored on a groundout. This looked even worse when Hanson, who had 3 working pitches and was hardly throwing ANY pitches outside the strike zone, went through the lineup 3 up 3 down. I thought fer SHER we were gonna get no hit.

And Wandy was just as about as unhittable – went through the 2nd, 3rd and 4th inning on 28 pitches with a great FB and a absolutely WICKED curve. He’s been absolutely ACE since Castro started catching him. Seriously. He’s had 9 starts (including this one) and 8 of 9 QS, giving up 0 ER 3 times, 1 ER four times, 3 ER once and 5 ER once. He’s throwin 60.1 innings, almost 7 IP/GS: 46 H, 11 BB, 59 K, 4 HR, 16 R/12 ER: ERA 1.79, WHIP 0.94, K:BB is 5.36; 8.85 K/9; 1.6 BB/9.

Now I know that Castro is not exactly hitting (makes JR look like Mike Piazza) but whatever he did to get Wandy’s curve to start curvin – or maybe to get more pitches called as strikes, it’s been a bit long to call it coincidence, I’m all for it.

Bourn broke up the nono int he 4th (whew) by beating out an IF single to the pitcher (just barely), then with Kepp batting, on the 1st pitch, he stole second. And Ross is a GOOD fielding catcher. On the 3rd pitch, Hanson picked him off second (too big a lead) and there was a rundown – And instead of the 3 IF doing the rundown, Hanson took the last throw and dropped the ball, allowing Michael to be caught stealing but safe at second on an E1. On the VERY NEXT PITCH, he took off for 3rd and just barely beat the tag. Conrad and Cox argued, but even the replay showed that Michael’s foot hit the bag juuuuuust before the tag hit his leg. Maybe payback for the call on Pence last night? Anyway, speaking of Pence, he hit an tying RBI single to left and Bourn trotted home. Unfortunately, Clank, CJ (who was hitting 5th???!!! WOW!!!!) and Wallace didn’t do anything.

Wandy was sailing through the 5th, 2 out, and Conrad beat out one of those IF dribblers to third (NOT bad fielding by CJ who, by the way, made 3 difficult plays) and then suddenly, Wandy lost all feel for the strike zone. It wasn’t the ump. He walked Ankiel on 5 pitches – and Ankiel fouled off what looked like a ball – and Ankiel has never gotten a hit off Wandy. Then, with the pitcher up, Wandy STILL couldn’t get the ball over and with a 2 ball count, Castro trotted out and told Wandy – just throw one down the freaking middle, hunh? So he did, and then the next pitch, Hansen hit one of those high chops that goes down the line, landed just inside the line midway down and Conrad cruised in.

I don’t know how, but Wandy threw 5 curveballs to Infante and got him swinging.

So I figured – there goes the ballgame, because really, Hanson looked pretty much unhittable. Then Bourn grounded out and Kepp hit a long fly ball to the LF bullpen – too bad it wasn’t like 30′ further to the left and Pence hit a hangong slider – bout the only one of those Hanson threw all night – and hit it to the top of the wall in right, but unfortunately, lowe enough for Melky to reach up and catch it – too bad it wasn’t 5′ higher.

Wandy gave up 1 double to right center in the 6th and one double down the RF line into the corner in the 7th, but didn’t walk anyone else or give up more runs. Actually, after the 6th, I thought Wandy would be done and was VERY concerned that Mills didn’t have anyone warming up – what was he gonna do it Wandy had gotten 2 runners on on the first 2 pitches? Let more runs score?

The Astros hadn’t sniffed a base since Pence’s single in the 4th and 10 hitters had gone up and 10 hitters had gone down, 3 of them on the first pitch. Then CJ walked – and this makes the 24th straight game he has reached base, but Wallace and Sanchez stranded him.

In the 8th, lefty Jonny Venters and his 1.09 went out to the mound. I knew that Castro would be pulled against the most lethal lefty in the NL – heck, he isn’t hitting rightys, and was expecting to see Pedro the Suckage, but it was Bourgeois, who got to a 3-2 count before grounding out – and he had to swing, it would have been strike 3.  Then pinch hitter Jason Michaels (what, no Feliz?) walked. So with 1 out, man on first, lefty Michael Bourn up facing the best lefty reliever in the NL, does Mills order the sac-bunt? No. WHY????? I mean, of ALL the times to deal with the lefty on lefty matchups, expecting Bourn to get a HIT is a bit much. So naturally, he Ks and then Kepp grounds out.

9th inning, Lyon comes in and pitches a quick, easy 1,2,3. Billy Wags comes out (and he has already blown 6 saves this year, in spite of his low ERA) and Pence running all out barely beats out an IF single. Gots to this for the boy – he goes ALL out. Then Clank hits a clean single to left and Pence, hustling all the way, beats the throw into 3rd. Just barely. Then CJ is up and he ties the game with a long sac-fly to right. If he can’t get a hit, he figures he can drive one in.

You talk about RBI machine? CJ has now had 81 AB with runners on, has had 35 hits and driven in 31 runs – and his OPS is 1.147. With RISP, he is 18 fer 43 with 26 RBI. He has a 1.47 OPS with RISP and 2 outs and is 10 fer 21. He drives in a run 42% of his chances. Which is unbelieveable and no I do NOT wanna hear how he can’t keep it up (even if it is, uh, unlikely.)

So it’s Clank on first (who did NOT tag up and move to second when Melky threw home – BAD heads down baserunning) and Wallace, who is 4 fer 8 against leftys so far, and has driven in 2 of his 4 runs vs 19 AB against rightys – this year at AAA, he had a .978 OPS in 119 AB vs leftys (.818 vs rightys); in 09, minor league career OPS vs leftys .940 (.843 vs rightys) and SLG .502 vs leftys (.481 vs righys) in 1240 PA – and that is NOT a small sample size.

So Mills STUPIDLY and I mean criminally stupidly benches a superior hitter in favor of the worst hitter on his bench, who naturally gets out as Carlos steals second, which took the Braves completely by surprise. And Sanchez grounds out. Sanchez, by the way, has gotten on base in all but 7 of 30 games here. Pretty good.

So Lyon, who threw 7 pitches in the 9th, goes back out to start the 10th. Good idea, he shouldn’t exactly be exhausted after 7 pitches and 5 minutes in the bullpen and 5 minutes of commercials.

