Posts Tagged ‘Houston Astros’

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Astros Take Series From Cubs With A 4-0 Shutout

Wednesday, September 8th, 2010

Michael Bourn kept his reach base streak alive at 18 with an IBB in the 6th – unfortunately, he didn’t get a chance to steal or score. He did, however, have a chance to drive in a run in the second, but grounded out.

Astros shut out the Cubs 4-0 with pretty much contributions from everyone, in spite of leaving a ridiculous number of guys on base. Defense was awesome, too, especially Tommy Manzella, who made 3 very tough plays. But the play of the day goes to Kepp to went to his right, then did a Jeter jumpthrow – ball to Wallace bounced in the dirt and Wallaced stepped back on the bag and the runner ran right into him. Kind of reminded me of that Aesop’s fable about the fly who lands on a bull’s horn – after a minute, asks the bull if he’s a bother and the bull says – I didn’t notice you were there. Wallace is, to put it mildly, undemonstrative.

CJ didn’t have the best night – looks like the balls had some funny hops on the ground there – he had a Bill Buckner error – looked as if he thought the ball was gonna bounce a lot higher than it did. And later he couldn’t get the ball out of his glove fast enough to turn a DP.

Michael Bourn, of course, was great – and he made the final out – a really excellent running catch in which he had to come way in way fast.

Cubs really shouldn’t have been shut out – Tyler Colvin doubled to the wall in right center in the 7th, then Geo Soto hit what SHOULD have been an RBI single to left, but inexplicably, the 3B coach held the runner, who, by the way, is VERY fast. That is called BAD coaching, as Clank, as usual, didn’t bother to go fast to the ball and wasn’t even going to try to get it back in quickly, as usual. And speaking of overly conservative 3B coaches, Clark held Tommy Manzella at 3rd when Quintero doubled to the RF corner – Tommy was 30′ toward home when Clark made him go back – not sure why – Colvin had barely secured the ball.

Everyone hit except for Wallace – and nobody pitched him inside, neither. Clank didn’t get any hits, but he hit the ball to the warning track in dead center twice and hit a wicked liner which Starlin Castro, the Cubs SS made an incredible catch on. Bad luck. It is baseball – it happens.

CJ hit one of those bloop to shallow right center doubles and an RBI single. I bet he swings at more pitches than any other major leaguer and has more swing and misses in 1/2 season than most hitters do in 1 full season.

Pence hit a ball HARD to left center which died on the track – there was a vicious north wind blowing in. But the next one went into the LF bleachers.

All in all, Pence knocked in 1 and left 2 on. Kepp went 2 fer 5, scored 1, drove 1 in; CJ went 2 fer 4, drove 1 in, left 2 on; Wallace left 3 on; Manzella went 2 fer 4 and scored 2; Q went 2 fer 4 and drove in 1.

Nice to beat the C*bs again – we end up the year with them as our last home series.

And speaking of home, we now have a 4 game series against Brad Ausmus and the Dodgers. Yes, I’m gonna try to go to a game and get my last longing look at the HOTTTTTness.

Tomorrow, lefty Ted Lilly (who we know only too well from all his years as a C*b) faces Bud Norris. Ted has always been an Astros killah – he’s 7-1 in 12 GS with a 2.19 ERA. But we DID beat him once so it CAN be done…

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Posted in Hunter Pence, Matt Lindstrom, Michael Bourn | 6 Comments »

2010 Astros Fans Scouting Reports – Please Help

Wednesday, September 8th, 2010

Tango Tiger (the famous stat geek who wrote “The Book”) is now collecting info for his end of the year fans scouting reports.

Here is the link: www.tangotiger.net/scout/

Here is what he says:

“Baseball’s fans are very perceptive. Take a large group of them, and they can pick out the final standings with the best of them. They can forecast the performance of players as well as those guys with rather sophisticated forecasting engines. Bill James, in one of his later Abstracts, had the fans vote in for the ranking of the best to worst players by position. And they did a darn good job.

There is an enormous amount of untapped knowledge here. There are 70 million fans at MLB parks every year, and a whole lot more watching the games on television. When I was a teenager, I had no problem picking out Tim Wallach as a great fielding 3B, a few years before MLB coaches did so. And, judging by the quantity of non-stop standing ovations Wallach received, I wasn’t the only one in Montreal whose eyes did not deceive him. Rondel White, Marquis Grissom, Larry Walker, Andre Dawson, Hubie Brooks, Ellis Valentine. We don’t need stats to tell us which of these does not belong.”

