This was his first bad game in a month, and, in fact, his first lousy home game.
sigh
I can’t even begin to tell all yall how disgusted and disappointed I was when I looked at the lineup and saw the same old same old. Second verse, same as the first. Or should I say – won’t get fooled again. So much for taking a look at the young guys.
And same old crap with the defense. Uncle hits a double, then Holliday hits a grounder to left – NOT in the corner, an ordinary single and Clank makes a weakass throw way offline and Uncle scores easily.
grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr
Ludwick singles and Holliday goes to third. Then DeRosa doubles to the RF corner, Pence fires to Quintero who doesn’t even BOTHER to try to tag Ludwick, allows him to score but throws to third to get DeRosa instead. I couldn’t freaking believe it. JD couldn’t believe it.
Astros are down 3-0 at the end of the first inning because of lousy defense and you KNOW that’s the end of the game.
Then in the second, wandy gives up a single, then another single just past a diving Miggy (the guy has really lost his range). Then a sac-bunt, then a sac-fly. Then a ball to short and Miggy throws waaaaayyy off line and another run scores. Shoulda been an error, but nope.
And we’re down 5-1 (Miggy hit a homer instead of yet another ball to short, whaddaya know) and I look at Husband and I said – I just *()%^&#%! give up. So he says, well don’t you want to see what he does with the bullpen, or even if he pulls the regulars if the game is out of line? Besides, the more we lose, the better a draft pick we get.
I looked at him coldly. It won’t be high enough to matter and even if it was, Drayton won’t deal with Boras, who has all the highest picks.
He said – cmon, cheer up. In a few weeks there won’t be any baseball except for the stupid Yankees and their <mercenary> team.
And Wandy settled down and threw 3 more 1,2,3 innings (except for DeRosa’s homer) but big deal. Too late. He ended up giving up 6 ER, 9 H, no BB and 6 K over 5 IP.
Besides, I knew that Dave Clark, new manager, ex 3B coach, had already conceded the freaking game when he sent Aaron Worthless Boone up to pinch hit with 1 out, men on first and second. Good grief. I also saw Paronto warming up (yeah, THAT Paronto) and you know how he’s done as an Astro.
Man it looks weird to see him wearing Brad Lidge’s number #54. First he gives up a homer to DeRosa (that dude KILLLLZZZ the Astros. He has hit 7 homers vs Astros pitching just THIS YEAR. So the bet was (betwen Husband and me), of course, how many runs would Clark let Paronto give up before pulling him? I said 2, he said 3 and we were both over, to our great surprise.
The 7th inning was fun, though. Sammy Gervacio went out there (guess Clark didn’t want to press his luck with Paronto – although I am getting tired of this – no reliever is allowed to pitch more than 1 inning) for like the 6th time in 7 days. He gave up a GR double to Uncle juuust inside the 3B line, then a single to Holliday. So he has men on first and third, no out. Ludwick hits a ball to Lance, who looks Uncle back, then throws to second to force Holliday. Meanwhile, Uncle has decided to head home anyway and Miggy throws him out. Then, on the VERY NEXT PITCH, Ludwick decides to steal second and is thrown out. So Gervacio, who looks T I R E D, to put it mildly, is helped out by the Cards thoughtfully running themselves into the next 2 outs.
Wilton Lopez, for the first time, pitched a scoreless inning and didn’t look bad. He gave up one single that Matsui got a late jump on, and that was it. Of course, he wasn’t allowed to pitch 2 innings and Clark dragged Hawkins tired ass out to pitch the 9th.
The youngsters sat on the bench in a game that was LONG lost to a team that has LONG SINCE won the division.
I hope Drayton noticed how few people were in the stands.
One more thing – I actually think that something is wrong with Bourn – I mean hurt. Not just because he’s suddenly swinging away at any old thing, especially changeups, but he isn’t getting to balls in the field that he used to. If he isn’t hurt, he’s just plain worn out. And that boy he best start learning how to hit the change because the pitchers aren’t going to be stupid enough to throw him anything else next year.
Tomorrow, Bazardo is going to lose to Joel Piniero.
Might as well play the rookies, Clark. ALL of them.
I’d like to see the young uns play myself. I’ve already seen the old guys, and I’m pretty sure I know how they’ll perform.
Bazardo may just surprise us tomorrow. The Cards have it sewed up, and it’s only natural that they’d want to coast a little bit. If Clark will let a bunch of enthusiastic rooks play, they might just surprise the team that’s on cruise control.
I sort of like it when the yard is empty…reminds me of the Astrodome. Now if they’d just sell beer at Astrodome prices.
I get the feeling from Ed Wade’s remarks that Clark isn’t going to have a ton of control over the lineup. All that stuff about “showing respect to the veterans” and so forth…
Clark wasn’t as bad as Cooper. He wasn’t brilliant or anything, but he didn’t do anything downright stupid, with the possible exception of sending in Gervacio. That alone is amazing. Only one possible management mistake in an Astros game?
I wonder if they will lose 90 this year? It’s tough, but if they keep playing veterans, they can do it.
I agree Cooper was horrible, and his management of the pitching was destructive. However, the problem doesn’t stop with him, so we’ll see what happens.
And as we learned from the Garner firing, you don’t always get someone better.
i would guess that if they sold beer at astrodome prices, the place would be packed with drunks and when you have 40000 drunk people in 1 place, violence happens
and one of the few good things about drayton is that he won’t go for that
i remember that when they brought in coop a few years back he was ordered to play the rooks and all the vets who were benched (lamb, munson, etc) were furious. but coop played the kids anyhow and it was a lot of fun
i don’t agree with the – nobody could do any better with this team – argument. there is no way anyone can argue that the same group of people don’t perform better with a different manager. look at this year’s rockies, for example.
and yeah, i DO know that we can always hire a worse manager. it’s why i keep telling people who want mclane to sell the team – what if the next owner is just like david glass?
‘course lets not forget that these rooks are the best, more or less, of a BAD Triple-A team, right?
marmar
you are absolutely right
however, remember that they were playing alongside other bad players and sometimes, guys improve in the majors.
youneverknow
but me, i DO know that i’d rather watch them than the same old boring guys we been watching loseloselose
At least tonight Clark is throwing in pitchers like it’s an All Star Game…one inning at a time.
Lisa–
Even at Astrodome prices, the current product that the Astros have on the field won’t draw 40,000. Besides, the only place they ever had a problem with drunks was up in yankee land in places like Cleveland. People in Texas have way more class and common sense than the idiots that ruined disco demolition back in the 70′s.