Uncle Albert hasn’t looked very good this series – maybe his elbow is really bothering him. But in spite of that, the rotton SOB managed to beat us by beating out a single, then scoring the go-ahead run. I hate him.

But in honor of Uncle, I’ll give a quick rundown of ex-Astros:
Matt Albers: 3 relief appearances, 1 win, 2 hits, 7 K, no R/ER in 6.1 IP
Luke Scott: 10/20 with 2 RS, 2 doubles, 1 HR, 3 RBI, 4 BB, 1 K .500/.590/.685 over 6 games
Dennis Sarfate: 2 wins, 1 BB, 4 K No hits over 3.1 IP/3 games
(let’s just say the Oriole fans I’ve talked to think that they were on the good end of an effing A trade… I think we’ll have to recheck in a few months or so…)
Jason Jennings: 2 starts, 2 losses: 4 ER/5 IP and 4 ER/4.2 IP – 12 H, 2 HR, 4 BB, 4 K, 8R/ER over 9.2 IP = 7.45 ERA
Mo Ensberg: 1/4 with 1 RS in 4 AB
Adam Everett: 2/16 in 6 games with 2 BB and 2 RBI (one of them was a game winner)
Mike Lamb: 4/24 with 3 doubles, 1 BB and 3 RBI in 7 games
Chris Burke: 2/16 with 1 BB, 2 RS, 1 RBI
Chad Qualls: 2 H, 4 BB, 5 K, NO runs/ER over 5.1 IP in 5 games with 1 save.
And last but not least, Brad Lidge: no hits, 2 BB, 2 K, 1 WP, 1 save, 1 R/0 ER in 2.1 IP over 2 games…
Unless someone has a stupendous day, I think I’ll give it a GOOD few months before we play catch up again…

OK, now to the ballgame.
sigh. You gotta take the good with the bad. It’s what baseball is all about.

Shawn Chacon had a tough time finding the strike zone – and for ONCE, it didn’t look like CB Bucknor’s fault. A Lot of balls were hit HARD, but fortunately, they were hit to deep center and Michael Bourn is GOOD. He only missed one, and that was Schumaker’s triple to the left side of Tal’s Hill – exactly right where poor ol Burkie-poo missed the first one in the second game last year and good booed for his trouble.

Anyway, Chacon had a fast 1,2,3 first inning. Well, except for going to a 3-2 count on Duncan. But the very next inning, oh LORD – He walked Ankiel on a 3-2, got lucky with Glaus because he hung a curve and Glaus sent it a GOOD 400′ (fortunately, in this park, it’s just out instead of outta here), Kennedy walked on the 8th pitch, LaRue walked on 4 straight balls, Thompson fielders’ choiced (bunted) Ankiel home – and if you can’t get out a pitcher on sliders/curves when you got to, you got a problem. But it THEN took him 6 pitches to get Izturis to fly out to Carlos.

But fortunately for the Astros, Thompson was just as wild/bad – or should I say that it wasn’t quiiiiite as fortunate because when the Astros had the bases loaded, there were 2 outs when the pitcher came up and Chacon is no Micah Owings with the bat.

I guess that Dewey Robinson must have told Chacon to throw strikes, because he went back up to start the third and Skip Schumaker hit the first pitch meatball some 400′ to the corner of Tal’s Hill where Bourn didn’t get it and it fell for a triple. Duncan then hit the very next meatball a GOOD 400′ to the warning track in dead center for a sac fly. Then Uncle Albert hit a changeup straight to Miggy for a 6-3 (like I said, he didn’t look quite right, but I can’t be dumb enough to hope the slump will continue tonight…) Ankiel then took an outside curve, then hit the next meatball a GOOD 400′ to straightaway center. Chacon is darn lucky he’s pitching in THIS park is all I can say.

I’m not sure how he got through the next 2 innings – Glaus walked to lead off the 4th, then Kennedy hit a meatball a GOOD 400′ to deep center (have you heard this before?) then LaRue GIDP. Fortunately. In the 5th, the pinch hitter Barton and Schumaker popped out to Lee and Izturis flew out to Pence.