You can click on any team to evaluate the players – hard to believe that the Mariners now have more evaluations filed than the Yankees.

Thanks.

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Posted in MLB, statistics | No Comments »

Michael Bourn Drives In 3, Scores 2, Steals 1, Goes 3 fer 4 To Back Nelson Figueroa’s W

Tuesday, September 7th, 2010

And Wandy is thinking – HEY you couldn’t get to third hitting a ball to the exact same place yesterday???!!!

Michael knew it, said – my bad, and went all out today. He led off the game with a triple to right  and Jesse Barfield couldn’t have thrown him out – then he scored when Keppinger singled. But Pence Kd and Clank GIDP. And Michael came through in the second with  Manzella at third and Castro at first – he doubled to the RF corner and drove them both in, but was then stranded.

In the 5th, he beat out an IF single – a slow roller near first and Hoffpauir, playing first, couldn’t get the ball to Silva, who broke a lil too late from the mound. Michael slid head first and all I could think was – OMIGAWD Silva is gonna pound him into paste, but he slid by before Sliva got there. I hate headfirst slides – this is one of the very few times I have seen it work. Very next pitch, he steals second. Very next pitch, Kepp hits the ball into shallow left and Bourn takes off like a shot, doesn’t look, heads home and barely beats the tag – which is lucky for him because Hill dropped the ball – he didn’t have the plate blocked, but Michael did an inside slide anyhow. And there was one quick manufactured run. Pence doubled Kepp in, but Clank and CJ stranded him.

And Bourn wasn’t done, neither. In the 7th, Castro reached on error by the 3B – the ball clanked off his glove, then pinch hitter Matt Downs singled (I was so shocked that Mills didn’t send in Anderson Worthless Hernandez that I darn near fainted) and Michael drove in Castro with a sac-fly to right center.

Totally awesome. His reached base streak is now at 17 games – 66 AB, 9 BB, 24 H, 1 ROE. BA .364, OBP .434. I’ll take it.

Figgy pitched in and out of trouble for his 5 innings giving up his customary 3 walks, 5 hits and just missed out on a GIDP because he didn’t haul his butt to first fast enough. He gave up 2 runs in the first, 1 in the 3rd, and escaped trouble in the 5th when Byrd reached on a Chris Johnson error, then went to second on a passed ball (which would have been worse had not Castro made a fabulous sliding catch of a difficult popup the previous batter) and then third on a single to shallow center, but Figgy struck out Baker and got Hill to pop out.

As usual, he was lucky in that every time he got into trouble, Baker and Hill (the #7 and 8 guy) came up and he got the 2 outs he needed. And he was lucky because the Astros scored enough runs. And because in the 5th, when he had fielders make 2 errors, Pence got to the ball so quickly that Byrd, who is fast, couldn’t score from second on a single.

Fulchino gave up a single to the only batter he faced, but Byrdak came in and pitched 2 quick 1,2,3 innings with 3 K; Melancon and Abad each pitched a scoreless.

So tomorrow night is the rubber game and we face righty Randy Wells, a 38th round pick of the Cubs in 02 – he’s come a long way, baby. He’s started 5 games against the Astros and is 2-2 witha 2.51 ERA.

This year, he’s had 2 lossses – 6 ER/5.1 IP and 3 ER/5 IP. It was 09 that he was a total Astros killer, giving up 0 ER in 3 games – 7 IP, 8 IP, 6.2 IP. Gimmee the 2010 version ANY day.

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Posted in Michael Bourn, Nelson Figueroa | 3 Comments »

Brett Wallace Hits His First ML Home Run Off Carlos Silva

Tuesday, September 7th, 2010

Ah do think the boy needed his own entry for this, dontchu?

420′ to straightaway center on a FB down the middle!!! Hopefully, this will turn him around and we won’t hafta bear the incredible pain of watching Clank “fielding” at 1B.

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Posted in Brett Wallace | 3 Comments »

The Astros And The Grays Have A Good 2010 Labor Day Weekend

Monday, September 6th, 2010

Why yes, we DID go away for the weekend, however did all yall guess? Went to see relatives and unfortunately, they live in Rangers territory, so watching games wasn’t an option for me. I DID sneak out and quick listen to snippets of the games on XM – and one important thing I heard was the Arizona announcers, who knew Chris Wallace QUITE well from his days at Arizona State University, saying that Wallace is being fed a steady diet of inside pitches because he apparently can’t handle major league stuff inside.

