Yet another crappy, poorly played game
First, let me give credit where credit is due – Volquez was awesome. He gave up ONE well hit ball and that was Matsui’s leadoff homer.
Wandy was actually decent in his return after being sidelined for over 2 weeks with a bad oblique. He struck out 7, walked 2 and gave up 6 singles. He gave up 2 UER in the first, which would have been none if Wiggy had caught Votto’s fly ball to left center or even thrown accurately back to Tejada.
Then let me kick some asses where kicking is due:
1 – Wiggy for missing that fly/bad throw. And it was a NO doubt error. A 3 base error. There went the ballgame. But I can’t get too mad at Wiggy – he’s just not a left fielder and I’m not sure Clank woulda gotten anywheres near that ball.
2 – Lance for continuing his month long suckage with the bat. Striking out with Miggy on second and then hitting a weakass grounder with 2 on in the 8th vs David Freaking Weathers.
3 – Erstad for striking out on the hitandrun.
4 – Ed Romero for inexplicably throwing up a stop sign to Bourn on what SHOULD have been Tejada’s RBI single to left to tie the game – and Tejada got caught in a rundown because he very VERY reasonably expected Bourn to head home. Berkman got IBB and then Blum couldn’t get the job done.
5 – And kicking second base umpire ass on Bourn’s bunt in the 6th – Matsui was NOT out because Keppinger has been pulled off the bag. Same with Reggie in the 9th.
6 – And kicking Coop ass for having Matsui and his .290 BA bunt Newhan over in the 8th – yeah, the Matsui who had 2 hits and another well hit out offn Volquez – and then leaving Bourn in to face lefty Bill Bray. GREAT strategy there Coop. An absolutely STOOPID WASTE of 2 outs.
They had a chanceeeeeeeeee
GONE.
Chris Sampson hurt his elbow. Peachy.
Instant (BAD choice of words there) replay lasting 6 1/2 minutes to review Votto’s single off the top of the yellow line in right. I had this feeling it would soon be a LOT more than 2 minutes – and the strange thing is that it was SO obviously not over the wall. Just the other day the umps refused to review a play near the foul line that in my opinion looked like a homer and not a foul that cost the team the game…
Props to Latroy Hawkins for continuing his 0 ERA as an Astro (just 2 UER and there were 2 very well hit balls, though.) Props to Valverde for yet another scoreless inning.
Props to Brad Lidge for being the best reliever in the NL this year. Oh. Forgot. I’m not supposed to praise him.
Anyway, another game tomorrow – Randy Wolf vs Ramon Ramirez, a rookie called up at the end of August who has pitched 3 of 4 QS. Not that it really matters real too much any more…
Tags: Cincinnati Reds, Houston Astros
Although I disagree with Matt – sorry, buddy, number 3 and 4 hitters HAVE to drive in runs (unless you’re Miguel Tejada and your coach was dropped on his head as a child) – I am gonna come to Berkman’s defense a little. He was absolutely off the meters phenomenal four months of the six-month season. He was just okay in July, and DREADFUL this month. Suptor wants to talk about how many more games we would have won this month if Lance was hitting the way he was supposed to.
How about if Oswalt hadn’t been totally miserable for four months? How many games would we have won then? How about if our closer hadn’t blown three saves and posted a 6.92 ERA in April? People cheered Wigginton for carrying us through August, and much to his credit, but where was he the other months? How many more games would we have won if he had just hit a fraction as well as he did in August? People were talking Carlos Lee for MVP, but did you notice that even with his paltry performance (I’m assuming that’s what Suptor meant, though Berkman might have battered 255 chickens…I’m out of the loop), Berkman still has a much higher OBP, a marginally higher slugging percentage and the same batting average as Lee?
The point is this – there is plenty of blame to go around. If other guys had played the way they should have, we could afforded a late season slide. Or, if Lance Berkman hadn’t been the most dominant player in baseball for the first half, the Astros wouldn’t have even needed to worry about a late-season slide, because they wouldn’t have been anywhere close to in it.
