Wandy threw 7 great innings, giving up 6 hits, 1 solo homer, 1 walk, 1 IBB and 7 K. He wasn’t tired, but was removed for a pinch hitter.
The batters combined for a nice, solid Golden Sombrero – and the guys have scored exactly one run in the last 23 innings. Every time an Astro got on base, fer SHER the next batter(s) would either strike out swinging at some pitch in the dirt or GIDP.
And yeah, Coop mismanaged. More than once.
He sends Kata to pinch hit for Quintero, then Pudge to pinch hit for Wandy. What the heck. Why pinch hit for Wandy at all with the game tied and him having only thrown 100 pitches? And why not pinch hit Pudge for Quintero so that you don’t burn up two PH?
And I LUUUVVED how Pudge couldn’t manage to make an easy double play on Fontenot’s botched squeeze – he should have EASILY had Hoffpaiur at third.
I also just LUUUVVV the way he tells Bourn, the top base stealer in the NL, not to steal against the Cubs’ emergency backup catcher who has caught exactly 2 major league innings, and instead wasting an out with a sac-bunt. Or did he just figure that Kaz was SURE to hit into ANOTHER double play? Or did he just want to leave that little task up to Carlos Lee?
BAH!
And I LUUUVVV how he left Sampson, just barely back off the DL, in there to throw a second inning, especially after seeing, with the rest of us, how he could barely get pitches over.
Good grief.
Tonight, Roy will face Ryan Dempster, fresh off the DL. If the batters uck-say as much tonight, hopefully Roy will kick some overly complacent ass, is all I can say.
Tags: Chicago Cubs, Houston Astros
They also swung at pitches at their shoulders.
That was a hideous game. All the managerial mistakes you mentioned (and there are more you could have added)…plus that stolen base gaffe in the 3rd. Plus 3 GIDPs. Plus 0-7 with RISP. Ugly, ugly game. I don’t care how good the commentators pretended it was. The two teams combined to strand 19 baserunners. That had more to do with mistakes than it did good pitching.
New lineup Coop needs to try:
1. Bourn
2. Tejada
3. Pence
4. Lee
5. Blum/Keppinger
6. Coste
7. Quintero/Pudge
8. Pitcher
9. Matsui
Tejada hits best in the two hold and Matsui is positively KILLING the Astros there. Since Berkman got hurt (moving Matsui to the two spot), his BA has fallen 16 points. Pence might benefit from having the protection of a good hitter behind him. And, with the pitcher batting 8th, maybe the Astros actually manage to exploit having the back-to-back speed of Matsui and Bourne without having to deal with Matsui getting the enormous at-bats he gets batting second. It’s the least they could do, if he’s not going to just bench Matsui outright (which he should). If Matsui maintains this batting average, it’ll be a career low. This is the worst he’s hit since the Mets traded him mid-season in 2006. He’s also going for a career low OPS, and by a pretty good margin. He’s at .632 now. His previous low is .652. The Mets only played him in 87 games that year. He’s already 10 games and 10 at-bats short of that mark this year. The Mets had the good sense to bench him. Why don’t the Astros?
I forgot to add…I’m not exactly seeing the astounding defense of Kaz that’s supposed to make up for his lack of hitting. He’s better than Kent, I’ll grant. And better than Biggio was at the end of his career (better than a 38 year old…what an accomplishment). But, for all the praise he’s gotten, he’s not exactly Orlando Hudson out there with the glove. He’s fine. He’s not great. Certainly not enough to make up for a .244 batting average and .620 OPS. Most of the other players he’s with in the MLB are part-time players, at best. And guess who else is down there? Our old friend, Adam Everett, with a .624. Isn’t it strange, that when Everett was here, his .654 and .642 OPS were unforgivable stains that were decimating our lineup, yet when Matsui posts a .620, nobody seems to find any urgency in his benching? Hmmm….
you SURE you want to hit pence 3rd? he’s just NOT swinging very well – looks like april/may last year
and as for matsui, agree he has no business batting second – but after all, you gotta put all your “fast” guys at the top, right???
and benching him?
what for? so we can have kata go out there and suck too?
might as well stick with matsui.
oh. you are probably thinking about doing something intelligent like playing maysonet. don’t be silly. cooper isn’t gonna play no rook unless ed wade gives him a direct order to
Wandy’s numbers from pitch 105-120 this season:
8 innings 2 hits 1 BB 5 K and 0 runs allowed. In Coop’s defense the bullpen did ok after Wandy left – ok enough that a decent offense would have won the game.
I know he’s not swinging it well. But they need him to. It’s experimental, I’ll grant, but I’d like to see what he does with the protection of a good hitter behind him, rather than hitting in front of Coste, Blum, Quintero or Pudge like he’s had to all year. I keep him on a short leash in the 3 hole, but I think it’s worth a shot. They need Pence’s bat back. And I don’t see that it makes their lineup any worse. Has he been swinging it worse than Mastsui? Does our 6-8 get that much worse without him there? Yeah, I think it’s worth a shot. Tinker with the lineup a little! See what happens! I’m all for a little shake up now and then.
Yeah, I go with Maysonet in an ideal world. But, apparently even the commentators don’t realize he exists. They said both teams had depleted their benches when Maysonet hadn’t gotten to the field.
My problem had a lot more to do with the bench than the bullpen. The bullpen pitched great until Coop left Sampson in there too long (though maybe he’s not in there at all if they hadn’t already used two relievers by the 9th inning). But, my bigger problem with that is by the time they were in extras, they’d already used two bench players. They used another in the 10th. Using them up so quickly severely limits your ability to do other things you might want to, like pinch-hit for Blum, who had runners on and was already 0-4 with a K from the LEFT side. It’s the same Phil Garner garbage where you burn through your entire bench early so you have nothing effective to use should the game go long. It’s not that the bullpen didn’t go well. It’s that Coop never thinks ahead.
I don’t know what happened, but Pence is swinging at low and outside sliders, which is something he did last year when he sucked and he largely stopped doing this year when he was good.
In general, he’s swinging at more pitches out of the zone and I wonder whether someone told him, “you’re up there to HIT, not walk — swing and make something happen.” This is the worst possible advice to give him, but I can easily imagine that he hears it from the batting coach and the “veterans.”
Some old business, from Rotoworld:
Padres acquired RHP Sean Gallagher from the Athletics to complete the Scott Hairston trade.
This has been the understanding for almost a week now, but it was finally made official this afternoon. Gallagher will be added to the Padres’ 40-man roster and assigned to Triple-A Portland, where he will be placed on the seven-day disabled list. Gallagher’s inclusion immediately tilts the deal in the Padres’ favor. It wasn’t long ago that Gallagher, just 23, was the center-piece of the Rich Harden trade. With a bum knee, he’s not likely to contribute on the major-league level anytime soon, but he could thrive as a middle-of-the-rotation starter for the Padres down the line. A great sleeper for 2010.
i wouldn’t be a bit surprised if he heard that from cooper himself
and after all, grounding out is FAR more macho than walking