Mike Hampton pitched his second QS in a row, going 6.1 IP with 8 H, 1 BB, 5 K and 3 ER. He looked shaky in the first, giving up 2 runs, but then sharpened up a bit. He had only two 1,2,3 innings and was helped by his defense.
At the end of 6 innings, he had thrown 94 pitches and I was a bit surprised to see him go back out as he had had a somewhat longish 6th – 19 pitches, 2 groundouts, a single, a walk and a K. But with solo homers by Lance and Carlos, the Astros had taken the lead and I guess that Coop thought that this would give Hampton the confidence to finsih the 7th and get to Hawkins and Valverde.
Nope.
Paul Janish singled, Arroyo bunted him over and he was done.
Unfortunately, Geary wasn’t any sharper tonight than he was last night when he gave up 2 runs to Micah Owings, giving up a single and a 4 pitch walk.
Coop again brought in Byrdak, who again was ineffective, giving up the game winning 2 run double to lefty Joey Votto and it was like 1 foot lower than the yellow line over the LF bullpen, which would have been a granny.
But the crowning blow was delivered by HP ump Nauert who called Pence out on Ball 4 - a knee high FB which had been called a ball the other 6 times a pitch had been thrown in that exact same location (I know because I just finished looking at Gameday Pitch fx.) Took me back about 3 years to when some ump called out Jason Lane on Ball 4 on a pitch from Jason Isringhausen at his ankles (with 2 out, 2 on, bottom of the 9th, game on the line.)
I suppose I should mention that once again the guys didn’t hit with MOB and that Pudge hit into yet another DP and so did Miggy.
Which reminds me – anyone besides me notice that Brad Ausmus hit better than Pudge and that Pudge is getting exactly zero heck from fans about his lousy hitting?????
Might could it be that Brad is hot and Pudge is not????
Anyway, Brad will be in tomorrow and I’ll be sure to let him know how much us grrrrrrls miss him…
Tags: Cincinnati Reds, Houston Astros
Hampton had one pitch they kept showing on Baseball Tonight where Joey Votto essentially tried to hit it on one bounce…it looked nasty.
I hope that Ausmus does well for you!
And did I read the box score right? ANOTHER baserunning error by Pence? I like Pence’s natural ability, but I don’t know that I ever, in my entire life, seen a player who plays the game quite so dumb as Pence.
two seasons ago in the first 2 months i saw berkman run the bases a lot dumber than pence. He was making all kind of blunders, plus the fact he was not hustling all that much, which you could never accuse pence of that.
pence ALWAYS hustles. and that is really his problem.
trouble is that there is time to hustle and a time to NOT get thrown out by 10 feet.
Well i hope he never quits hustling or trys to decide when to hustle and when not to hustle. the good things that he makes happen from his all out hustle far outweighs the sometimes poor decisions he makes,and with time and experiance he will be making less mental mistakes all the time. I still see many longtime veterans making stupid decisions quite often and berkman has made more than his share in is career, and that a fact.
That is the first time I’ve seen anyone accuse Berkman of not hustling. Seriously…news to me. His hustle might not look like other peoples’ because he’s not very fast, but he busts his butt out there. I don’t know where you get that he doesn’t.
And, I agree with Lisa. There’s a time for hustle and a time for…not. To borrow a phrase from Steve Martin. I like that he hustles. Hustle isn’t the reason he’s making dumb baserunning mistakes. That’s JUST dumb. You can hustle and turn a double into a triple. Hustling through a stop sign and getting thrown out by a huge margin is JUST dumb, rally-killing baseball.
I know I seem like I’m being excessively harsh on Pence. I like the guy. I really do. My harsh tone is because of how you define things. Bad baserunning isn’t bad baserunning, it’s hustle. And can we please stop treating him like he’s a rookie? He’s got a season and a half of major league baseball under his belt. Time to stop expecting mistakes that are supposed to be weeded out in high school.
I AM sorry but early on 2 seasons ago Berkman was not hustling an awful lot and he made some of the most stupid baserunning blunders i have ever seen somewhere from 4 to 6 of them. , AND i sure can tell you he wasen’t all that bright of a ballplayer in his first 2 or 3 seasons,i know, also did you see that blunder a few games ago against the Reds where with no outs a runner on second and Berkman on first and Lee hit a very soft liner to 3b and berkman wandering way off base and was doubled off where the runner at second stayed close to the bag and had no problem. That was plum DUMB, JUST ask lisa about it, I was there and saw it first hand. Weeded out in High School. LMAO
I’m not saying ALL baserunning problems get weeded out in high school. Certainly, as imperfect people, they’re going to make mistakes from time to time. That’s why they have an “E” column on the stats sheet. Getting doubled off is extremely dumb, but still not as dumb or elementary as running through stop signs, which Pence does on a regular basis. That is the kind of stuff I’m talking about that should get weeded out in high school. Or earlier. How people manage to never learn to listen to their coaches is beyond me.
I bet if you really counted correctly Pence may run thru a stop sign no more than 3 or 4 times a year, not hardly on a regular basis as you so like to exsaggerate. I have watch almost every single game and i have been around baseball some 60 years so i know a little of what i’m talking about. Also the camera doesen’t always show what sign the base coach was giving.
And if pence never listens to the coaches at all like you say i don’t believe he would be around very long or he would be riding the bench an awful lot Utterly HOGWASH
lol…that’s twice in this discussion you’ve put words in my mouth. Never said he never listens to coaches at all. But have fun continuing to pretend to debate me while you build up points I never made.