Conrad flies out 1st pitch. But then Ankiel walks. Not good, because he’s FAST and he steals bases. So then Feliz does the SECOND thing to lose the game – he fails to catch a pickoff throw and Ankiel is on second. This is bad because Ankiel is fast enough to score on a single that leaves the infield. So, instead of concentrating on getting ONE out, the pinch hitter Hinske, Mills has them IBB him, hoping to get Infante to GIDP, I guess. But I really don’t like walking a guy when you have ALREADY walked someone – generally is not good. So of course, Infante doubles off the scoreboard and Ankiel trots home.

BIG meeting on the mound, Mills chatting.

So far, we have had a pitcher who gave up a long fly ball, a 3-2 walk, an IBB, a double smashed off the scoreboard, men on second and third, and what do we get?

an IBB to Melky Cabrera.

So far, we have THREE walks, 2 intentional, a single and a double. He has now thrown 23 pitches, 8 of which are strikes, 8 of which were deliberately thrown out of the zone.

Time to bring in someone else?

Heavens, no. Gonzales singles home a run. Bases loaded.

It’s now Braves 4 Astros 2.

NOW we bring in Fulchino to face pinch hitter lefty Brian McCann. 2 balls, then a FB, straight RIGHT down the middle and then 3 seconds later, 400′ into the stands. Poor Lyon is Francoed by 3 runs and all I can say is – gee, what a surprise.

It was time for a REAL righty lefty decision as the only guy Bobby Cox had left on the bench was McCann (niether Chipper nor lefty Heyward were available). So you could bring in Byrdak to face Diaz, who certainly hits leftys well – at a .918 OPS, or Fulchino to face McCann who hits rightys at a .898 clip. So the question is, right NOW, who do you think is the better pitcher? Rights have a .333 BAA Byrdak and leftys have a .313 BAA Fulchino (and I am just looking at this year’s stats because most all relievers not named Mariano are not particularly consistent from year to year)

ok

I get the point, pick your poison.

And we got poisoned, all right. Funny that this particular series has focused so strongly on bad fielding and too many walks at a critical time leading to misfortune. A day off tomorrow, hopefully some media person will ask Brad Mills why in the name of GAWD he keeps platooning/pulling Brett Wallace against leftys. Then the Pirates come in for the weekend and we will have the debut of Nelson Figueroa, starter.

Jordan Lyles appears to be tiring, by the way. I’m glad they didn’t bring him up yet, he’s having enough trouble at AAA. And Douglas Arguello is sitting out at AA because his armn is hurting – we’ll see what happens with that.

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Posted in Brett Wallace, Chris Johnson, Hunter Pence, Pedro Feliz, Wandy Rodriguez | 3 Comments »

Ex-Stro Brooks Conrad Goes Albert Pujols On Matt Lindstrom To Beat Astros

Tuesday, August 10th, 2010

Unbelieveable.

A great pitchers’ duel for 7 innings.

Jair Jurrgens was almost unhittable, except by CJ (naturally) who had 2 singles, Wallace, who singled, Castro, who singled and Bourn, who tripled to the RF gap – the hardest hit ball all night. He SHOULD have had this game won as a shutout, but with 1 out and Bourn on 3rd, he got Kepp to ground out to short (JUST like last night with Pence on 3rd) and AGAIN, Alex Gonzalez, the SS messed up the throw home- it one hopped and McCann couldn’t tag the sliding Bourn – who, by the way, missed the plate. Fortunately for him, McCann missed the ball, which rolled all the way to the backstop and Bourn heard the screams from the dugout to go back and tag in time.

With Kepp advancing to second on the throw, Jurrgens IBB Pence, then Moylan came in to get Clank to GIDP, and indeed, that was exactly what Clank did, only Alex Gonzalez, the SS, messed up the throw to the 2B, who was charged with an error for missing the bad throw, and Keppinger scored the go-ahead run. Jurrgens looked as if he was ready to jes break down and cry – not that I blame him.  

Pence, on second with CJ on 3rd, for some reason decided to steal third (WHY? he could score from second on a single!!!) and was thrown out. So naturally CJ singles under the glove of Glaus. Pence would have been at 3rd, bases loaded, Wallace up.

So Bobby Cox sends in Venters, his lefty reliever, and Mills pulls Wallace, WHO CAN HIT LEFTYS, and sends up Michaels, who strikes out.

And I guess I should go back and mention the fact that Kepp and Pence stranded Sanchez in the 1st, Happ left men on first and third on the 2nd (Castro came up with men on 1st and 2nd and grounded out and it wasn’t a DP because Wallace broke it up); Wallace left CJ on first in the 4th; Bourn, Sanchez and Kepp left Castro on second in the 5th… That is a lot of guys who didn’t score.

Happ pitched his typical outing – which is that he gives up lots of walks, very few hits, very few runs. He has always run out of steam around 5-6 innings. And for some reason, even though he was at 93 pitches, Mills sent him back out without having anyone warming up in the bullpen.

?????

He walked Brooks Conrad (who was put in for Chipper Jones, who hurt his leg – apparently pretty badly, on the great play he made on CJ’s grounder at the end of the previous inning) on 5 pitches. No one gets up. He strikes out Diaz. He’s up to 101 pitches, and he was lookin like Pedro in the infamous Grady Little game. Lopez starts to warm up (WHY???? wasn’t he warming up to START the inning???) and then he throws 3 straight balls to McCann NOWHERES near the zone, then a gimme strike, then ANOTHER ball outside the zone. Mills trots out.

Does he pull Happ, who is CLEARLY finished???

NO

He goes all Grady Little and NATURALLY, Troy Glaus singles in a run to break up the 0-0 tie.

I couldn’t freaking believe it.

NOW Wilton Lopez trots in and gets a GIDP with 1 pitch (I like how there is never a double switch so a reliever who throws 1 pitch can’t go back out for the next inning).

The Astros grab the lead thanks to multiple Braves fielding effups, and then Matt Lindstrom comes in to close. He has only a 1 run lead, and like in St. Louis, he gives it up. First, an infield single to Infante, then he throws a FB RIGHT down the middle and Brooks Conrad sends it 440′ into the RF upper deck. Yes, another guy the Astros Organization didn’t like for some reason, although he was a very good utility guy who would have been better than any number of horrible vets they preferred. He got out Diaz and McCann, then Glaus hit a FB right down the middle waaaay over the Crawford Boxes.

