Bud wasn’t as sharp as he might could have been in the first 4 innings – gave up 4 hits and a couple of walks – Tony Campana stole second AND third (Castro, as usual, can’t throw out baserunners) but managed to strand guys on: 3rd base in the 1st, 2nd base in the second, men on first and third in the 3rd, men on first and third in the 4th. But after giving up a leadoff walk in the 5th, Bud finally figured out that the HP ump was not gonna give ANYONE that high outside strike and he just mowed em right down. He struck out 5 of the next 10 guys, gave up a 2 out 0-2 single, and just absolutely was dominating.

Usually, the 3rd time through the lineup the hitters get wise to the pitcher. This time, it was the other way around.

It did help that Bud was staked to a 7 run lead by the end of the 3rd inning. Matt Garza, um, wasn’t himself. He got an easy 1,2,3 out in the first – and I like Altuve leading off with Lowrie batting second – the best 2 on base guys SHOULD be hitting in the top 2 spots. Garza started off the second getting 2 groundball outs, then gave up a single to CJ. JD ain’t hitting, but he was walkin, and next thing you know, Jason Castro was hitting an inside slider into the 5th row in RF just above the yellow sign – his first of the year. Givin his pitcher a lil boost, which is nice.

Then in the 3rd, Lowrie singles, steals second, goes to third on Koyie Hill’s throwing error (funny – I thought he wasn’t with the Cubs any more – Wrong-o) and Carlos Lee singles him home. Bogu walks, then CJ smashes a FB RIGHT down the middle into the restaurant in CF – looks to me like it hit 7 or 8 rows deep. I mean, it’s like Berkman territory. JD flies out (well, at least it wasn’t another K on 0-2 or another GO to the IF.)

Stros 7, Cubs 0

Randy Wells, RHP, ex-starter, comes in to mopup. He pitches the rest of the game and except for a homer to Jed Lowrie, basically shuts the Astros down – scattered 2 walks and 2 singles, got Bogu to pop up to short left with 2 on 2 out.

I sat down to write this here entry after Enerio Del Rosario (yes, Jordan Lyles got sent down right after he finished his last pitch yesterday and yes, probably Aneury Rodriguez will get the callup for the next start – we’re off on Thursday and Millsie-poo is just gonna skip that spot and everyone is gonna go on normal rest) set em all down.

I looked up in the 9th, the Cubs had men on first and third, no outs, 2 runs in. WHAT???

Enerio gave up a double, then a single, then another single. 1 run in, men on first and third. Fernando Abad in to put out the fire. So he immediately gives up an RBI single, letting poor Enerio’s run score. He gets a K, then Wilton Lopez comes in, men on first and third, 1 out. The guy on first is allowed to go to second on DI. So then Wilton gives up a single allowing both runs to score – so poor Enerio has been let down by both relievers, but at least Abad gets charged with the run of the guy he put on.

Then Wilton gets the last out.

There for a few minutes, I thought it was gonna be one of those give up 9 runs in the 9th and lose type games. And all because I had already typed something about Bud getting his 4th W in a row.

And now for a little Ex-Stros:

1 – Berkman tore the inside of his knee, the one he hurt back in 05, and is out again, probably for months.

2 – Felipe Paulino shut out the Yankees for 6.2 innings, the second time this year he has pitched scoreless starts against them. hehhehheh.

Tags: Chicago Cubs, Houston Astros

This entry was posted on Monday, May 21st, 2012 at 10:44 pm and is filed under Bud Norris, Chris Johnson, Enerio Del Rosario, Jason Castro. 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.