Interesting – lessee if that is correct. I went back, just to August 27 (Mets series) to see what he was hitting and what he was being fed and, first, this is what he hit for his 5 hits:

single to L – midplate, outside the zone FB
double to L – FB right down the middle
single to R – FB low outside corner just outside the zone
single to L – FB midplate just outside
single bloop popup shallow right – inside hi FB

I should note that he swung at 9 pitches outside the zone, got hits on 3, fouled off the other 6 – and none were close enough to be called strikes.

So, by the 9 zones, here are the strikes he was thrown and took/swung at/fouled off or got out on:

hi inside: 2
hi midplate: 5
hi outside: 4
middle in: 10
midplate: 5
middle out: 12
low in: 4
low midplate: 0
low outside: 1

Well, looks to me as if he’s missing all OVAH the place and they certainly aren’t concentrating on throwing inside, seeing as how he can’t seem to hit anything but a FB and he is just getting around on stuff on the outside. Not exactly sure what is off or if it is that his swing is too long/too short or what. The opposition is not just throwing him breaking stuff neither – he isn’t hitting fastballs very well. Maybe is it just making the adjustment from minor league to major league pitching. I sure nuff hope so because Clank is getting enough starts at 1B to make me think that Wallace isn’t going to be our 1B next year and Clank is just as dreadful with the glove at first as he is in left.

I checked out a few plays from Wandy’s game and saw how Clank’s incredibly lousy stop n throw of what should have been a simple 3-1 cost Wandy the game. Wandy tried to desperately stop the ball with his bare hand – must have stung, because he immediately threw a hanger which left the yard and that was the ballgame. You wouldn’t think that it is that hard to play first, but apparently it actually DOES take some skill.

And Bud Norris lost again. This time, he didn’t even make it 5 innings. I wondered if his previous lousy game happened because he threw to Castro and not Quintero, but this time he had Q back and it was the same old Bud not being able to locate – 3 walks, 1 homer, 8 hits, 5 ER with 1 fewer inning pitched. 

Bud wait!!!

Let’s check out what he threw and what got hit – 102 pitches, 58 FB, 25 sliders and 19 changeups. He actually, really threw only 1 bad pitch. The 2 doubles and the triple he gave up were all on changeups at the knees and inside and they all went down juuuuust inside the RF line. Sorry, but those were good pitches – had bad results, but the location wasn’t off. The 5 singles were ALL at the knees, 3 inside, 2 midplate. But the 3 run homer, which done him in, was a changeup smack dab down the middle and those pretty much get hit out.

So actually, he threw pretty well – 1 of every 3 pitches was fouled off and it looks as if the Dbax hitters are low ball hitters, and they really should have done the climb the ladder type game plan. That and Bud shouldn’t throw changes down the middle, but hey, it was his last pitch and he was tired.

The Astros came back to win 2 of 4 games, Wilton Lopez has now lost 2 straight games – might could he be tired? And Lyon appears to be staying in the closer role – and not sure if he is gonna stay there or not.

Today, it’s Figgy vs Carlos Silva.

Silva has faced the Astros 3 times this year and is 2-1: 7 IP, 0 ER/2R; 5 IP, 1 ER; 1 IP, 5 ER.

I got scolded for saying that Nelson Figueroa is a lucky pitcher. OK, let’s hope he ends up pitching with the same results he got the last few times, luck or no luck (meaning very few runs given up…)

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Posted in Brett Wallace, Bud Norris, Wilton Lopez | 2 Comments »

Would You Root For The San Antonio Astros Or The Houston Blue Jays/Athletics?

Friday, September 3rd, 2010

Everyone knows by now that since Nolan Ryan bought the Rangers, that he plans to claim the Austin/mid-Texas region as Rangers territory by putting the Rangers AAA franchise at RoundRock and casting Draytie-poo to the winds. We can keep Corpus for our AA team – not that there is much of any population there, you know. The Astros will end up in either Oklahoma City – which is mostly filled with Cardinals fans and a few Rangers fans, or Nashville, which is apparently so awful that Milwaukee wants out.

Isn’t THAT peachy.

Forget Portland – the Beavers are no more, as the baseball stadium is now the home of a soccer team and Portland is not about to give one dollar of public money for any sports stadium.

Not sure if Drayton even tried to renew the player development contract BEFORE the Rangers had known money troubles, but we’re in BIG trouble now.

You might could say – what about San Antonio, but they already have a AA club and the owner has NO interest in selling and they have a nice secure contract with the Marlins.

