Number 2 son sat down on the couch with me and Lil Miss last night to watch a few innings. After a bit, he turned to me and said – Mami, the sign says “Kids Free” so can we go? So I turned back to him and said – well, the sign sure nuff didn’t say “Adults Free” so seeing as how you aren’t going by your lonesome, I don’t THINK so.

Little boy was quiet after that, and I was intent on watching Ludwick’s AB in the 5th after Uncle was IBB, so I really wasn’t paying enough attention and didn’t notice all those “ideas” lights flashing in his head. So naturally, he goes to his Daddy (when I wasn’t listening) and suggests to Daddy that we all go watch Wandy tomorrow. Daddy, who has been working a lil extra and is tired, wants to go to the Ballpark and be half dead of the heat (The AC is teh sukc in the cheap seats, trust me on this) bout as much as he’s looking forward to a prostate exam.

So he tells #2 Son – well, we’ll see, but don’t say ONE WORD to your Mami or no game. But he KNOW he’s gotta have some sucka to come to a game with me because #3 Son pretty much wants to leave after a couple innings, the twins get restless after the Texas National Anthem and our new 3 year old foster daughter has never gone to any ball game and goodness knows how she’d do.

But the best laid plans of Husby-doos often get blown to bits and to make a long story short, he ended up taking more kidz than he knew what to do with to the ballpark along with his brother (and his 10 year old son) and, naturally, his Wandy tshirt wearing wife.

hehhehheh

Still haven’t seen any other Wandy wear. It’s interesting that we have 3 small pitchers on the team – Wandy, Wesley Wright and Alberto Arias – all of them are maybe 5’9″ and maybe 160-165. I wish that teams didn’t insist on lying about heights and weights.

Where was I?

Oh yes. To put it mildly, it was a GREAT night. Ballpark wasn’t near as hot as I had expected, for which Husband was grateful, and we had a very VERY good crowd for a Tuesday night – probably a GOOD 30-32 K actually IN the seats. Maybe 5000 were Cards fans, but that’s OK seeing as how they are generally pretty nice people and don’t get dead drunk and start screaming, uh, non-family oriented remarks about the ballplayers, their relatives and fans, as Cubs fans do.

The said Cards fans were delighted to see a Lance-free lineup, even with Wandy pitching. Too many of em think of Wandy as the shell-shocked guy who gave up like 9 runs (including a granny) in his first start against St. Louis, which lasted all of 2.1 innings. They were more than a little stunned to see the 08/09 Wandy, especially the Box Wandy, who is absolutely ACE. He had the curve goin ON – pitched 7, gave up 1 solo homer, a double and 2 singles, no walks, a 5 Ks over 7 IP. And the HP ump had a, um, inconstant strike zone, judging by the looks he received from various batters (on both teams.)

But 09 Wandy is not 06 Wandy and umps strike zones don’t give him no nevermind. Throwing to Q he shrugs off, too. He has picked up Roy-O’s trait of working quickly and getting the ball, and he looks simply awesome. He didn’t have real too much trouble – gave up a double in the LF corner to lead off the 4th, got an easy FO, then got a grounder which Chris Coste, a catcher filling in at first for Berkman, made a simply spectacular stop and throw to Wandy for a 3-1. The Wand-Man is an underrated fielder, he really is. And he’s pretty darn good at keeping runners from stealing, too.

He got the lead in the 3rd after Bourn singled and Pence hit a hanging slider that absolutely rocketed through the second window in left onto the concourse, and he just put it in cruise control. He dominated Uncle, as usual – Uncle is now 3 fer 23 (3 singles) with 6 walks and 3 Ks.

Miggy hit in Lance’s spot and came through BIG, driving in 3 with 2 singles and a sac-fly and drawing an IBB.

