Waaaaay back in 04, back when the Astros were full of good players and really only lacked ONE bullpen arm that Drayton wouldn’t put out for, when Roy Oswalt kicked complacent ass, the Gray family helped him out by acquiring good luck charm Phat Stuff Dog, which sent them on an incredible run to capture the wild card the very last day of the season. (Those were the good old days. Get offn my lawn.) Looks like without my knowledge or consent, the Astros have managed to acquire their Free Fall Into Worstest Team luck charm, named Flat Stuff Dog.
One of my baseball friends likes to post lyrics form old songs as his facebook status, and the other day, he posted a few lines from the old Herman’s Hermits (jeezus keerist, and people complain about names like New Pornographers?) about Henery The Eighth – second verse, same as the first. Today, it was seventy third Worse, same as the first.
Kris Medlen is a righty, so naturally, Millsie-poo started as much of an all lefty lineup as he possibly could, except for Jordan Schafer – he let Justin Maxwell play in spite of his right handedness. Imagine that. Couldn’t believe Luhnow allowed his petsy-poo to get benched – either that or Luhnow has fallen out of luuuuvvv with Mary Jane Schafer.
Where was I? Oh yeah – this way, he can have 3 leftys in a row in Moore, Pearce and Bogusevic.
Bud was very good, especially considering the fact that the ump had a VERY inconsistent strike zone and called 7 pitches balls that were strikes. He gave up 2 singles, 3 walks and a stolen base, a strikemout throwemout double play, with a solo homer through 5 innings. The Astros gave him zero runs – 3 singles, 2 walks, a strikemout throwemout double play and a GIDP.
6th inning, Altuve grounds out, Marwin singles, Brett Wallace singles – men on first and second. Medlin gone byby. In comes a righty to face Justin Maxwell. No we can’t call him The Hammer – that belongs to Hank Aaron and Maxwell ain’t Hank Aaron. Righty is yanked and in comes a lefty. Natcherilly, we can’t let leftys face leftys, so we pull Moore and Bogu and send in Downs, who Ks on 3 pitches, then Pearce is IBB, then PH Julio Daniel Martinez grounds out.
The usual. Bases loaded, bases STAY loaded, no runs. I knew the game was over RIGHT then.
Bud back. 2 singles, then a popup. Then a infield roller that Marwin doesn’t get to and Downs is too un-rangy to get near and it’s bases loaded. Not even a force at second or third. Wild pitch over Corporan’s head and the losing run trots to the plate. I mean, Chipper didn’t even try to run fast. Then Houston boy (ex Rice CWS champ) Paul Janish singles in 2 more runs and there’s your ball game.
It’s plays not made, just like the 6-4-3 that wasn’t turned in the next inning, not that it mattered in the end.
Mopup guys Xavier Cedeno gave up a run in the 7th on a walk, DP not made, and a double into the LF corner by Chipper Jones that just kind of sat in the corner and Julio Daniel didn’t nother to make a throw by the time he got it because Heyward was already almost home. That’s our last ever look at Chipper – as usual, Astros killah. It makes me really disgusted that people even have any sort of debate as to whether or not he should go into the Hall of Fame. What exactly question IS there?
It shouldn’t bug me that most of the great players of my lifetime are not going into the Hall because of steroid questions/suspicions – absolutely RIDICULOUS – but there you go.
sigh
Nats come in tomorrow and it’s Dallas Keuchel (who better not walk everyone insight) vs Edwin Jackson.
Which reminds me – Ida wanna hear no media types comparing the Astros in any way to the Nats. Yeah, they were lousy 4-5 years ago and had pitchers who were retreads like Tim Redding and Livan Hernandez. They never had a team which was composed strictly of AAA guys and one decent major league second baseman. They also had a LOT of top picks in the first rounds of the last 4 drafts and PAID a lot of them top dollar. The new CBA doesn’t allow that – the compensation pick days are gone and so are the days of getting expensive guys if you pay for em. There are no Strasburgs or Harpers in our minot leagues, no Ian Desmonds, no Danny Espinozas and Crane isn’t gonna pay for Mike Morse, Jayson Werth or even Edwin Jackson type players – not that they would agree to go to Houston in the first place.
Watching Bud pitch is so frustrating. He seems to have that one bad inning he cant get out of. Same for Lyles this year as well. Very frustrating. Of course, with the bullpen the way it is, maybe it is good that they try to work out of it. So frustrating watching this team. I just dont know why they continue to put Downs out there. Bring up some AAA folks to get a bigger sample size. Downs is a fringe bench player at best.
bringing up AAA players means they have to pay them more and their service clock runs. can’t have THAT. better to keep the crappy players you are gonna play anyhow and lose some more