It took bout an HOUR to get through just the first 2 innings. At the end, Woody had already thrown 50 pitches and given up 2 ER – and let’s say he was not exactly helped by his defense. And of course, it’s the AL – who CARES about stuff like defense? What matters is interminably long baseball games with high scores because fielders can hit but not catch the *(^*^&$%! baseball.

Anyway, by the end of the third inning, Woody had walked the bases full, then managed to get the last 2 outs without any more runs scoring, but he was already at 84 pitches. And against the freaking Texas Rangers, the second worst team in the AL.

Somehow, he managed to get 3 outs in the 4th on 6 pitches. (And he’s FINALLY leading 3-2 because FINALLY, the guys manage to hit with RISP)

But it was a last gasp because in the 5th, he gave up a single to Young – went up the middle and of course, Loretta didn’t get anywhere near it, then Sosa’s 601st homer – a 335′dink to right, then a massive blast to Marlon Freaking Byrd – I think that ball must have gone over 450′, and there were are, 5 runs in 4 IP.

Seven hits, 4 walks, 5 runs. You know, I wish we had had Woody on the team back when he was good. Now he’s just sad, and switching from Q to Ausmus really hasn’t exactly helped much. I really don’t know what we’re gonna do about him – he signed a 2 year contract, not sure if he would be any good in the bullpen and I can’t see Drayton finding anyone who would trade for him, including the Cards, who are more than desperate.

Sigh

So in comes new reliever Steve Randolph – no one on base, at least. So he walks Frankie Catalanotto, strikes out Gerald Laird, then gives up a GIANT homer to Brad Wilkerson, then gives up a double on the very next pitch that almost goes out, then Kenny Lofton, age 40, beats out a single to short (but fielding doesn’t matter, does it), then he walks Kinsler – bases loaded – then he walks Michael Young, run scores, then Sammy Sosa singles and Lofton and Kinsler score.

We’re now down 10-3. Aat this point, Randolph has thrown 32 pitches, 16 strikes, 16 balls. He’s given up 3 walks, a homer, 2 singles and gotten exactly 1 out. That is 5 runs in 0.1 IP. Mercifully, he gets the next 2 outs without letting any more runs score. Interestingly enough, this was the exact opposite of what he did in AAA – almost no walks, lots of Ks, very few homers – and the homer and double were on FB mid thigh down the middle. ML hitters hit those.

Let’s have some discussion here about Phil and relievers. In the past week, we have watched Phil leave relievers in who clearly have exactly nothing who then lose the game or, like tonight, put it waaaaayyyy out of reach. You HAVE to yank relievers when they are CLEARLY not doing their job. I wouldn’t have objected to Phil letting Randolph get creamed out there if he had come in with the score 10-3 – you’ve already lost, what the heck. But letting Borkowski stay in the other night when he clearly had nothing, and hey, even the greatest pitchers have horrible games and Borkowski is merely an OK reliever, not great – and now doing the same thing with Randolph tonight – NOT good judgement on Phil’s part. (The situation with Qualls was different because he was getting GB – it’s just that we have grossly sub-par fielders that plays weren’t being made)

After Phil let Randolph run up the score to 10-3, the hitters all went 1,2,3 quietly. It didn’t help, of course, that Loretta left 1 on in the first, Chris Burke, Ausmus and Biggio left 2 on in the second, Lamb left men at 1st and 3rd in the third, and Scott left 2 on in the 5th. It WAS Kevin freaking Millwood with his 7 something ERA we are talking about here, not Johan Santana or Francisco Liriano.

And speaking of hitters, I’ve heard that Pence has been hanging with Biggio. And one thing fer SHER he has learned REAL good from the Bidge is how to give a Bull Durham interview, saying exactly nothing – check it out (from MLB.com)

Tags: Houston Astros, Texas Rangers

This entry was posted on Saturday, June 23rd, 2007 at 7:00 am and is filed under Stephen Randolph, Woody Williams. 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.