Mills pulls him out and sends in Chacin, but it’s a little too late to do the right thing now, as the old song goes.

The Astros lie down to Billy Wags.

I’m getting those Brad Lidge 06 bad vibes about Lindstrom.

sigh

Tomorrow, it’s Tommy Hanson vs Wandy (and it was his 5-2 win that Lindstrom blew last week) so we better hope that the batters score so many runs that we don’t need Lindstrom.

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Posted in Chris Johnson, J.A. Happ, Matt Lindstrom | 4 Comments »

8/9/10: Braves Can’t Field, So Astros Win

Tuesday, August 10th, 2010

Free tickets for the game, and yes, I AM a sucker, but I want to watch the rookies, so I took Lil Miss and DaBull on down. I haven’t succeeded in turning my sons into baseball fans any better than my Mama did my brothers, so I have decided there is some kind of something wrong with their Y chromosome as us grrrrls are perfectly normal. I had significantly more trouble finding a parking place than I did a few weeks back, so I knew that it was gonna be an unusually well attended game for a Monday night.

Sure enough, the Box was packed with Braves fans – it’s absolutely amazing how the number of fans from the opposing teams show up in proportion to the team’s W/L record – well, except for Cubs fans, of course, but even their numbers are significantly down this year.

Lefty Mike Minor, the opposing pitcher, was the Braves 09 1st round pick – and was called up a few days ago to replace the injured Kris Medlin. For once, a team didn’t keep a superbly performing young player down to screw him out of a year of FA. I know that rooks usually KILL the Astros, so I was a bit apprehensive before the game.

Bourn hit Minor’s second pitch for a base hit (sigh of relief – we won’t get nohit) and stole second on the second pitch. Unfortunately, neither Kepp nor Pence drove him with long fly balls and he was left on 3rd. (It was the story of his night – he hit an IF single later and was stranded on second.)

Bud looked very good in the 1st – gave up a single to Chipper, but needed only 11 pitches to get out of the inning. In the second, he had a bit of his usual trouble finding the strike zone (and then throwing a gimmee strike which gets pounced on), but Astros fielding, in spite of some trouble saved him.

It was 2 out, Rick Ankiel on first (and Rick Ankiel runs like Pence) and Gonzalez hit a bullet down the LF line into the corner. Ankiel is off like a shot and Clank lumbers over to the corner. He picks up the ball, gets it in to Sanchez, the cutoff man, who picks up the throw on the SECOND bounce. Sanchez then STUPIDLY (rookie mistake) fires it home, where no fielder who ever lived had a snowflake’s chance in heck of getting Ankiel out – I’m not even sure that ANY OF who ever lived could have gotten Ankiel out. Castro, a smart fielder, didn’t waste one second trying to tag a guy who had already scored, but threw the ball to Keppinger at second because Gonzalez was midway between second and third. But Keppinger botched the rundown and his throw to CJ was so offline that Gonzalez easily slid into third.

That was TWO serious fielding screwups on one hit. But fortunately, the Braves rookie 21 year old pitcher (who was probably a leeeeeeetle nervous) made a baserunning mistake – he hit the ball into shallow center where Hunter Pence scooped it up, fired to first and Minor, who had slowed up nearing the bag, was out. Now it is true that Wallace was standing on the OF side of the bag, but he wasn’t BLOCKING it, but Minor needed to run through that bag, even tag it on the outside corner and he didn’t, so he was out and the run didn’t score, which was a VERY lucky break.

In the 3rd, Bud was pitching fine, made 1 mistake, a FB RIGHT down the middle, which Heyward sent straight into the RF bullpen. I will say, however, that it is amazing how many FB in the dead center of the strike zone do NOT get hit out. And are even swung on and missed. Hitting is timing. Pitching is upsetting the hitter’s timing, said Warren Spahn.

So it was Braves 2, Astros nada – and by the bottom of the 4th, after Bud threw a 10 pitch 1,2,3 out at the top, I was getting worried about us getting shutout. But Minor was going through the lineup for the second time and he was facing ML hitters.  Kepp led off with a solid double to right, then Pence GO to short. Then, Minor got unlucky – he got Clank to pop up a pitch, BUT unfortunately for him (and fortunately for us) he had slow, lumbering Glaus on 1B and the ball wasn’t hit high enough to hang very long and it landed on the RF line about 60′ behind 1B and bounced into the stands for a GR double. Could, say, Baggy back in his prime have gotten that? I would say so – and it just might could have been a Web Gem.

Then it is CJ up – and in his first AB, minor had struck him out, but had shown him all 3 pitches, the FB, curve and change. So this time, CJ gave him a 9 pitch battle, fouling off 4 pitches before managing to get wood on the last changeup – and this one popped up a bit, but fell for a bloop hit in front of a diving Jason Heyward and Clank scored. Tie game on 2 lousy popups.

Then Brett Wallace comes up and drives in CJ on a double to the RF corner, which Heyward has a tough time retrieving.

HEY MILLSY, WALLACE SEEMS TO BE ABLE TO HIT LEFTYS!!! SO PLEASE STOP BENCHING HIM WHEN WE FACE LEFTYS!!!! THANK YOU!!!!

Castro, who wore the sombrero tonight, started off with 2 strikes, both high and outside (not sure why the ump called those 2 as strikes, seeing as how he was pretty good about not calling other pitches out of the zone as strikes) and he swung through the 3rd pitch.

So it was Stros 3, Braves 2.

Bud, as we know, has had a tough time holding leads, but he got 3 up 3 down in the 5th in spite of walking the pitcher!!!! on 4 straight pitches because he got a FO and a GIDP. Ufortunately, he did cough it up in the 6th – gave up a double to Chipper just inside the LF line, then threw a meaty slider down the middle (this is usually a bad idea) and McCann deposited it in the RF bullpen. Bud is a FB pitcher, and this stuff IS gonna happen IF he throws it down the middle just a lil too often.

