Shaun Marcum gave up a leadoff walk to Michael Bourn. Who steals second. And is stranded by Pence and Clank.
And after that, Marcum REALLY shut it down – except for Brett Wallace, of course, who singled up the middle, reached on catcher interference and hit a long single offn the scoreboard. He was the ONLY hitter who saw the ball – or at least could hit what he saw. Marcum threw some kind of cutter and curve after lethal curve after lethal curve and couldn’t nobody hit it. Or lay off it. Well, Bourn did beat out an infield grounder, but speed kills.
Marcum threw 7 innings of 3 hit 2 walk shutout ball. He was pulled after 95 pitches and if the Astros were hoping to FINALLY be able to get to that bullpen, well, no cigar.
As for the Crew, well, it started off well enough when Weeks struck out and Gomez gounded out on a 3-2, the 10th pitch of the inning. But then Braun took a hanging slider over the CF fence, about halfway between the 404 and the 435. And Da Prince hit a changeup right smack dab down the middle 486′ to the upper deck in right – like only 3 rows below the sign. You know where the bullpen starts in RF? well, go up like 100′ and there’s that there ball. MrGehee flew out to deep center.
Crew 2 Stros ick
There was another homer – this one in the 4th by Yuni Betancourt. And a RBI double by Da Prince to the RF bullpen wall that Hunter got a bad read on and misplayed – that is like the 4th or 5th fly ball he hasn’t read well or taken a good route to. Not that it mattered.
And speaking of Yuni – he has 5 walks this year and the Astros have given him 4 of em.
Clint Barmes started his first game and like everyone not named Wallace, looked lousy with the bat. Not sure that he did anything that Angel Sanchez couldn’t have done – and Barmes and Hall couldn’t manage to turn a 6-4-3 GIDP on Carlos Gomez TWICE. Melancon gave up a run because of one of those DPs not turned – well, his fault for giving up the RBI single to Braun.
Clank came up with MOB twice and the first time, popped up on the first pitch and the second time, grounded out weakly (and this was the reliever, Kintzler, not Marcum.)
Quintero had a lousy game, too – allowing 2 stolen bases and an error – dropped the ball on a pitchout. He did throw out Yuni Betancourt trying to steal on a strikemout-throwemout to end the 6th.
Anything kewl? Well, Michael Bourn reached base twice and stole second, twice. Brett Wallace stole second base in the second – no, I am NOT kidding. Yes, he’s slow as molasses and this is why he was able to get the jump that he did – guess he doesn’t want to eventually break Chris Snyder’s record of PA without a SB.
Michael Bourn made a great catch of Corey Hart’s drive onto the Hill – poor Hart – you hit a ball 420′ you SHOULD be trotting around the bases before heading for the dugout.
Brett Wallace has a sore hip after colliding with Prince Fielder, who was coming down the line. Good thing Wallace is that big – any guy smaller than Wallace would prolly be broke in pieces Da Prince runs into you full speed.
Fulchino and Lyon threw scoreless innings. Not that it mattered.
And last but not least – turned on the 10th inning show for a few minutes. First caller asks Matt (the host) why they insist on batting Clank instead of Wallace in the cleanup spot and also, why can’t Bogusevic play left and Clank sit? Because, sez Matt, Clank is making 19 mill and anyhow, Bogusevic won’t hit .250. Yeah, sez the caller, but at least he can run well and play good defense and besides, Clank isn’t hitting .250 neither. Well, sez Matt, the Astros are trying to get some of their money’s worth.
Matt doesn’t appear to know what a sunk cost is. It’s getting to the point where fans would rather see a Bogusevic/Bourgeois platoon in left with Clank on the bench. No, they aren’t “prospects” but Clank – well, it is NOT making fans happy to see him getting paid 19 mill to uck-say. It doesn’t bug fans to see younger guys getting paid minimum wage even IF they aren’t Mike Stanton.
Clank is getting louder and louder booooos with each failure at the plate. I wonder how long Ed Wade/Tal/Drayton is going to insist that Clank stay put at cleanup. One of these days I am going to do a comparison – Luke Scott in left from April 2006 – now vs the 6 months of Preston Wilson + 4 years of Clank – and I would bet that Luke comes out on top in bang for the buck.
Tomorrow night, it’s the re-match between Randy Wolf and Wandy. And Randy Wolf shut the Stros DOWN last week. Wanna bet it’s an all-righty lineup with our best hitter on the bench?
Tags: Brewers, Houston Astros, Milwaukee Brewers, MLB
Nice debut by Barmes. 0-for-4 with two stranded and an errant throw that injures the only guy hitting well right now.
During the game last night they called Barmes a good defender. That’s news to me. Maybe better than Sanchez…and I really do mean maybe. I’m not positive about that. Between all their options in the middle infield (Sanchez, Barmes, Hall and Downs), CJ and Lee sometimes filling in for Wallace, they might rival the Brewers for worst defensive infield in the majors. They are TERRIBLE.
PS – loved Myers blaming those big hits on the jet stream. Boloney. Jet stream didn’t help the Astros hitters any as they came up with just 4 hits and not an extra bagger among them. He sounded just like he did when he had that meltdown and started challenging the reporter to a fight when he said he didn’t think those balls were gone. One more bad outing and we might see him revert to the Myers that had to go to anger management and got run out of Philly.
agree about the bad defense. i remember when it was GOOD – the adam everett days a faint memory. was not impressed with barmes. but he was signed to start and by GAW he gonna start.
WB is now and always a total (anatomy part associated with waste) – blaming michael bourn for not getting those mammoth homers is total shtt – no WONDER his phillies teammates did NOT like him. jet stream my left ear. the flags weren’t hardly waving
He was throwing with a broken hand wasn’t he? Just sayin’
Let the Barmes watch begin. He’ll play because Ed “Spec” Wade spent money on him–the same way Drayton did on Lee.
You could see the relief on Michael’s face that he landed just short of that pole. Bet the padding is mighty thin on that.
Hope Wallace is OK.
Traveling last night. Tough game to listen to. Especially with the HOF’er and his clones making the call. Maybe the HOF’er needs to call out Carlos like he did Berkman, then he might go on a hitting tear? Think Mills might need to start throwing things to shake up the place
charlie,
milo is a team shill and he’ll say whatever he is supposed to. and the party line is that carlos is working his way out of his slump and will soon be back to the 08 carlos. mills can throw anything he wants but it won’t make clank hit and it certainly isn’t going to do any good with respect to which guy sits and which guy doesn’t
bruce,
one of these days, some ballplayer is going to get badly hurt on that idiotic pole and it would be one thing if it was just a sponge instead of iron
mark,
barmes and hall are gonna play pretty much for the next several months because ed thinks they are gonna hit all these home runs and that will make us WINNAHS!!!!