He got through the 6th giving up only 1 run because Towles and Miggy were heads up and caught Ankiel trying to steal home on a double steal with Kennedy. Towles has looked VERY good behind the plate. Damm it is hard to believe this guy started the year last year in A ball AND he wasn’t exactly high on BA’s prospect list, neither.

Wesley Wright pitched a very good 1,2,3 7th (all to rightys),

Then Geary came in, walked Duncan, gave up an IF single (to short that Miggy couldn’t turn to) youknowwho (the SOB beats us with sissy singles as well as 600′ moon shots), Kd Ankiel, but then gave up the game-losing 2 run double to the RF bullpen to Glaus and youknowwho beat the tag at the plate. Glaus. Rolen. Can’t tell the difference and you know what? Glaus can field juuuuuuuust fine – he ain’t no Wiggy at third.

Brad Thompson looked like the lousy middle reliever I remembered, but somehow, he only gave up 5 hits and 2 walks and 3 runs. Reyes came in and shut it DOWN, giving up only Pence’s triple on a hanging curve to the bullpen. And that is the FIRST hard hit ball I have seen Pence hit since the season started – he’s been swinging and missing sliders and it surprised me that the opposition is bothering to throw him anything else. Of course, he’s missing the 88-89 MPH fastballs, too. Dude better get it together.

Lance left Pence on third and Loretta left Blum on second. I can’t really count a pitcher not driving home runs…

And that was all she wrote.

sigh

Tonight, it’s Chris Sampson vs converted closer Braden Looper.
What is it with the Cards and converted relievers starting? While a starter, Anthony Reyes, is playing middle reliever. All I can say is – TLR.

Chris has been diagnosed with the flu – mlb says his physician gave him shots. Now THAT is interesting. What sort of injection makes the flu go away? Here and I thought you had to use an inhaler or take pills. Could it have been B-12????

But anyway, he’s supposedly going to start tonight, flu and all. It’s a man thing, yes I know it.
Against St. Louis, Chris is 1-1 in 2 GS and 1 in relief: over 13 IP, he’s given up 11 H, 2 BB, 1 K, 1 HR for a 4.15 ERA, 1.00 WHIP and a .239 BAA
Adam Kennedy is 3/7 and Ludwick is 2/5 with a double and youknowwho is ofer – so be it and shall it remain…

Braden Looper was converted to a starter just before last season and he managed to increase his innings from 70 something/year average since 1998 to 175 – and at age 32. I’m impressed. He started 30 games, went 12-12: over 175 innings, he gave up 183 H, 22 HR, 51 BB, 87 K – 4.94 ERA, 1.34 WHIP and a .269 BAA

He had 4 starts against the Astros last year: 1 ER/6 IP; 3 ER/6 IP; 0 ER/7 IP; 5 ER/5.2 IP
Lifetime vs Houston he’s 6-3 in 4 GS and 30 in relief with 4 saves: over 66.2 IP, 58 H, NO homers, 23 BB, 37 K – 2.57 ERA, 1.22 WHIP and a .234 BAA.
The only Astros player to hit a HR off him? Geoff Blum.
Lance is 6/17 with 2 doubles and 5 BB; Carlos is 4/16 with a BB; Loretta is 2/12 with 2 doubles; Pence is 3/8 and Towles is 3/3 with 2 doubles (yeah, that was from his 8 RBI day.)

Oh yeah – before I forget – I listened to the pre-game interview with Cooper yesterday and someone asked him about pulling Wandy and he said he was going to use Valverde in the 9th if we are ahead and it is a save situation because that is why we got him.

So I guess if Wandy had been throwing a nono, Cooper would have yanked him.
Good grief…

Tags: Houston Astros, MLB, St. Louis Cardinals

This entry was posted on Wednesday, April 9th, 2008 at 10:26 am and is filed under Chacon, Geoff Geary. 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.