Yeah, you read that right. I know that Roy-O got the W but truth is that Maholm outpitched him. Unlike Maholm, who didn’t give up even ONE hard hit ball, Roy gave up a lot of LONG fly balls that were not hits because Michael Bourn is The Man. He made an outSTANDing catch on a long fly ball by Delwyn Young in the second with 2 outs and a man on third that JMike wouldn’t have gotten. It would have been a run scored and a man on at least second with 2 outs.
He made a GREAT catch on Ronny Cedeno’s long FB to the LF bullpen with a man on second to prevent the tying run. And, of course, he made that Web Gems diving catch on Garrett Young’s (and that is one FINE lookin man and I mean FINE lookin man – just too tall. But I digress….) diving liner to left center in the 9th – maybe someone would have driven him in, who knows, but it saved Lindstrom from having to pitch from the stretch, at the very least.
So how did Young and Church win the game for the Astros? Well, it’s the bottom of the 6th, Astros are up 1-0. The Man beats out an infield hit. Jeff Keppinger sac-bunts him over, except that Delwyn Young, who had PLENTY of time to beat the slow Keppinger (he would have been out by 2-3 steps) throws the ball into the stands. Instead of man on second, 1 out, you have men on second and third, no outs. Berkman Ks. That would have been 2 outs. Then Carlos Lee takes a swing at a bad pitch, up and in, waaay out of the strike zone and pops it up to shallow left, near the stands. Ryan Church decides to be a hot dog and instead of just running and getting it, he goes with trying to make a sliding catch and misses the ball completely (if THAT isn’t an error, I don’t know what is – the way “errors” are decided is sometimes too stoopid. My Dog would have made that catch) so Carlos, instead of being the 3rd out, as he should have been, has a 2 RBI double and there went the game.
I know this is Karma or divine payback, or something, because this has happened to Roy dozens of times over his pitching career. Not to mention all the times he has a L or a ND because he pitched magnificently and got zero run support.
As a wise man once said, sometimes you win, sometimes you lose, sometimes your fielders are like whatshisname the Mets OF in” Men in Black” where he just stares at the UFO and doesn’t notice the baseball flying at his head.
I’ll take the W, don’t get me wrong. But fact is that the guys are still not hitting worth a darn and everyone not named Michael Bourn thinks that taking a walk/not swing at crap is the equivalent of a penis/testicles shrinking procedure…
sigh
Tonight, it’s Wandy (who better get his delivery fixed and that Curve working) vs a guy just called up, righty Chris Jakubauskas. He’s a 31 year old rookie who was undrafted and played for 4 years in the indys before being signed by Seattle to their AA team. He worked his way up to AAA in 08, as a reliever, and threw 55.1 innings with a 2.59 ERA, 1.19 WHIP, 8.4 H/9, 0.8 HR/9, 2.3 BB/9, 7.8K/9 IP.
Last year, he threw 93 innings in relief for the Mariners, with a 5.39 ERA, 1.27 WHIP, 8.8 H/9, 1.5 HR/9, 2.6 BB/9, 4.5 K/9 IP.
He went to ST as a NRI with the Angels, had a 9.0 ERA over 6 IP – 4 BB, 1 K, 6 H, 8R/6 ER. He was released and signed by the Pirates for their AAA club. He started 2 games, 5 IP each game, has a 4.50 ERA, 1.67 WHIP – 10 H, 1 HR, 4 BB, 8 K, 5 ER.
I’m not gonna make any conclusions because I don’t wanna jinx Wandy….
(by the way, sorry this is late – I forgot to post it last night)
Tags: Houston Astros, MLB, Pirates, Pittsburgh Pirates
Just got my 1st email regarding all-star voting the other day and I am probably going to spend an excessive amount of time to vote as many times I can for Michael Bourn. Does he have any competition for the spot?
unfortunately, yes – his name is matt kemp, he’s a FINE lookin man, plays for LA, has a HOTTTT gf and hits a LOT of homers
carlos the Jackal’s name isn’t on the ballot – he’s spent most of his mets career on the DL – whoda thunk it would have turned out best that he didn’t want to play here?