First pitch of the game, Schafer hits an easy fly ball to center, CF Carlos Gomez lets it go under his glove as he slides, for some reason, it’s not an error and he ends up on third – and for ONCE, it’s a good thing that Clark threw up the stop sign because Schafer really would have been dead at the plate.

Jose Altuve watches a ball, takes a strike, then hits a dribbler to Hart, Playing first instead of lefty Travis Ishikawa. Hart underhands it to Grienke, who tags first at the exact same second as Altuve who is safe, tie goes to the runner. Greinke has given up 1 pitch on what should have been an error, and if he had been lucky, a 3-1. So he, with his back to first, spikes the ball AWAY from the ump and is instantly tossed. Either Greinke said The Magic Word(s) or the ump really acted like a complete and total ass. Even JD said so. I mean, I could understand if the ball was spiked in the direction of first, but it wasn’t.

You talk about LUCK. A pitcher who absolutely KILLZ the Astros gets tossed after 4 pitches/1 run for expression of frustration. Unbelieveable. In comes Livan Hernandez, mopup man and the guys must have taken it not just like a reprieve from death row, but release from prison,  period.

Stros 1 Crew zip

So Livan kept em from scoring for 2 innings while Wandy lay down the zeroes and then Scott Moore led off the 3rd with another homer, not near as long as the one last night, to the right of the RF bullpen of some sort of 80 MPH “fast”ball – Livan throws a change offn his change offn his change and curves of all speeds. Which was a good thing because he made 2 really REALLY bad fielding errors (and you thought CJ had a problem?). But I’m getting ahead of myself.

So Julio Daniel Martinez singles. (By the way, I’ve noticed that the original JD, Jim Deshaeis, has recently started calling Mr. Martinez “Julio Daniel” – coincidence? I think not.) Jed Lowrie FINALLY sends a fly ball to right that Aoki, the RF can’t catch, Julio Daniel scoresall the way from first, Lowrie is standing on second, no outs. You’ll be sayin – yeah, but we’ve seen this before and there he’ll stay like a sack of cement. But THIS time, CJ hits a fly ball all the way to the RF warning track and Aoki doesn’t have the arm to nail Lowrie at third – accurate, but not hard enough. Jason Castro hits another fly ball all the way to the warning track and Lowrie scores easily – Aoki can’t throw hard enough to throw home, neither. Bout time Astros caught the breaks.

Stros 3 Crew zip

4th inning, Livan is out (guess he can’t go more than 3 – either that or the Brewers manager figures this is still a winnable game and all, seeing as how Wandy has already thrown 58 pitches and he’ll get to get into the lousy bullpen. So Wandy Ks looking, Mary Jane Schafer singles to center, then steals second. Altuve walks – number 17 on the year!!! Talk about luck!!! Moore flies out to the RF wall and Aoki, although he is in good position when he makes the catch, can’t throw hard enough to get Schafer out at third. (I’d better shut up or he’s gonna throw out 3 guys tomorrow.) Jose breaks for second with Julio Daniel up, the Brewers catcher Maldonado (hey, LuCroy has to have SOME off days) throws the ball into center and Schafer scores. Julio Daniel grounds out

Stros 4 Crew 0

Bottom of the 5th, in comes Randy Wolf to relieve – it’s his throwing day, I guess. First relief appearance since 2001 (yes, I looked it up.) Jed Lowrie hits a ball which bounced off the SS’s glove and was, for some reason, NOT called an error. Remember what I said about luck? Then CJ hits a blooper which falls just inside the RF line and it’s men on second and third. Jason Castro hits another flyball to the RF track and Lowrie trots home.

Stros 5 Crew 0

Top of the 6th – Astros make THREE errors. Aoki Ks swinging. Moore pulls a Buckner with Braun’s grounder. Aramis Ramirez singles to left. Castro lets a ball clank off his glove (even JD is now saying this a LOT – it’s not just me) and runners move up. Wandy is trying not to look pissed and Castro goes out to chat. Hart walks, bases loaded. Broakie-poo goes out to the moung, as Froddy is warming up (oh no.) Rickie Weeks hits a PERFECT double play ball bouncer right to Moore at third. He juggles it, can’t step on third, let alone throw to first, and Braun scores. Bases loaded 1 out. And you thought CJ is bad? Jeezus, even he would made THAT one.

Stros 5 Crew 1

Wandy is yanked and Froddy comes in. He gets batter #1, then he throws a pitch in the dirt that Castro doesn’t block (JD agrees with me that he should be able to block a pitch like that) and another run scores. Yeah, unearned, but runs are runs, earned or not. But Froddy manages to get that out too when Scott Moore actually manages to catch an easy popup and Astros had better pray the bullpen can hold on to a 4 run lead.

Stros 5 Crew 2

7th inning – Wesley Wright comes in, gives up a single, gets 2 outs, then Brandon Lyon comes in (Moore comes out and 8-Mill comes in for DR) for righty Braun, but gives up a single to him but gets Aramis. He stays in for the 8th, and Corey Hart leads off with a nice bunt single to third that 8-mill can’t get. Weeks get HBP, then Lyon gets the next 2 outs without letting runners advance.

Fernando Abad comes in to face PH Ex-Stro Cody Ransom, who hits a ball down the LF line inside the bag that 8-Mill doesn’t get (not, mind, that I’m faulting him, just pointing out that he sure as heck isn’t making any Brooks Robinson plays, let alone out-fielded CJ.) and Hart trots home.

Stros 6 Crew 3

So naturally Fernando is pulled and naturally Millsie-poo plays musical manager because he can’t trust Abad to pitch to Carlos Freaking Gomez, so he calls in Enerio Del Rosario, RHP, and naturally, Gomez is pulled back and lefty Travis Ishikawa goes in to PH, but pops up to Lowrie.

Hey Millsie-poo, you see that??? A righty got a lefty out!!!! Can you believe it??? Shocked, I’m sure.

The ol WB comes in and gets 1,2,3 out. Guess he DOES want to get traded all right.

What a game – 2 errors by the Brewers called hits for the Astros hitters. 4 errors in one inning for the Astros only lead to 2 runs. And best of all, Greinke tossed before he could kill us as usual. Kind of deflated the Crew.

I’d guess the scouts who came in to check out Greinke – naturally, he’s a big time trade candidate, or at least there sure is a whole lot of talktalktalk about it – are all KINDS of furious. I wonder if he even wants to go to one of the NY teams, or Boston. He’s supposed to be mental, you know, or something, and the media there is not, um, nice.

Then again, they DID get to watch Wandy. I was very pleased that JD pointed out that over the past 3 years, Wandy has the THIRD best ERA in the NL for a lefty, right behind Kershaw and Hamels. I would bet that if he went back 4 years, he’s be in the top 10, if not top 5.

Tomorrow, Jordan Lyles will face RHP Marco Estrada. Marco has had 5 relief appearances but no starts against Houston. He started this year as a reliever, but was moved into the starting rotation mid April, mist most of June, and has now started 8 games and has lasted 5 innings in each, except for the one in which he was hurt. He has a 4.32 ERA and a 1.06 WHIP (homeriffic, not walks.)

Tags: Houston Astros, Milwaukee Brewers

This entry was posted on Saturday, July 7th, 2012 at 11:39 pm and is filed under Wandy Rodriguez. 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.