Archive for the ‘J.A. Happ’ Category

Happ-y Astros Shut Out Happ-Less Cards

Monday, August 30th, 2010

JA Happ pitched the 3rd Astros complete game this year, a 3-0 shutout of the Cards. Unlike his previous starts, he threw mostly strikes, going to only three 3 ball counts. One walk, 2 singles, 1 GIDP (from Uncle). And that was really all she wrote.

It was a nice quick Roy-O style game – 2 hrs, 1 min, first pitch to last – probably because there was exactly 1 mound conference – the Cards in the 7th. And only 1 pitching change, and that was to start an inning.  I LIKEY!!!! It’s true that all the running out to the mound, stepping out, stepping on, stepping off makes games incredibly more boring and I wish the time limits were enforced (yeah, they are ALREADY ML rules, but not enforced…)

Jake Westbrook wasn’t bad – 9 hits, 1 walk, FOUR GIDP (Castro had 2, Clank had 1, Sanchez had 1) and gave up only 3 hard hit balls (only 1 was an out – Manzella’s flyout to the wall at the RF bullpen) and the other 2, both singles, drove in runs. Pence singled and Clank drove him in with a double down the RF line that had some funny bouncing after it hit just inside the line.

CJ broke his ofer 9 with a single in the 7th, then Brett Wallace, who went 3 fer 3 – yeah, he DID, and now he’s hitting about 20 points under his weight!!! drove him in with a double to the LF bullpen wall.

Oh yeah – and we had our all rookie infield tonight – Wallace, Sanchez, Manzella, Johnson, Castro. Manzella made awesome plays all night long, Sanchez made a fabulous catch of Miles’ pop fly into shallow right center, Wallace made a nice DP when he caught Rasmus’ liner and doubled off Yadi Molina in the 8th. Castro called a great game and Happ shook him off once.

Manzella hustled BIG time to beat out a crucial infield single in the 8th. And speaking of hustle, Carlos Lee, yes, CARLOS LEE hustled in the 4th – when Wallace was up, he had second easily stolen, only it was a foul and then on the next pitch, he ran HARD from first to third when Wallace singled. In fact, this August was the first month this year that he hit his usual career numbers – .295/.339/.514/.854. He SAYS he’s worked out his troubles with his swing, seeing the ball, etc. OK, but he’s got to do it for more than 1 month, seeing as how we’re prolly stuck with him for 2 more years, unless Drayton wants to eat more dough.

Tomorrow, it’s the Wand Man vs Chris Carpenter. Root root root for the Wand Man. Especially because I don’t like Carpenter…

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Posted in J.A. Happ, Jason Castro | 3 Comments »

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 »

Righty Figueroa Beats Marlins While Leftys Wandy And Happ Lose

Sunday, August 22nd, 2010

Well, I’d heard that the Marlins eat lefty pitchers alive and they surely did.

This weekend was a little crazy for us – getting kidz ready to start skool, and any female who has “baby fever” can cure herself right quick by dragging 4 skool age kids around to get new shoes (which kids go through like Prince Fielder goes through donuts) and Skool Stuff. Husband made the earth shatteringly stupid (for him) mistake of asking why it always takes so long, so before he knew what hit him, he found himself with car keys in hand, taking the kids his own darn self. MWAAAAAAAAHAHAHAHAHAHA

I spent part of Friday night watching the Happ game (until the rain came) while cutting up tomatoes/onions /cilantro for pico de gallo (to be canned) and then figuring that I might as well go on and go out with Husband, having like NO idea if/when the rain would stop. Why they ever built a stadium in south Florida without a roof I can’t figure – and I’m not even mentioning the heat. But I digress…

Saturday, I spent the morning out with kidz – and after Husband stuck his bog foor in his big mouth, I spent the rest of the time canning tomatoes/making tomato sauce/paste with the zillion bushels of tomatoes I got. THEN getting started on the peach preserves with the zillion bushels of peaches I got (and yes, of COURSE I did this in the back yard – no WAY I would steam up the house) and I FINALLY got around to watching the replays – a few observations:

Game 1 – the Happ rain delay game

- the rookies are having more and more trouble dealing with ML pitching. Wallace and Castro both look as overmatched as Tommy Manzella and CJ is swinging at all KINDS of crap out of the strike zone. Bagwell had better start working with him like NOW or he is gonna follow the Hunter Pence path and struggle like heck once teams get a little bit of video and learn that with 2 strikes, he’ll swing at ANYTHING.
- Castro is as bad at blocking pitches in the dirt as he is good at throwing.
- Bourn is struggling just as much the 6 weeks since The Baggy took over as he did the 6 weeks before The Baggy took over. Not sure why he can’t lay down a bunt this year or lay off swinging at strike 3, but he can’t. Not sure why he has regressed so badly from last year.
- Mills/Arnesberg are the exact opposite of Cooper – they just WON’T pull a pitcher who either has nothing or has lost it, even with the game on the line. Here the hitters aren’t doing much against Ani Sanchez, they are losing by only 1 run and after the rain delay, Happ, who was really unhittable and had unusually excellent control after the first inning (every hitter but one went to a 3 ball count) had to go run the bases after the 40 minute delay, then couldn’t find anything after he took the mound. He strikes out the pitcher on a 3-2 count, walks Hanley on a 3-2 count, gives up an IF single to short on a 1-1, spends a whole lot of time and energy trying to pick off the runners while walking the batter on 4 straight – and here we are with bases loaded and NO ONE IS UP IN THE BULLPEN. Then ge gest Uggle to popup on a 2-1 count and Pence, uh, well, let’s be nice and say he didn’t get it and there’s no excuse for missing it or oversliding the ball. 2 runs score, and there goes the ballgame. And STILL no one is up in the pen!!!

Should I mention how long he leaves Fulchino, who has basically nothing, in? Gives up FOUR runs. I’m surprised he didn’t leave him in to give up 11 – remember Cooper with Backe – TWICE and Garner with Jennings?

- oh yeah – and Baggy needs to teach Happ, who obviously can’t HIT, how to lay down a bunt – the little dribbler he hit towards first with Castro running to third was, uh, pathetic.

Game 2 – The Wandy Game

- in which Wandy strikes out 10 in 6 innings, but gives up 3 runs courtesy of CJ’s first error and a 2 triples in a row (one to no-man’s land gap in left center and the other down the LF line in which El Perezoso moved so slowly that Wes Freaking Helms had more than enough time to saunter to third). I listened through 5 innings – Wandy had struck out 9, given up a couple hits, 1 walk, no runs and was ahead 2-0, so I felt it was safe to go and do a few errands. Next thing You know – loss city.
- I am REALLY tired of hearing so many people call 09 Wandy’s “breakout” year. It wasn’t ANY different than 08, which was as good as Roy Oswalt’s year, by the way. And darn near every pitcher I’ve ever seen, except for Roger Clemens, gets flustered (most of the time) by fielding screwups, especially missed double plays – it’s isn’t exactly a Wandy specialty, never was.
- crappy Astros fielding, starting with, but not limited to CJ’s 2 errors, both of which let runs score – AND he didn’t drive in any to make up for it. Here and I was going to actually make sure to write about how CJ’s fielding had been more than just fine after his first week – in which he made, what, 7 errors.
- crappy Astros hitting with men on base, RISP – Hunter Pence drove in 2 in the first, and that was all she wrote until the 9th, when it was too little, too late.

Game 3 – In Which A Righty, Nelson Figueroa throws 6 innings of 4 hit, 1 walk, 7 K, 1 ER ball, Wilton Lopez throws 2 almost perfect innings for the W when Pence homers to give the Astros the lead, and Brandon Lyon makes the 9th, um, interesting.

- in which Michael Bourn had a walk, a stolen base (#40), a single AND a bunt single (FINALLY) and scored a run (FINALLY)
- in which someone FINALLY got Hanley Ramirez stealing
- in which AFTER the series, we find out that Cody Ross, who killed the Astros all weekend, got claimed on waivers by the Giants, as the Marlins were more than happy to get rid of his enormous $750,000.00 salary (hey, more money for Jeffrey Loria’s pocket, which is important, you know) and all I can say is – they couldn’t have claimed him BEFORE the homer, the triple and the 4 runs driven in?

And now we’re off to Philly – won’t face Roy-O, who threw 7 innings of 4 hit, shutout ball today – he gave up 2 hits to Nyger Morgan, who KILLZ him and to Adam Kennedy, who also always hits him well.

Tomorrow, we face Joe Blanton, who has had kind of an icky year – 5.11 ERA. Let’s hope the rooks remember how to hit.