And it’s Braves 4, Stros 3

But The Astros get lucky in the bottom of the inning. Pence walks, then steals second, then goes to 3rd when Clank GO. Then it’s CJ again, but he grounds out to short. Pence has already started for home and SHOULD have been dead meat, but Agon bobbles the ball, Pence is safe, CJ is safe. Tie game. (Remember, by the way, that AGon is the one who booted an EASY GIDP ball in the famous Bartman game and it was THAT play, not poor Bartman, who cost the C*bs the pennant, but I digress…) Minor must be ready to SCREAM. He’s had 4 runs score and only 2 well hit hits in 2 separate innings.

Fielding really IS something a pitcher needs, no matter HOW much he “knows how to win…”

I could see the steam coming from Minor’s ears and he pitched with cold fury, striking out both Wallace and Castro swinging. The guy pitched a VERY good 6 innings and had nothing to show for his trouble.

And Bud went back out to start the 7th. He’s getting better at pitching deeper into games. He got Alex Gonzalez to GO to CJ (who, in case anyone hasn’t noticed, is fielding MUCH better over the past 2 weeks), then got Ex-Stro Brooks Conrad (a switch hitting utility IF) to popup a 3-2 pitch to the foul railing at 3rd, where CJ managed to reach over and grab the ball in spite of fand grabbing for it. (As I said, he’s doing MUCH better these days.) Then Omar Infante hit a ball through the 5.5 hole and with lefty Heyward up, Mills decided to have Byrdak face him.

So all in all, Bud had a decent night – 3 well hit doubles, 2 homers, only 1 walk – 6.2 IP, 4 ER (see homers.)

And then, the Braves fielders REALLY imploded.

Kyle Farnsworth came in to relieve. He’s been in the AL for a long time now, and his last time at the Box wasn’t good (blew game 5 in 05 by giving up a homer to Slugger Brad Ausmus to tie the game, which the Braves had been winning by 5 runs. But I digress…)

Clutch God Blum came in to pinch hit and singled, then Bourgeois pinch-ran, then Bourn grounded him to 2nd. Sanchez walked. Kepp singled home Bourgy and it was men at first and second. With Pence up, and Cox trying for the GIDP, Sanchez and Kepp advanced on a WP (McCann didn’t block well), so they then IBB Pence hoping Clank would GIDP – a good bet.

In comes Moylan, the GB specialist, but Clank beats him with a blooper to shallow right and the Stros lead 5-4. Bases still loaded. Then stuff happened. Remember fielding?

CJ hits a clean single through the 5.5 hole and it goes into left. Hinske, the LF gets the ball, STUPIDLY doesn’t throw to the cutoff man, but throws home, STUPIDLY trying to get Pence, who runs FAST. McCann grabs the ball, throws to 3rd, trying to get Clank, who was like 2 steps from the bag ALREADY, and throws it into the LF corner where Hinske has to run it down and by the time he gets near the ball, CJ has already scored on his little league homer.

In comes a lefty and Brett Wallace smashes a hard single. Gee, looks like he can hit leftys, hunh? But Castro and Bourgy strand him, but it doesn’t matter because it’s 10-4 and Lyon and Lindstrom manage to hold it.

I like it when bad breaks go the Astros way.

And tonight, it’s J Happ, who is going to try to not look Happ-less again.

By the way, Wesley got sent down, no surprise. Figueroa is going to take his spot in the rotation. Lyles is NOT ready.

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Posted in Brett Wallace, Bud Norris, Chris Johnson | 5 Comments »

Chris Johnson Hits A Little League Homer And Brett Wallace Hits Leftys Just Fine

Monday, August 9th, 2010

And Braves lose to Astros on 3 errors. Kyle Farnsworth doesn’t do real too good in this here stadium (remember the infamous 18 inning game in the 05 playoffs?)

More in the morning…

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Posted in Brett Wallace, Bud Norris, Chris Johnson | 3 Comments »

Wesley Has The Wrong Stuff And Brewers Pound Him

Sunday, August 8th, 2010

Major league hitters do what is called “adjust.” Last week, Wesley Wright beat the Brewers by throwing high strikes. Oh – and by not throwing lots of pitches outside the strike zone.

Today, with Balking Bob behind HP, Wesley couldn’t get ANY borderline strikes – high, low, inside, outside – and he didn’t help himself by throwing even more pitches waaaayyy out of the zone. (Of course, Gallardo got ALL of the borderline pitches called as strikes. I absolutely HATE it when umps play favorites like this. You disbelieve me, got look at Chris Johnson’s AB in the 6th – he was called out on 3 pitches, ALL of which were called balls for Astros pitchers. I am awaiting our new robot strike calling overlords. Along with replay cameras – an umpire in the booth to immediately overrule any calls which are incorrect.)

Mills mercifully pulled him with 1 out in the second after Wesley had walked Prince and Braun on 8 straight pitches (like I said about NO borderline strikes), then an IF popup, then new CF Lorenzo Cain hit a bullet juuuuust over the 3B bag (too bad ol Balkin Bob wasn’t at third to eff THAT one up, too). Naturally, Figueroa let THAT run score, too. (If Melvin/Macha have any sense, they won’t reinstate Carlos Gomez in center after he gets off the DL – however, most Organizations have a problem if a rookie comes up and significantly outplays the veteran – see Edwin Maysonet…)

Was it just last month that the Astros had the best ERA in the majors? Flukes, you know.

At the end of top of the second, it was Astros 2, Crew 8.

Could someone PLEASE explain to me why, no matter the situation, Pedro Suckage Feliz is ALWAYS the first PH sent in. Is it Mills’ firm belief that the absolute worst hitter should ALWAYS pinch hit at the first opportunity? I don’t get it – not even COOPER was that crazy. Naturally, Feliz was sent up to hit with 2 on 1 out in the bottom of the second, and naturally, he grounded out weakly to third, as usual.

Astros completely threw in the towel after Chacin gave up a 3 run homer in the 4th to make it 11-4. Get this:

Brett Wallace got a single and scored in. But he also made a rookie mistake – batting in back of Clank, who was walked on 4 straight pitches, he swung at 3 straight pitches, ALL out of the zone. He’ll learn. He was punished by being pulled after the inning was over and Clank was installed at first. Yeah, that’ll REALLY learn him good. I understand pulling a guy for dogging it – but being overeager with the bat? He didn’t ignore a bunt sign or anything. Good grief.