Yeah, clutch is important. But let’s not overlook months of accomplishment while we heap praise on guys who have played well for a few weeks. That stinks.
well, lets be real here – tejada had absolutely NO business batting in the 3 hole for much of the season. the only guy on the team with a lower runs created above average is bourn. that is right – tejada actually has a lower RCAA than adam everett did in his last full season with the team
and wiggy was absolutely putrid with MOB the first 4 months. and pence had a 3 month slump
“3 – Erstad for striking out on the hitandrun.”
How about Coop for ordering the hit and run?
“2 – Lance for continuing his month long suckage with the bat. Striking out with Miggy on second and then hitting a weakass grounder with 2 on in the 8th vs David Freaking Weathers.”
You know, he’s still getting on base. It sucks that he’s not slugging right now, but he’s doing his primary job as a hitter – avoid outs. If the Astros had anyone behind him that could hit, Lance might get driven in sometimes. All that’s behind him is Pence and Wigginton, but both are several spots down in the order.
And how about Coop for continuing to construct an awful lineup? Why does Blum bat in front of Pence? Why does Bourn bat where Wigginton probably should?
zomgmatt
I couldn!t dissagree more than your take on berkman. one of his primary jobs is to drive in runs and produce some power hitting, which he has done little in the second half of the season.
since july 1 lance is batting a poultry .255 with only 6 HRs and 34 RBIs while wigginton has batted .299 with 17 HRs and 44 rbis; and pence is hitting .276 with 14 HRs and 43 RBIs and even carlos lee who has played only about 35 games has hit .402 with 10 HRs and 38 RBIs.
so if lance would of only hit about 65-70% of what he did in the first half it would have probably meant maybe 5 to 7 more victories.
i might also add that jeff blum while only hitting .238 since july 1 has hit 9 HRs and has 35 RBIs many,many in key situations during that peroid.
So that places berkman 5th on the team in HRs and RBIs in the second half of the season.
matt
i hate hitnruns. seem like they don’t hardly ever work out because the hitter has to try to make some kind of contact on any pitch to keep the runner from being thrown out
as for berkman
well, his job is a little more than just getting on base. although i firmly believe that swinging at pitches out of the strike zone instead of taking a walk is stupid, lance actually HAS been swinging at pitches out of the strike zone and getting himself out. his ABs this month have been positively TERRIBLE.
he had a crappy july – .266/.431/.329/.760 (i mean, this is the line we should be seeing from michael bourn)
a good august – .301/.390/.573/.963
and fer chrissakes, bourn and ausmus are outdoing him this month – .150/.350/.250/.600
we are talking 9 fer 60 with 3 doubles, 1 HR, 19 BB and 8 RBIs in (to my quick count) 84 opportunities. which is the mother of all slumps. i mean he did bettern that when he returned from his knee surgery.
and you KNOW i don’t knock a great hitter for taking a walk instead of swinging at garbage like so many do who prefer tejada and his GIDPs to a guy with a lower BA and more Ks
but lance IS supposed to be the best hitter on the team, and NOT the leadoff guy…
and i know that even if lance had hit like crazy, we would have lost a couple of games in which the pitchers gave up waaaayyy too many runs
it’s not like everyone else is hitting well this month neither -
- wiggy has a .477 OPS (6/40 with 3 BB, 5 RBI)
- blum has a .599 OPS (10/50 with 5 BB, 8 RBI)
- quintero has a .399 OPS (4/32 with 3 BB, 1 RBI)
- erstad has a .408 OPS (8/45 with 2 BB, 4 RBI)
actually, only miggy, loretta and pence are not completely sucking eggs. even bourn has a .644 OPS with a .352 OBP.
Exactly my point. Plenty of blame to go around, even for the guys who will finish the season with decent numbers. People seem to think that Berkman not hitting is the reason the Astros are falling apart, and seem to lose focus of the fact that, with the exception of Lee, he pretty well carried this team offensively until August. We wouldn’t have even had a reason to get stressed about his slump or the Astros slide if it hadn’t been for Berkman’s brilliant performance for the vast majority of the season.
Just for a little perspective.
austin
make that till july that berkman carried the team, because in july lance did not have a homer and had only 8 RBIS. he had a tremendous first half season and a quite a terrible second half
austin
you can make all excuses you want to for lance, but other than tejada, carlos lee ( who was awesome before gettin hurt) and oswalt, lance is paid the very big bucks to produce and he simply fell on his butt the second half the season when the team was really counting on him