Tonight I saw the most amazing sight I have seen this entire season including the return of Josh Hamilton, the return of Rick Ankiel and Barry Lamar Himself being polite to the media all year long – I saw the Pirates’ manager walk Orlando Palmeiro with Brad Ausmus on first and Eric Bruntlett on third – yes, an IBB with first base occupied – yes, an IBB to a guy hitting .230 with virtually no power, to face .327 hitting Hunter Pence and or Lance Berkman. And it worked.
But I’m getting ahead of myself…
Matt Albers WOULD have won if Biggio hadn’t cost him 2 runs (and Brad Lidge hadn’t coughed up a game tying homer, but I’m getting ahead of myself)… He booted McLouth’s easy ground ball in the first. McLouth, a guy who seldom steals, but carefully picks his spots and is quite successful when he does (11-0 this year, 22-1 lifetime) stole second, then came around on on a single to left.
I hope everybody notes that Carlos Lee, who is being pimped by the Astros Organization for the MVP (strictly because of RBIs) barely loped over to the ball, caught it on a bounce, let the run score and tossed it gently to second. He has the worst zone rating of any LF in the NL – and this means worse than Barry Bonds, who is 12 years older, and Adam Dunn, who has a reputation as a terrible fielder – the only LF with a lower range factor is Pat Burrell.
Biggio cost another run in the second by not getting near Jack Wilson’s grounder – it hurts to watch him now – I remember the days he would have been all OVER that ball.
sigh
You see, Matt pitched 7 great innings, and if he had had even league average defense behind him, he wouldn’t have given up a run. Defense matters.
You are right – I AM in a bad mood. I am tired watching a lousy team that management seems to believe is only a game or 2 away from making an end of the season run to the post season.
Ian Snell was VERY good, as usual, mowing down the Astros 1,2,3 in every inning except the second, in which a Munson sac-fly scored a run and the 7th, when he was suddenly tiring, when he gave up 2 runs on a Carlos Lee single, a Lamb double, a Loretta groundout RBI and a Munson RBI single.
Then Brad Lidge coughed up poor Albers’ win. Nady always kills us – Brad was stupid to throw him a ball down and mid plate and I wanna kick that guy for making this game drag on for 2 more hours. And in fact, it felt like the Atlanta 18 innings game without any of the excitement. Bases kept getting loaded and nobody could manage to get a run across.
I already talked about the 10th. Bases loaded 1 out – Pence Ks, Berkman GO.
In the 13th, Pence and Lance are on 1st and second, no out. Lee and Lamb get out. Scott IBB. Bases loaded, Eric Bruntlett leaves em loaded.
In the 14th, men on first and second, 2 out, Lance grounds out.
In the 15th, down 5, bases loaded, no out. Bruntlett Ks, Burke Ks, Ausmus Ks.
5 &*$^#@! hours long ball game and no cigar.
Hats off to Miller for a scoreless inning, to Moehler for 2 scoreless innings, including getting out of a bases loaded jam by striking out Freddy Sanchez. Travis Driskill came in, threw 2 scoreless innings. Then in his last inning, failure to make a play (an error, for those of all yall who care whether a play not made is an official error or not) by Mike Lamb, who muffed an easy DP ball, opened the floodgates. A 3 run homer, a double, a RBI single, a sac-fly and another RBI single. 5 runs right there. Goodbye ballgame.
Astros left 28 guys on base – only Munson and Biggio didn’t leave anyone on base. You can’t hit with MOB, you can’t take the extra base, you can’t steal, you can’t manage to hit even an RBI single with bases loaded 2 out, well, it’s gonna be pretty tough to win.
Can’t wait to hear Phil spin this one.
I know what a whole lot of fans will say – Lidge is mental, Burke should be released and Loretta signed to a 4 year contract.
It’s good to take a good long look at the Pirates because they are who this team is rapidly turning into.
Phil has announced that top prospect Troy Patton will stay in the rotation, I guess in Jennings’ spot, for the rest of the year. Both Backe and Sampson are rehabbing and are expected back in a week or so. Anyone want to bet that Backe will be put right into the rotation and Sampson will sit on the bench and will barely throw a few pitches in relief. Ah well, at least his elbow will get some more rest…d
Tags: Houston Astros, Pittsburgh Pirates
skip
actually, believe it or not, i agree with you completely.
i also believe that sampson tried to pitch through injury because phil has made it clear he doesn’t want sampson starting – phil sees sampson as a end of the bullpen kind of guy and sampson pitched himself onto the rotation and phil didn’t like that at ALL.
and now he has a great excuse to show why sampson isn’t a starter
and luke is looking like heck and swinging at crap out of the strike zone.
about the rotation. thats a conversation i had with my dad. he says if they have any sense they would sit woody or put him in the pen.
i don’t think they’d do that simply because they wont have him in the pen for 6mm.
if they don’t let sampson pitch, i say they rest him good and let him finish the season in the minors so he gets regular work.
they’ve made some bone headed decisions over the last +year. my dad always says they have smart guys working for them with a lot more info than us. i don’t think he believes that all too much him self.
well, it looks as if woody has straightened out whatever was wrong with himself and he’s lasting a good 6-7 innings, so i can’t see him in the pen at this time.
but you are right – the $$$ talks too much.
it is true we don’t have the info the “smart guys got” but we sure can see the results…
“Purpura said Chris Sampson, who’s on the disabled list with a sprained elbow ligament, will pitch in the bullpen upon his return for “wear-and-tear purposes.”
http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/sports/bb/5082370.html
Wear and tear purposes? Kind of like sitting Scott because of his “constant” injuries? Sounds like the Astros are using injuries as an excuse not to play players they don’t like. I’m tired of this idiotic nonsense.
austin
me too. i wish i could understand why phil has it in for luke. or why he is so upset that a guy like sampson is in the rotation – and he did great whenever he had defense behind him.
and he is one of those guys who should be pimped as a hero for trying to pitch through an injury
sigh
i am so tired of phil and timmy and their bullstuff.
what really worries me is that i got this bad feeling that even if drayton fired timmy he would just hire another guy exactly like him like randy smith and not actually hire a good baseball person to RUN things.
You don’t want the guy to have to have tommy john do you? Remember how Backe was before he had it? Same thing. Now that’s a REAL injury. A pitcher that can’t throw is much different that a position player who can’t run at full strength. They can still get by.
Let’s talk about Luke Scott’s strikeouts? Yikes.
all this bullstuff and we’ve FINALLY made it. There is NO TEAM in the league with more losses than us. On only one team in all the Majors — Tampa. We are so bad, it’s funny. well, it’s sad, pathetic, and funny.
Perhaps addition by subtraction may make us better. Getting rid of Biggio, Jennings, Ausmus, and Loretta is a start.
oh but steve this team is just underperforming and we’re getting ready to make our miracle run
amazing that the white sox have sunk bout as low as we have – hard to believe it was just 2 years ago we were in the WS
i don’t know how many years this team is going to have to be this bad for drayton to decide it’s time for him to give up GMing
i just got finished looking at the minor league teams.
just awful
just AWFUL
and of course i am ignoring the career minor leaguers – who are the best hitters they’ve even got
sigh
i can’t wait to hear how drayton is gonna spin the astros finishing last in the entire freaking league.
me i think it was because of mo ensberg and luke scott holding us back. yeah that’s GOTTA be it