After that, I was SOOO disgusted that I went out in the backyard with Husband to eat BBQ and didn’t even bother to turn up the sound.

I will tell you that Clank didn’t make an error. I will tell you that CJ turned a nice DP and didn’t miss any. I will tell you that Angel Sanchez fielded a ball, made a throw that pulled Wallace offn the bag and the “infield hit” scored a run. Also Chris Johnson reached base for the 21st consecutive time today – he went 1 fer 4 with a run scored and he’s still batting 7th – we wouldn’t want him – like, you know – driving in runs or anything.

You don’t wanna hear how many men got left on base.

And Jeff Fulchino needed only 20 pitches to pitch 2 innings – no hits, no walks, no HBP. Let’s hope his DL stint really DID do him some good. Byrdak pitched a scoreless with a walk and Lopez managed to escape a 2 hit inning without runs scoring.

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Posted in Brett Wallace, Chris Johnson, Jason Castro, Wesley Wright | 4 Comments »

J Happ Finds Out Why You Should Not Throw An Unmoving Pitch Down The Middle To Albert Pujols

Wednesday, August 4th, 2010

J Happ was absolutely horrible from the first pitch. He simply couldn’t get the ball in the strike zone (and this was NOT borderline stuff, neither) and walked Lopez on 5 pitches, went to 3-0 on Rasmus before striking him out, then Uncle hit a GR double to the RF bullpen, then 3 straight singles before a flyout, then an RBI single by Carpenter, then a 3-2 groundout.

4 freaking runs against Carpenter. Peachy.

But In the top of the second, Wallace draws a 4 pitch walk, then CJ hit an 0-2 FB over the CF wall – like 440′ – wonder if Rasmus could have gotten that on the Hill at home…

So it’s 4-2, and there’s a chance.

But when Happ comes back out, it’s obviously a problem – a 5 pitch walk to Lopez (did I mention that they batted around in the 1st inning?), then 2 straight balls to Rasmus (like 2′ away from the edge of the plate) and out comes Castro and Arnesberg (who was out last inning, too) and 5 pitches later, Rasmus walks.

Uncle is up.

Figueroa has been up and throwing, guess he’s not ready, and Happ pitches to Uncle. Lil Miss, who has come into the living room to watch, says – betchu he hits it out. I said – nah, he’ll walk. So Happ throws a pitch waaaaayyy off the plate and Arnesberg runs out again. I was hoping they’d pull Happ because I know Uncle a lot better than I want to. But noooooo. I said – this is BAD. Another ball, a foul, another ball, another foul, then a changeup right down the middle belt high and you’ll nevah guess what happened. What was it Crash Davis said – anything that flies that far should have a stewardess, dontchu think?

So Happ has pitched 1+ innings, giving up 7 ER. Worst I’ve seen since The Hated Jason Jenning’s 11 run in 1 inning mess.

So it’s Astros down by 5 runs with Carpenter pitching. Not a real good place to be in.

But Figueroa comes in and gets 1,2,3 out. In fact, except for a single to Yadi, he gets 3 innings of 1,2,3 out on 42 pitches.

In the 5th, Castro walks and for some reason, Figgy is pulled and Feliz (who is facing Carpenter, not some suckulous relief pitchers) is sent in to pinch hit. Wouldn’t it have made more sense to have Figgy sac-bunt. He’s a starter/long reliever – why limit a very effective pitcher? Why does Mills always send his worst hitter in as the first pinch hitter? Remeber the Cory Sullivan parade of uck-say? Anyway, neither Bourn or Sanchez get anything done and we have to put in a different pitcher.

(By the way, JD and Brownie said something about maybe the Cards being interested in Feliz as a backup 3B now that Freese is done for the year. I say – GO CARDS!!!)

So Wilton Lopez comes in, gives up a leadoff double, then a single, then a grounder to third, and Johnson throws home to prevent another run instead of completing a double play. But Lopez settles down and no runs score in the 5th. Or in the 6th.

In the 7th, CJ walks, Castro flies out, then pinch hitter Michaels sends a very hard hit ball to the LF wall and Holliday makes a great leaping catch to get it (hey, it WAS a great catch, gotta respect that.)

In the 8th, Bourn singled off Carpenter’s leg. Then, with Sanchez batting, he did this weird steal thingy where he didn’t get a jump and just suddenly started running – did Meacham just tell him to go NOW, or what???? and got thrown out (the ball beat him but the tag didn’t) and of course, then Sanchez singled and Bourn would have been on 3rd anyway.

TLR came in and pulled Carp, who did NOT want to come out, and of course Kyle McClellan came in and got Pence to GO and Clank to K.

The guys tried to come back against Ryan Franklin in the 9th – Wallace singled to right, Castro hit a bullet that Ras-missed (hahahaha) which went all the way to the wall with an RBI triple. Blum then drove him in with a 3-2 single. Bourgeois pinch hit for lefty Bourn (maybe his foot was hurting from being HBP) and flew out to center on a 3-2 pitch to end the game.

Have not yet heard if anything is wrong with Happ (remember that he was on the DL for 2 months earlier) or if he just had a bad night. Last start, I was worried because he had 4 walks in 6 innings and went to so many 3-2 counts – tonight, he went to 3-2 counts on 8 of the 12 hitters he faced. Well, I know – 2 starts – small sample size…

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Posted in Chris Johnson, J.A. Happ, Jason Castro, Nelson Figueroa, Wilton Lopez | 3 Comments »

Cardinals Are Touched By An Angel (Sanchez) Who Tells Norris – For all You Do, Bud, This One’s For You

Tuesday, August 3rd, 2010

Either this is one of those small sample size things, or Jeff Bagwell has electrified these hitters.

It was 110 degrees down on the field and the hitters were HOT.

Didn’t start off that way – Garcia had a lethal sinker that first inning; Bourgeois, getting a start in center against the lefty, went to 3-2, then popped out, then Sanchez and Pence struck out swinging. I thought uh-oh. And even though Bud looked good, he gave up a homer to Colby Rasmus on a 3-2 FB down and in and I was afraid we were gonna lose like 1-0, seeing as how Bud had given up only 1 run over 4 games in St. Looie.