And Drayton is trying like heck to sell the team (don’t guess that either he wants to sell to Mark Cuban or that Mark Cuban wants to buy the Astros) and since Jim Crane of Houston changed his mind, Drayton has to find someone else. And so I hear tell, the someone else Drayton has found is some guys who want to move the team to – get this – San Antonio (I guess the AA guy would get paid off or Selig would force him to leave somehow, not sure how).

As you know, San Antonio has no major league stadium, so the public would have to be screwed into coughing one up or, even worse, the new Astros owners would have to (gasp, shudder) build their own as the Giants and Cardinals did. And if any of all yall remember, the Marlins tried to use San Antonio to blackmail Miami-Dade into giving them billions, and it didn’t work. San Antonio has a large population, but most of them are not exactly the sort who happily cough up hundreds of bucks to trot off to a baseball game. And there is no large corporate base, neither.

So the point of moving the team there would be???

The fan base would be, like, who? They can’t even fill the AA stadium. OK, it’s not in the north (rich) part of town, where I hear tell the New Guys would want the stadium (here and I thought stadiums were supposed to be these magic things that “revitalized” a downtown and brought in $$$).

But I hear tell that Bud Selig wants 3 ML teams in Texas and really wants to get the Blue Jays out of Canada – so much for globalization of baseball, eh? Or punish Oakland for not being richer and not forking over billions to the billionaires for new public transportation lines and a stadium (because God Forbid that he gives San Jose back to the Athletics who had it until 1992).

We have a lot of MILES here in Texas, but support for THREE major league teams? Heck, there’s barely enough support for 2 – and the only reason that the Rangers are getting as popular as they are is because Nolan Ryan is there and people are nuts about HIM – don’t give me the stuff about the winning team – there was barely ANY interest in the late 90s when the Rangers were winning big – they were around 1000x more interested in which Dallas Cowboy belched and when, even in the offoffoff season.

Who in Houston would shrug and say – Astros/ Jay-A’s – whazza diffrunce? Not me, that is fer SHER. I know that all the kids school groups/church groups/business groups would still come all right because they don’t know the difference between a baseball and a basketball anyway. But actual FANS? Please.

It would, of course, make more sense to put a team where the population and $$$ is – namely Brooklyn or NJ – but there is absolutely NO way that MLB would do anything to take either money or attention away from the Yankees – they WANT the Yankees to win every year and have these gigantic payrolls – it makes money to have the globetrotters/generals. And Bud couldn’t care less about what happens in some unimportant part of the country – unless of course, that part of the country won’t force its taxpayers to be blackmailed by (censored) politicians into forking over huge amounts of $$$ to billionaires.

And of course you know that due to blackout rules, couldn’t none of us follow the Astros if they moved to San Antonio and naturally, FoxSports would show the new team.

So tell me, WOULD anyone shrug and cheer for the new team? Would anyone go to see the new team in San Antonio?

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Posted in Astros baseball | 4 Comments »

Wandy Rodriguez Gets Screwed Out Of The August 2010 NL Pitcher Of The Month Award

Thursday, September 2nd, 2010

Trouble is, too many voters REALLY think that pitcher wins are solely dependent on the pitcher.

In August, NO pitcher in the NL league outpitched Wandy.

He threw 6 games, 41.1 IP, 43 K, 8 BB, 31 H, 8 BB, 1 HR: 1.34 ERA, 0.97 WHIP. This is a 6.9 H/9; 5.4 K:BB; 9.6 K/9; 1.7 BB/9.  Unfortunately, he got minimal run support, so his W/L was a measly 2-1. He threw 3 games in which he gave up only 1 ER and all he got for his trouble was a ND. He gave up 2 runs in 1 game and got a L and he gave up 0 runs in 1 and got a W – and he also got a W in one game in which he gave up 1 run.

The guy who won threw 6 games, 42 IP, 33 H, 9 BB, 1 HR, 35: 1.71 ERA, 1.00 WHIP: 7.1 H/9; 7.5 K/9; 1.7 BB/9; 3.9 K:BB. This guy had a 4-0 record and threw 2 games giving up 0 ER, 2 games giving up 1 ER, 1 game giving up 2 ER and 1 game giving up 4 ER.

Yeah, I know – no crying in baseball…

But I really don’t, for the life of me, understand why Wandy don’t get no respeck. I remember the night he pitched a shutout against the Mets a few years back – ESPN didn’t even mention his NAME when they talked about the game. When he got 10 Ks in a loss against the Marlins earlier this year, they didn’t say anything about the game except to talk briefly about Hanley. When he outpitched (by FAR) Roy Oswalt last year, all I heard was deafening silence.

sigh

With all the talktalktalk about how Jordan Lyles is supposed to joing the Astros rotation next year (and so far at AAA, he’s started 5 games over 26.2 IP, given up 40 H, 2 HR, 10 BB, 19 K, 16 ER/18 R) with a 5.40 ERA/ 1.88 WHIP) and he sure nuff doesn’t exactly look ML ready to me – but unless Paulino is finished as a starter, we already have 5 ML starters and I can’t see them wasting him as a Joba.