And, by the way, I will definitely take a look – a closer look, I mean, at how hitters have done pre and post ASB to take a look at The Baggy Effect. I know about all the talk about how the Astros hitting is so much improved, but I want to leave out all the new guys who weren’t coached by Sean Berry. Removing Pedro Suckage Feliz and replacing him with CJ isn’t proof that bad hitting is Berry’s fault.

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Posted in J.A. Happ, Nelson Figueroa, Wandy Rodriguez | No Comments »

Hunter Pence Hits, Runs, Fields Like An All-Star And Astros Sweep Pirates

Sunday, August 15th, 2010

You know that Sundays are designated “kids days” at the Box, right? They have all this kid-friendly stuff in Union Station – face painting, fake wax hands, one of those enclosed inflated trampolines thingys, as well as some sort of free gift for kids, kids run the bases after the game, etc. It is smart marketing because bring kids cost you a zillion times more than going with adults – all the endless junk food and the souveniers, etcetcetc.

And the Astros ran this promotion this weekend of $9.00 field box tickets (along the first and 3rd base line, on the OF side of the bases – usually $39, but they took off $$$ based on how many runs the Astros scored on a game in the St. Louis series and they scored like a zillion – and the stros stopped at 9 bucks.) Anyway, a certain person wanted me to take her kids to the game and gave me tickets for the 2 kids, husband and me and our kids. Worst part was that that person, in front of my kids – gave me some money and said for me to buy the kids some food.

I swear I’m like Charlie Brown with Lucy and the football. I NEVER learn. I should decide to never ever ever ever ever take my kidz to a ballgame until they are at LEAST 10. Because the kids aren’t interested in the actual baseball game. Not sure how getting kids to want to go to the ballPARK has anything to do with them eventually becoming Astros FANS because they don’t pay the slightest attention to what is supposed to be the main event.

Ah well, free tickets are free tickets and sugared, wired, hyper kidz were the price.

So at least I had something to hold over them – they misbehave, no goodies after the 5th inning and they really misbehave, we leave and no junk food at ALL. Of course, this meant I got – is it the 5th inning YET??? about a zillion times…

And oh my GAWD did this ballgame DRAG because JA Happ is the Human Rain Delay on the mound. I haven’t seen any starter take so much time between every single pitch since Steve Trachsel. Thank GAWD Karstens worked fast and threw strikes. And the Astros swung early and swung often, too. Happ, as usual, gave up a LOT of walks – I was gonna write 6 or 7, but I looked it up first and turns out is was only 4. Happ faced a total of 24 batters and went to 3 ball counts on 10 of them. In fact he was so wild that the HP ump called 5 strikes as balls – and the original HP ump wouldn’t call any high inside pitches as strikes, even the ones in the zone, so after that Happ threw almost everything outside to almost every hitter – the strikes, I mean, as the balls went ANYwhere.

Karstens wasn’t unhittable, but somehow, he only gave up 4 singles and no really hard hit balls until the 6th, when Pence hit a hanging slider for a ground rule double just in front of the RF bullpen.

Happ, as usual, gave up more walks than hits, and all 3 were singles. I can never figure out how on earth guys like him succeed.

But it is now time to sing the praises of Hunter Pence, who did absolutely everything right today. He reached on error in the first – ran hard out of the box on a chopper hit to third, which the 3B bobbled. In the 3rd, he singled, then stole second, then came around to score on a single up the middle by Clank. It wasn’t a hard hit single, but the middle IF and the CF haven’t really worked out who is gonna get what ball and no one went after that ball hard. Hunter took off at the crack of the bat and never stopped running and didn’t get a close throw.

He led off the 6th with a GR double to the RF bullpen, went to third when Clank flied out to right, then scored when Kepp hit a sac-fly to deep right. In the 7th, he hit an RBI double on what should have been a single up the middle to drive in Sanchez. And he made a GREAT running catch on a fly ball hit to the RF foul line and sinking fast.

If this is all due to Bagwell, all I can say is GO BAGGY!!!! And I wish he’d fix Michael Bourn, who wore the Sombrero with a flyout and a walk (late in the game).

CJ restarted a new hitting/on base streak with a single, an IF single and a solo homer into the Crawford Boxes (which, unfortunately, I missed, but I’m getting ahead of myself.)