But even though Jaime is from Mission (Texas, for all yall from somewheres else), he looked as if he had a lil trouble with the heat. In the second inning, he gave up consecutive singles to Carlos (no Clank tonight – I SWEAR he has turned into Carlos Hustle – hahaha) and Keppinger, then Pedro Feliz, getting a start at 1B, hit what SHOULD have been a GIDP ball , but Aaron Miles, playing 3rd, screwed it up and everyone was safe. Then CJ hit a sac-fly to deep center to tie the game.

For whatever reason, Garcia just couldn’t get his sinker to sink. Castro hit into a FC as Carlos scored. Then Bud Norris hit an RBI single. Then Bourgeois hit a RBI double to left center. Then Sanchez hit a 2 RBI double to center, Pence grounded out and the Astros led 5-1. Bud Norris, full of confidence, went out and got 1,2,3 out on 12 pitches.

Carlos Lee again led off the 3rd and he singled again. Keppinger hit into what SHOULD have been a 5-4-3, but Miles again screwed it up, so he only got Kepp. Feliz singled and Carlos SERIOUSLY hustled around 3rd and beat the throw – yes, Yadi dropped the ball, but the ump signaled safe BEFORE it was obvious that the ball was dropped (replay showed Carlos got his hand in there.) Garcia pulled himself together, got CJ on 2 nasty curves and a wicked slider.

Bud trotted back out and got 1,2,3 out on 11 pitches.

Garcia continued to keep the ball down and out, but Bud ran into a little trouble in the 4th. Rasmus singled, Uncle singled, then Holliday flew out to left center and Bougy made a VERY nice running catch. Allen Craig, a new guy called up to play right (platooning with Jon Jay, now that Ludwick is gone) singled Rasmus home, then Skip Schumaker sincled to right and Uncle ran thru the stop sign at 3rd to score – Pence’s throw was waaaaayyy offline. Arnesberg trotted out, chatted with Bud, who then got Yadi to groundout to CJ for a nice GIDP (it wasn’t Yadi’s night) and I must say that CJ made an EXCELLENT play on that ball -  and made very good plays on a couple others. Hopefully, the errors will dissipate as he gets more comfortable and is no longer nervous that he’ll be benched if he goes ofer.

Both pitchers had quick 1,2,3 5th inning.

Then Garcia, at 91 pitches, lost steam. He gave up a single to CJ, then Duncan trotted out. Castro fouled off a couple, took 2 balls, then lined a single to opposite field. Goodbye Jaime, who has given up SIX runs, 2 earned (the guy came into the game with a 2.33 ERA) and left 2 on base.

In trots Mitchell Boggs, RHP and his 3.23 ERA. Bud sac-bunts Castro to second, then Boggs walks Bougy on 4 straight pitches, then Our Friend da Angel hits a bases clearing standup triple to the RF gap – one of those balls that rolls slowly to the wall after it falls. Pence hits a sac-fly to deep right in foul territory, then Carlos hits a ball to deep right center which Craig, the RF, bobbles a bit – and Carlos, RUNNING FULL OUT (and NO I am NOT kidding) chugs around second and heads full steam into third (and NO I am NOT kidding) and beats the throw and tag, but is called out. It was absolutely incredible. I haven’t seen him play like this since we were on a winning streak back in August of 08. I don’t know what on earth has gotten into him, but I’m just sorry it didn’t happen a lil earlier.

So the Astros are up 10-3. Bud comes back out, gets Rasmus to fly out, then gets Uncle to ground out to 3rd – another REALLY good stop and throw by CJ. Then Holliday hits a hanging slider into the RF bullpen, Craig singles to center – Bougy traps the ball and unsuccessfully tries to sell it. Schumaker draws a 3-1 walk. Bud looks tired and hot and out trots Arnesberg. Yadi is up and hits the ball to shallow right and Pence makes a fabulous diving catch, just like last night, to end the inning.

Astros 10 – Cards 4

Boggs goes back out to start the inning and promptly walks Kepp, then gives up a single to Feliz (who went 3 fer 6 on the night with 2 RBI and 2 runs scored) and then TLR goes out to the mound and tells him – THROW STRIKES!!!. So he does and Chris Johnson promptly swats the first pitch into right center for a 2 RBI double and Boggs is done.

In comes lefty Dennys Reyes (250 lbs? surrrrrrre, if you just counting the top half) and Castro lines a single to center. Lefty Brett Wallace is sent up to pinch hit and HE hits a RBI single to right. Bougy GIDP, then Sanchez knocks in his 6th run with a single before Pence grounds out. At this point, Pence is the only guy in the lineup who hasn’t gotten a hit, although he DID drive in a run.

Byrdak comes in in the bottom of the 7th and gives up a single to Ryan, but gets the other 3 outs without giving up any runs. Best part was watching Reyes bat – he hadn’t had an AB for 5 years and he managed to have an 8 pitch AB.

So Reyes comes back out to start the 8th and gives up a 4 pitch walk to Carlos (guess he was all tired out from swinging a bat) then a single to pinch hitter Jason Michaels. So out comes TLR, out goes Reyes and in comes Mike McDougal, who didn’t have what you might could call a real too particularly good night last night.

Pedro Feliz hits an RBI single, then Blum, newly arrived from the DL (Anderson Hernandez got DFA’d instead of Feliz, too bad) pinch hit for CJ and hit an RBI single, then Castro walked. Byrdak, in his first AB since last year (he went ofer 3) struck out, then Bourgeois drew a 4 pitch walk. Bases loaded. Da Angel up, needing a homer for the cycle, and a granny would give him the Astros team record of 10 RBI for a 9 inning game (you know that JR Towles currently holds the record of 8 – against the Cards, interestingly enough) but he struck out looking.

Too bad.

Then Pence FINALLY got a hit, an RBI single – and only Blum trotted home – can’t be rude, you know, leading by 14 runs and Carlos grounded out to end the inning.

Fulchino came in to pitch the bottom of the 8th, his first inning since he came off the DL (Abad was sent down to AAA) and gave up a single to Uncle, then a groundout from Holliday (Bougy, now at second, made a nice play) then he walked Craig on 4 pitches, then got his control in hand and struck out Schu and LaRue.

TLR had bout run out of pitchers, so Aaron Miles, all 5′8″ of him, trotted in to relieve. He threw 70 MPH pitches, gave up a single to Blum, and got Michaels, Feliz and Castro to pop up. Who needs Da Mariano?

