It’s not that Roy pitched really well – actually, he didn’t. Again. TWELVE hits, 2 walks, 6 K, 3 ER in 5.2 IP – 114 pitches, 75 strikes. Only 3 hitters went to 3-2 counts, but Roy didn’t have even one 1,2,3 inning. Looking at the defense, the only fielder who is playing out of position was Chris Burke in right – there were 5 hits to right, but they weren’t the result of poor fielding. I doubt that Luke would have gotten Ibanez’ double either.

I really am not sure what is wrong with Roy – he hasn’t pitched a really ace game in a good 3 weeks. Not sure what’s up with all the walks – he didn’t used to do that. Whatever strategy he’s using to go deep into games is not working.

But he sure deserved this win for all the great games he’s pitched and NOT won.

And with the exception of Carlos Lee, who had a miserable 0-5 with his league leading 16th GIDP, the rest of the lineup got on base at least once and scored at least 1 run. Mike Lamb, who has really heated up since I wrote about how lousy he was with the bat 5 days ago hit a grannie in the first inning and drove in another run in the 5th. Even Mo Ensberg, who didn’t get a hit, contributed by getting base twice and scoring both times.

This team got 12 hits, took 7 walks and a ROE and scored 10 runs. Could this REALLY be the Astros???

AND, mind you, we scored all these runs without either Lance Berkman, who was sick, or Carlos Lee.

We are talking about 41 hits and 11 walks and 24 runs these past 3 games AND this is with Lance going 3-8 with no runs scored or RBIs and Lee going 4-12 with no runs scored and 1 RBI.
I’ll drink to that. (Well, if I was a drinkin grrrrl, which I’m not)

We’re off to Anaheim to face the Angels of Los Angeles, who are just behind the Red Sox for the best record in baseball. Chris Sampson will face John Lackey, a VERY tough righty who is 10-4 in 14 GS with a 2.53 ERA (ERA+ 169) and a 1.14 WHIP. He has 9 of 14 QS and is averaging 6.2 IP/GS and has lasted at least 5 IP in each start. The HIGHEST his ERA has been this year is 2.70.

Amazing. This guy came up in 02, helped the Angels beat the Giants in the WS. He then had league average seasons in 03 and 04, but has steadily improved since. He has a lifetime 3.88 ERA (1.12 ERA+) over 1083 IP and a 70-53 record over 163 GS.

Oh yeah – Phil and Mansolino better not be running on Vlad Guerrero, who is having a career year with the bat, or Gary Matthews Jr, who Mike Lamb remembers REAL good from last year’s interleague game in Arlington when GMJ made the WebGem of the year catch at the CF fence to rob Lamb of a sure fire homer…

And last but not least, Rick White is back from the DL and Mark McLemore, after wasting 2 weeks in the dugout, is back at AAA where he at least can be starting. In his 3 weeks in the bigs, he threw exactly 2 innings. What a waste…

Tags: Houston Astros

This entry was posted on Sunday, June 17th, 2007 at 7:00 pm and is filed under Mike Lamb, Roy Oswalt. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.