So the Astros took the lead 1-0 on an RBI single by Clank, but then Happ coughed it up in the top of the 4th when he gave up a single, then a walk, then an RBI single from Milledge and a sac-fly from Snyder. So with the way Happ was pitching, I felt sure that the Bucs were gonna tack on more runs, so I missed most of the 5th inning taking the kids for food and bathroom – and yes, I DID say ABSOLUTELY NO WAY to cotton candy, I’m not completely stupid.

I missed Keppinger’s incredibly diving stop and throw of a sure base hit for Garrett Jones to end the 5th, but I didn’t miss Bourn’s awesome running grab of Tabata’s flyout to right center. But then Happ walked Alvarez on 5 straight pitches (he fouled off the first ball) and then Walker on 4 straight pitches and Arnesberg came running out to the mound, as guys were just getting up to stretch in the bullpen. Peachy, I thought, but Milledge took a ball, then fouled off a borderline pitch, then got over a hanging slider, which he rolled straight to Kepp for a perfect 4-6-3, only Angel Sanchez made a very wide throw to Wallace and Milledge was safe. Only Alvarez started running for home just a leeeeetle too late and Wallace threw home and Castro tagged him. So Happ escaped by the skin of his teeth and mamaged to eke out 6 innings.

Karstens, who had thrown 70 pitches by the end of the 5th and was goin strong, came back out for the 6th and made his first bad pitch -  a hanging slider to Hotter Pence, who would have had a stand up triple if the ball hadn’t skipped over the fence. Then Clank came up, took a ball, fouled one off, then swung through one and the ump went down like he’d been shot – wasn’t sure what happened, whether he was hit by the backswing or by a foul tip, but the trainer immediately came running out, then the other trainer came running out and there was like a 15 min delay as the ump finally got up and left the field under his own power with what looked like a towel held to the side of his head or neck. Of course, another ump had to replace him at home plate, which meant a different strike zone.

Aaaaaaaaaaand, it had been quite a delay, and Karstens had tossed a few to Snyder, but when the game restarted, It was apparent that Karstens had lost his, uh, grip. He threw a cookie to Clank who was a split second late and he flied out to deep right.  Then he started Kepp with 3 balls, and he’d only had one 3 ball count in the entire GAME, he threw a fat slider for a strike, which Kepp took, then got a called strike from the new ump on a pitch that had been a ball all night, then Kepp hit a FB up in the zone to deep right for a sac-fly.

I knew that the Pirates manager is oblivious to a rapidly tiring pitcher, or a pitcher who has lost his stuff, and sure enough, Karstens threw a ball to Wallace, then hit him with a curve, a pitch he’d thrown for strikes all night. NOW the manager starts to get someone up.  CJ hits an IF single to short, then Jason Castro hit his second single of the night (getting his BA to the Mendoza line!!!!!) to drive in Wallace.

So Russell pulls Karstens and sends in righty Sean Gallagher to face pinch hitter Pedro Feliz. I groaned. No, not true, I screamed out NOOOOOOOOOOOOO. So my Husband, who was getting more than tired with 6 kids continuuously buggin for more junk food, said – make you a little bet – if Feliz reaches base – hit, walk or error, you agree we leave.

Hey, dead easy Win, right? Heck no, he hits a 2 RBI double to center and Husband smirks. Don’t look like that, he sez, Pirates ain’t coming back.

So I missed the debut of Mark Melancon, who threw strikes and got 2 staring Ks – one on 3 pitches, the other on 4, and a groundout. He threw to one batter in the 8th, hit him, then Byrdak came on and got a GIDP and a flyout.

Byrdak was left in to hit for himself – why not – and then he started the 9th with a single to left and a walk. Fulchino came in and got 3 straight outs – no grand slam.

So tonight, we face the Mets, who just lost 2 of 3 to the Phils. It’s Wandy vs Jonathan Niese, LHP (so I guess Wallace will get benched again in favor of Pedro Feliz or Clank) who faced the Astros once last year and threw 7 innings of 4 hit 1 run ball. This year, he has a 3.50 ERA and a 1.36 WHIP. He’s a pretty good pitcher, hasn’t had much run support and has only 7 wins. Let’s hope they are all tired out from last night’s game and the long plane ride.

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Posted in Hunter Pence, J.A. Happ | 4 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 »

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 »

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 »