Chacin came in to mopup in the 9th, gave up 2 singles but no runs.

Unbelieveable.

Like I said, either we are doing better with young guys who can, you know, like, HIT, or Da Baggy has had some kind of magic effect on everyone. And anyone who can get Carlos Lee to try to stretch a double into a triple is my kind of guy.

Se the Astros have now won 6 straight games at Busch, for like the first time EVAH.

And we go for the sweep tomorrow against ace Chris Carpenter, who is more than relieved that his nemesis Berkman is no longer with the team. The Cards face  JA Happ.

Youneverknow. Whoda thought we’d score 28 runs against the Cards over TWO games?

And I guess Tommy Manzella is headed back to AAA for rehab – 3 weeks worth. Wonder if he’ll ever get his job back. Wonder if the Red Sox wonder if Angel Sanchez switched bodies with the ghost of Nomar 1999 or something…

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Posted in Angel Sanchez, Bud Norris, Carlos Lee, Chris Johnson | 21 Comments »

Chris Johnson Drives In Go-Ahead Run As Astros Come Back To Beat The Cards And Win 6th In A Row

Monday, August 2nd, 2010

It didn’t start off very well for the Astros – 10 pitches, 3 outs on Westbrook’s sinker. Then Lopez, leading off for the Cards, hit a liner under Keppinger’s glove for an error (later idiotically ruled a hit) and then stuff happened. Jon Jay hit an easy GB back to the pitcher for whjay SHOULD have been a nice 1-6-3, but the throw was lousy and clanked off the glove of Anderson Hernandez (getting a start at short) and rolled into center. Bourn, running forward to get it, threw it to Anderson to try to tag Jay, but again the throw clanked off his glove and Lopez, who never stopped running, slid into home as the throw came in where it was picked up by Keppinger and scored, even though the replay clearly showed him out.

No outs, 3 errors, a run scored, man on second. So I sighed and thought – oh nooooooooo. But somehow, no more runs scored.

Then in the second, Carlos Lee (no Clank tonight – more on that latah) singled – what a relief, we won’t get no hit by Westbrook, who looked unhittable, but Kepp GIDP. Wallace, hitting 6th ahead of CJ again, was HBP, but then CJ struck out.

In the 3rd, Carlos Lee HUSTLED after a fly ball and caught in with s nice sliding catch. Actually, Carlos hustled ALL GAME. Yes, you heard right. He made 2 VERY nice catches, no lazy crap, and he ran HARD to try to break up a DP and he ran HARD to score from 3rd on an IF hit with bases loaded. Guess being benched for 2 days straight might could have done a lil bit of good. I HOPE – he did K, but he also drew TWO walks (neither intentional) singled twice, drove in a run and scored 2. I actually wonder if Brad Mills told him flat out he was gonna lose playing time to Bourgeois and Michaels if he dogged it out there.

youneverknow

But anyway, in the 4th, Anderson Hernandez doubled down the LF line, then Pence beat out an IF dribbler toward third, stole second on a Carlos Lee swinging K, beating the throw from Yadi – it was a NICE jump – then Kepp drove in Hernandez with a groundout. Then

BRETT WALLACE DROVE IN HIS FIRST ML RBI

with a 9 pitch IF single – Westbrook gets all these groundballs with that sinker, but sometiems they find holes and sometimes guys beat them out – and Felipe Lopez is not exactly David Freese with the glove

so the Astros led 2-1.

But it was Uncle leading off the bottom of the 4th and Uncle did what Uncle does best, which is KILL Astros pitching and when a ball went down the middle, Uncle deposited it in the stands to tie the game. Uncle, by the way, says he hasn’t “felt comfortable” all year – guess he isn’t kidding because his OPS has, ahem, fallen all the way down to .953 – have to laugh – bout every ballplayer would LUUUUVVVV to have an OPS over 900…

Anyway, the Cards then load the bases with 2 walks and a single, then Schu GIDP and another run scores, but then TLR’s strategy of having the pitcher bat 8th backfired, because Westbrook can’t hit any better than my 8 year olds, so bases loaded, only 1 run.

But the Cards now lead 3-2. Schumaker and Ryan aren’t hitting worth spit this year, kind of surprised that they didn’t get more sticks at the deadline, but youneverknow.

No excitement in the 5th.

In the 6th, with 2 out, Carlos walks, Kepp ROE (it wasn’t Lopez’ night with the glove), but then up 3-1, Wallace swings at 2 pitches out of the zone – over eager, I think.

At the end of the 6th, both starters were sent to the showers and Jason Motte came on, gave up a single to CJ – guess he’s starting another hitting streak, although he is continuing his on base streak – then a FO, then pinch hitter Jason Bourgeois GIDP 6-3.

In the bottom of the 7th, With Nelson Figueroa pitching in relief, Pence robbed Schumaker of a sure hit to shallow center with a great diving catch. Randy Winn flew out to Bourn, then Brendan Ryan singled and Felipe Lopez hit a ball to right which Pence misjudged and missed for a RBI double and the Cards led 4-2.

Motte came back out for the 8th and Bourn led off. He went to 2-1, couldn’t get the bunt down, fouled off a couple, took another ball, fouled off a couple and drew a walk. And you know what is gonna happen if Michael is on first with a relief pitcher, Yadi Molina or no Yadi Molina, so adter the first pitch to Hernandez, he’s on second. Not that it mattered because Hernandez drew a 4 pitch walk. Motte was pulled and in came ex-closer Mike McDougal, who got Pence to popup on the first pitch. Then Carlos came in, took a strike, then hit an RBI single to right – shallow right, but Roberto Clemente wouldn’t get Bourn. Then Keppinger hit an RBI double with the first pitch and drove in Hernandez – Carlos had to stop at third because of his lack of speed.

Then – get this – TLR has McDougal IBB Brett Wallace. Yes, his first ML IBB!!!!!!!!

So it’s Chris Johnson and his .340 BA up and he hits a chopper over the pitcher’s head, Schumaker grabs the ball, throws home, but throws wide and Carlos, chugging at full speed (for him) beats the throw and everyone is safe. Quintero, who had a BAD day at the plate, GIDP 5-3.

But Astros lead, 5-4.

Brandon Lyon comes in to face Uncle, Holliday and a pinch hitter.