Oh, that was just GREAT. TLR knows very well that Carlos has NOT done very well this year driving in runners, in spite of myriad opportunities, and with 1 out and men onj second and third, he had his pitcher walk Miggy to pitch to Carlos. Which must have SERIOUSLY got Carlos all bent out of shape (heck, I’d have done the same thing) and he after taking a ball, and fouling off a couple, hit the next one about 350′ into the Crawford Boxes (not a moon shot onto the Trax, like last night.) Which gave the Astros a 9-1 lead.

Actually, I was a bit surprised that TLR kept the same crappy pitcher in there to pitch to Carlos, seeing as how he was only losing 5-1 at the time, but I guess he figured that Carlos would probably either ground out or hit a sac-fly and he would send in the lefty to pitch to Blum.

And that pitcher was so mad that he gave up that homer that he threw the next pitch straight down the middle and Blum hit it just over the RF fence. THEN the guy settles down and gets both Pence and Coste to K on sliders away.

So with the Astros leading 10-1 and every kid except for Lil Miss all restless and demanding food, Husband and Uncle decided to take the kids and go (fine with me) and so I figured that Lil Miss and I would be like 15 minutes behind.

WRONG

Coop sends up Chad Paronto, just called up from AAA, where he had been lights out – 1.67 ERA/0.96 WHIP – 32.1 IP, 27 K, 9 BB, 22 H, 15 saves. Chad looks like Jonathan Broxton, only in an Astros uni. Baseball Cube says he’s 6’5 and 225, and I say, well, maybe he was when he was like 16. More like 6-7/280. But what is amusing is that huge as he is, he can’t throw the baseball as hard as Wesley Wright, Alberto Arias or Wandy.

Or as accurately, for that matter. He gave up a double to left on the first pitch, then a 4 pitch walk (and Q let the runner go to third on a PB) then a sac-fly. Then he should have had Uncle struck out, only the ump called it Ball 2, and the very next pitch, he hit for a single. Ludwick came up, took a strike, 3 balls, fouled off 5 pitches, then hit the next one into the Crawford Boxes for a 3 run homer.

whoa

Now it’s 10-5 and I am remembering the White Sox game in 06 in which Roy left in the 8th leading 10-1 and they came back to tie it up.

So Wesley Wright comes in and gives up a solo homer on the first pitch to Mark DeRosa.

Which reminds me. We chose to not go and get this guy when he became available from the Indians WHY???? In what way is Jason Michaels/Matt Kata/Darin Erstad better???? Seeing as how this team absolutely refuses to play any minor leaguers and only uses them for trade bait/career minor leaguers unless they are a Designated Darling, why not go and get a role player who is actually, you know, GOOD????

But then Wesley got the next 2 guys and Arias got an easy 1,2,3 9th and Wandy got his VERY well deserved W.

Now, for the tally (according to Gameday) for incorrectly called pitches by the ump:

Wandy: one ball was called a strike

Wellemeyer: 2 strikes called balls, 1 ball called strike 3

Paronto: ump got em all right. And the ball Ludwick hit out was a pretty good pitch – an inside slider about mid thigh.

Wright – 1 strike called a ball

Walters: 1 strike called a ball.

That’s it. The ump was right more than the complainers. And his zone was very consistant, too. Only serious egregious error was the Strike 3 call to Quintero, who had every right to grouse about that one.

And now, we’ll see if Roy can beat Carpenter. This SHOULD be the ESPN game of the week. He better be VERY careful with Uncle and DeRo – they both have killt him in the past. But let’s hope it’s the continuation of Ace Roy out there. Fortunately, Carp is a righty, so Coop won’t be tempted to do stupid crap like put Michaels out there instead of Bourn or Kata instead of

ohno

Matsui got an owie on his leg, so he might be sitting tomorrow, too. Which means Kata.

ugh

No Berkman either.

Roy best bring his A game cuz he gonna need it.

Tags: Houston Astros, St. Louis Cardinals

This entry was posted on Tuesday, July 21st, 2009 at 10:17 pm and is filed under Carlos Lee, Geoff Blum, Tejada, Wandy Rodriguez. 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.