What an absolutely terrible icky ballgame. It dragggggggged – lasted almost 4 (swear words) hours
Gallardo wasn’t as ace as we’d seen him in the past, but he didn’t have to be, thanks to Astros fielding incompetence and failure to drive in runs with MOB waaay too many times.
No GIDPs tonight, but striking out or grounding out with 2 outs = not good. And speaking of DP, Pence turned one on Braun, catching his drive, then throwing out Weeks at first. VERY nice.
The HP ump made Doug Eddings and Angel Hernandez look like Jim Joyce. Nelson Figueroa kept throwing strikes, but the *(%&! ump wouldn’t call anything below mid-thigh a strike and absolutely nothing on the black – and after 2 batters had been walked with no outs in the second, Arnesberg went out to the mound – Figgy was trying to not to show he wasn’t happy – I mean, what could the guy do besides throw it down the middle, and the ump went out and Arnesberg must have said something about the ump having a substance problem or needing glasses because he got tossed and then Brad Mills ran out and Cowboy Joe West tossed HIM. Click here for the video.
After that, the HP ump was somewhat less obnoxious, but not much and Figgy got hammered. Gave up a 3 run homer to Ryan Braun, showing that he deserved that extra 105 mill and 5 more years, and gave up a homer to the PITCHER. He lasted 4 innings and left in the 5th with 1 on.
Abad came on to pitch, got Fielder to hit a perfect DP ball to Sanchez, who plays it badly and they only get Braun at second. Then McGehee hits a grounder to Bill Hall, who misplays it and it goes for a “single”. Then Kotsay lines out to Hall, who has got Da Prince leaning waaaayyy off second, but he throws the ball past Sanchez, so instead of 3 out, AGAIN, men on second and 3rd. Then – good grief – Yuni Betancourt singles to left, Clank makes a throwing error but it doesn’t matter because he couldn’t have thrown out McGehee at the plate anyway. Poor Abad. Valdez comes in and gets the last out.
You don’t want to hear the rest.
But I do want to mention that CJ is completely lost at the plate – no timing, stance is screwed up, he looks worse than lost – 2 Ks on pitches out of the zone and a weak groundout with 2 on 2 out. He got pulled with one of the pitching changes and replaced with Matt Downs, who didn’t do any better. And actually, I was glad that Downs was there because 2 balls got hit down the LF line that went for doubles – he actually got a glove on 1 and I thought it was an error, but I guess not. So CJ at least won’t be blamed for those 2 run scoring doubles.
But fortunately, Clint Barmes, the hitting savant, is gonna be coming back soon and this will solve everything. Question is, who will go down when he gets back – and yes, he WILL immediately displace Sanchez. Inglett, who has been essentially useless is the only LH bat and we all know you GOTTA have one of those because rightys can’t hit rightys. So either Sanchez or Bourgeois is going down – we all know it can’t be Downs cuz he Fast Eddie’s boy.
Speaking of hits, I do have to say that Bill Hall hit a triple high off the CF wall, then scored the run. Quintero had a GREAT night – went 3 fer 3 with a walk, scored 2 and drove in 1. Brett Wallace has continued to hit – went 3 fer 5, scored one and drove in 1. Clank went 1 fer 5, drove in 1, scored 1 and stranded 3. He really has no business hitting 4th any more, but 19 mill speaks louder than results.
sigh
Fulchino came in and got the last out in the 6th and Melancon came in for the 8th – gave up a walk and 2 singles but managed to not let any runs score this time.
I guess I should say something about – I’m glad we didn’t get shut out.
grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr
Let’s hope we do better tomorrow – but Shaun Marcum has looked absolutely shutdown so far and I’m not as hopeful as I might could be…
Tags: Brewers, Houston Astros, Milwaukee Brewers, MLB
At least the game was only icky. It could well have been yucky, and for sure we’ve had some of those.
Looked like they were sometimes one pitch, one decently fielded play, or one Ed-Wade-genius-reliever-off-the-scrapheap away from making a normal tight game of it.
All this team needs is just a few more months to jell, and watch, they’ll make their patented fourth quarter of the season mad dash into almost-contention.
Just wait until the Class A guys come up.
it looked like a chinese fire drill out there.
Sceptor gives chinese fire drills a bad time.
That fourth pitch to Braun in the seventh totally froze, him, it was totally strike 3, and he shoulda been OUT. Myers would still be pitching, and no home run would have happened. Total ripoff.
correctamundo – was OBVIOUSLY strike 3 – right there
checked with gameday and you’re dead right – perfect curve no QUESTION. when i saw him get another chance all i thought was – oh noooooooooooooo