Well, I suppose I need to find SOMETHING good to say about the Memorial Day Massacre.

Lessee – we didn’t get no-hit. No errors, no bad fielding costing runs.

Roger Clemens had a bit of a time trying to locate pitches in the second, walked Dunn, then hung a slider to Joe Randa, who sent it into the Crawford Boxes about 350′ down the left field lines. He gave up only those 2 runs and scattered 3 more hits over the next 5 innings, but as usual, Astro bats swung at air. Roger didn’t look like his groin was bothering him one bit – hope not.

The announcers were saying something about Phil not being sure how the rotation would go for the St Louis series on Friday – we had BETTER not be seeing Astacio start again is all I can say.

I had wondered where Doug Mansolino had come from, since I couldn’t find him as part of the Astros organization, and discovered he has been Phil’s 3rd base coach since Milwaukee. Ugh. I haven’t been real too pleased with his send/stay decisions and today, he decided to hold Ensberg at third – a decision that ended up costing us a run. So we were shut out for the 9th time this YEAR. I’m still wondering what the record is for the 162 game year…

Anyway, Aaron Harang, who had never before been able to stay in the game over 4 innings here at the box, went 7 innings, gave up 5 hits and 1 walk and Kd TEN. Two of those hits were infield grounders to third that Everett and Taveras beat out. No excuse for all those Ks – the roof was shut, no shadows, and this is NOT Pedro on the mound, here.

The Astros are bigger swingers than Austin Powers. I don’t know what’s going on here, all I know is that every single hitter except for Ensberg and Biggio is hitting WELL below career averages and that whatever approach they are using to help these guys is NOT working. Time for a new hitting coach. Watching these guys at the plate is embarrassing.

We still have NEVER come back when losing after the end of the 6th inning. Not once all year. Ridiculous.

And ridiculous also is the right word for the bullpen, too. Franco got a dose of his own medicine tonight. He got sent up in the 9th to face Casey, Griffey and Dunn – I remember that he couldn’t get Casey out a single time he faced him earlier this year, and same thing again. Franco had a first pitch strike to Casey and after that, couldn’t find the strike zone – except for the 3 pitches that Casey, Griffey and Dunn hit for singles to load the bases. Russ Springer came in and not only let all of Franco’s runs score, but was tagged for 4 ER over 1/3 IP himself. Qualls came in and looked like the old Qualls – 2 easy GB outs.

We can’t come back from 1 run down – we weren’t coming back from 9 – but Biggio didn’t throw in the towel – got on with a HBP – might as well because he wasn’t swinging for dog poo, and he slid into second with 1 out to break up the DP. I don’t know why our guys can’t won’t come back, but SOMETHING has got to change. Roger now has 11 starts – all with 2 or fewer ER and has 3 losses to show for it because he gets an average of less than 2 runs of support/ start. In fact, in 4 of his starts, the Astros have scored NO runs.

At least the fielding is solid. And Mike Lamb made a great leaping catch on a liner – guess some white boys CAN jump.

We had a full house for the Memorial Day holiday, but we won’t for tonight’s game. We’ll sell some of those 2 tickets for 2 bucks and there will be plenty of grrrls with Backe jerseys, but…

Brandon Backe, RHP vs : Matt Belisle, RHP
this year: 4 – 3 in 10 GS – 6 HR, 17 BB, 42 K over 64.2 IP with a 4.73 ERA, 1.30 WHIP and a .269 BAA.
vs.CIN: 2 – 0 in 3 GS and 4 in relief – 0 HR, 6 BB, 18 K over 21 IP with a 2.57 ERA, 1.29 WHIP and a .263 BAA.
@ the Box: 7 – 1 in 8 GS and 13 in reliev with 1 CG SO – 6 HR, 19 BB, 59 K over 66 IP2.73 ERA,1.12 WHIP and a .230 BAA.

——
Matt Belisle, RHP:
drafted in the second round in 1998 out of an Austin, Tx HS by the Atlanta Braves, traded to the Reds in the middle of the 03 season, came up and pitched 8.2 innings in relief, had a 1-1 record with a 5.19 ERA. He spent all of 04 in AAA, went 9 – 11 in 28 GS with a 5.26 ERA with 16 HR, 51 BB and 106 K in 162.2 IP.
- this year, he’s 2 – 4 in 4 GS and 10 in relief – 8 HR, 13 BB, 26 K over 34.2 IP with a 4.67 ERA, 1.47 WHIP and a .288 BAA.
- vs.HOU (at the Box) – 1 IP – 1 BB, 1 K, 3 H and 2 ER (small sample size???!!!)

Well, this IS the Box – hope he gives up a LOT of HR into the Crawford Boxes…

note: as far as I know, Belisle is the starter tonight, but I had seen the name of Ramirez several times, so just in case, here’s what I know about him:

Elizardo Ramirez, RHP:
22 yr old signed by the Phillies in 1999 as an amateur FA from the DR. Traded to the Reds last year, but was sent to AA, even though he had pitched 15 innings for the Phillies already – 7 games in relief with a 4.80 ERA. He’s been a started his whole minor league career – last year at AA for the Reds he was 1-0 in 5 GS with a 3.19 ERA.

Well, this IS the Box – hope he gives up a LOT of HR into the Crawford Boxes…

Tags: Cincinnati Reds, Houston Astros, MLB, Reds

This entry was posted on Tuesday, May 31st, 2005 at 8:59 am and is filed under Astros baseball, Bandon Backe, Roger Clemens. 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.