Uncle smacks a single to left, Holliday goes to 3-2 and then sends a fly ball to left, and Carlos HUSTLES and manages to snag it instead of letting it fall in for a single as he usually does!!!!! Nick Stavinoha then GIDP 6-4-3.

Yes, it WAS GIDP city tonight – Astros had 3, Cards had 2.

So top of the 9th, in comes ex-Stro Trever Miller. Angel Sanchez, pinch hitting, comes in and singles to right (got this feeling Tommy Manzella just might could not get his job back) and then Michael Bourn, on another 3-2 count, after failing to get the bunt down TWICE, hits an IF single toward 3rd and with his speed beats the throw. So men on first and second, no out. Jason Michaels flies out to shallow center and runners hold. Pence singles to right and Sanchez scores and Michael flies to third.

Trever is pulled and Blake Hawksworth, who started against the Astros a couple months back and held us to a couple of hits, comes in to relieve and face Carlos, who sees 4 pitches out of the strike zone and does NOT swing at any of them, giving him his second walk in ONE game. Yes, you read that correctly.

Keppinger comes in and hits the first pitch to center and Bourn trots home with Pence close on his heels. Wallace pops out, then CJ doubles off the LF wall to drive in ANOTHER run and the Astros lead 9-4. Quintero grounds out to end the inning.

Lindstrom, who had started warming up when the Astros led 5-4, goes in to finish up. He gives up an IF single to Yadi, as it richchets off his glove and bounces into the vacated hole at short.

Then Schu comes up, hits a grounder to right, which Wallace lets bounce off his glove, but fortunately, Keppinger is backing up the play and gets the ball to first in time. Lindstrom gets the next 2 outs with 2 pitches.

A nice come from behind victory – which, curiously enough, is something the Astros have done quite a bit this year.

Tomorrow, Bud Norris, who is NAILS at Busch, faces Jaime Garcia, who I thought was pitching tonight. Jaime really SHOULD win Rookie of the Year, seeing as how Strasburg will have only pitched less than half of the year and Jaime is awesome.

Bud has had 2 good starts in a row – let’s hope it continues.

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Posted in Brett Wallace, Carlos Lee, Chris Johnson, Hunter Pence, Jeff Keppinger, Michael Bourn | 11 Comments »

J Happ-y To Get Run Support To Shutout The Brewers

Friday, July 30th, 2010

Roy Oswalt pitched his first game tonight as a Phillie, gave up 5 runs, had crappy defense, got 1 run of support – must have felt right at home.

Meanwhile, J Happ threw 6 innings of 2 hit, a 2 base ROE by Clank, 4 walk ball. He doesn’t have really great stuff – a FB 89-93 MPH, a curve he seldom threw, and a changeup. It’s funny because Manny Parra has better stuff, including an unhittable changeup, but he just can’t seem to throw his great stuff consistently, don’t ask me why. Must drive Brewers fans crazy.

Tonight, no Roy, no Pence, no Berkman, no problem.

Happ just might could have been a lil nervous when he went out there – gave up a leadoff double to Weeks, then a walk to Hart. But he pulled himself together and got Braun swinging, got Prince to popup to left and McGehee to groundout to third. He started off the second inning with 2 swinging Ks, a 3-2 walk and a groundout to Pedro Feliz, playing 1B while Lance, still in uniform, took a (supposedly) planned day off.

Happ threw 43 pitches through the first 2 innings, half balls, and I had one of those uh-oh feelings, because Parra had had wicked stuff in the 1st, but in the 2nd,  he threw a FB right down the middle on a 3-2 count to Michaels, playing RF, who sent it into the middle window in left field. And with a 1 run lead, Happ never looked back.

 And once CJ hit a 3 run opposite field homer (on another one of those 2-0 right down the middle FB), he just put pedal to the metal and cruised through the next 2 innings. Mills pulled Happ after 6 innings, 98 pitches. As the guy came back from 2 months on the DL with elbow soreness only a few weeks ago, no reason to stretch him out.

Bourn went ofer – shoulda had an infield single, but Phil Cuzzi, the 1B ump got the call wrong. Then again, Michael should have run through the bag instead of sliding head first. He made a WebGem catch on Prince’s looping hit to shallow center in the 8th and basically made every tough catch look easy – just as usual. Now that his batting average is too low for Astros fans, I’m starting to hear the same sort of thing I heard about Everett – and how saving hits and runs isn’t important. Unless you are Clank and giving them up, of course…

Sanchez went ofer, but made all the plays, which were all pretty routine.

Keppinger, batting 3rd, had 2 walks and a homer off the fowl pole (chicken sandwiches all around!!!) and made all the plays.

Clank, batting 4th, was ofer (Parra saved his very best stuff for Clank), had a GIDP, and muffed a fly ball to left – near the bullpen, he tried to make a hot dog catch, turned at the wrong minute and the ball clanked off his glove. So much for Bagwell teaching him how to hit.

Jason Michaels hit 5th, went 1 fer 3 with a walk, scored 2 runs, hit the go ahead homer and made all the plays.

Feliz hit a single!!!! for his first hit in like weeks and scored when CJ hit one out. He didn’t mess up any plays at first.

CJ, as usual, hit 7th – don’t ask me to explain this because I can’t and his hitting streak is now 13 games. He’s starting to hit for power now, as he did in the minors, and so be it and shall it remain. Now, if he can just get the glove work under control. He bobbled an easy GIDP ball, but got the out at first, but fortunately, no one scored.

Quintero went ofer, and his trouble framing pitches got 5 strikes called balls, including one strikeout that went as a walk.

News – apparently Lance was packing his things and saying good-bye to everyone, so it loks as if the Yankees trade is a go. I have heard different accounts of which players we are receiving, so I am going to wait until it is official before discussing them. Last player we got from the Yankees was LaTroy Hawkins, which worked out pretty well for us.

Will be interesting to see if they call Brett Wallace right up and play him. We’ll see if he can hit outside of the top hitters parks in the PCL.

Next 2 days, it will be the attack of the little leftys, Wandy and Wesley. Let’s hope we can get Wesley his first W on Sunday and Wandy a nice W tomorrow.

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Posted in Chris Johnson, J.A. Happ, Jason Michaels | 6 Comments »

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