I wouldn’t be real too surprised to see him get traded this offseason as he is gonna be a LOT more expensive and I would bet that Drayton would rather spend money on Hunter Pence, who is a big crowd pleaser, than an outstanding pitcher whose jersey isn’t for sale anywhere, even on line.

I would also bet that even if the Astros and their fans and the media aren’t real too impressed with Wandy, that OTHER baseball people sure nuff know who he is and the other teams would line up to get him…

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Posted in Wandy Rodriguez | 4 Comments »

Hunter Pence Is Teh Awesomeness And Nelson Figueroa Is The Lucky-ness As Astros Sweep Cards

Wednesday, September 1st, 2010

I really should have called this – Albert Pujols can’t hit even Nelson Figueroa for goodness sakes – but i’m just not that mean. I’ve started looking back and I can’t find even ONCE when Uncle came to the Box when he didn’t get even ONE hit – although he did get 1 walk.

Or I could have called this – the umps had a strike zone that wobbled like a drunk trying to walk a straight line – which would be more fun and just as accurate, but I just HAD to give Hunter Pence the props as this was the second game in a row that he won the game for the Astros with his bat. As well as the second game in a row in which he was thrown out trying to stretch a single into a double, but we won’t have to go there because his batting overcame his feet outrunning his brains…

Where was I? Oh yeah. It is Wednesday afternoon at the Box, and most businessmen had seomthing else to do with their time on this rainy afternoon- maybe, MAYBE 10K people were actually AT the ballpark. Me, I like to think that everyone decided to boycott the Milo adoration pre-game fest. No, I am not kidding – yet ANOTHER reward Milo ceremony.

But anyway, Figgy started out having juuuuust a bit of trouble – gave up a leadoff double to Schu down the LF line, then got lucky when Miles hit the ball back to him and he caught Schu in a rundown. (JD was VERY approving of the way that Figgy performed the rundown, running right at the runner, chasing him back to second and then throwing the ball to Blum for the out – yes, Blum was at SS (sigh) because he has a history of hitting Suppan well. he’s 10 fer 28 lifetime. Seriously. But then he got Uncle out, and hung a curve to Matt Holliday, who hit it into the Crawford Boxes – actually, looked like the hall beyond the Boxes, in the 3rd opening toward center.

So much for the 3rd shutout in a row.

Figgy threw a LOT of balls (well, the HP ump couldn’t make up his mind which pictch on the outside corner was gonna be a strike or ball – and he changed his mind constantly – and there were 4 pitches called strikes which were DEFINITELY outside and more than that called balls which were definitely strikes, but it didn’t decide the game – I think…) Anyway, Figgy hit a batter, gave up 3 walks, went to five 3 ball counts, had a lot of “strikes” fouled off, had 3 swing and miss pitches, gave up a homer, 2 doubles and 3 singles over 5 innings/91 pitches – AND he left bases loaded twice. Got lucky once because it was Pedro Worthless Feliz up and the other time, he got Jon Jay out, and Jon Jay is hitting .300+ and has a .952 OPS with RISP, 2 out.

And it sure looked as if that Cards 2 run lead was gonna hold up. Suppan threw a lot of strikes, the Astros swung early and swung often (I keep writing that every entry, don’t I?) and got themselves out. Pence duplicated his performance last night when he hit a ball and tried to stretch it and this time, instead of being thrown out by 6 inches, he was thrown out by 6 feet – at least.

Through the first 4 innings, the Astros had managed that Pence single, a HBP (Wallace is trying to race to Biggio’s record, I guess, and at this rate – 7 HBP/90 PA, he’d break Biggio’s record in 3670 PA – or sometime in 2016 after the ASB, which would be teh kewl.

But then in the 5th, Suppan walked Wallace on 4 straight balls (yes, ALL out of the zone) then Castro doubled to the LF bullpen – the ball rolled quite a way and Rasmus had to chase it, but Clark held Wallace at third – not sure why – he must be so incredibly slow that Clark must have thought that even with all the relays, that he had no chance to score.

And then Brian Bogusevic, newly called up, came in to pinch hit. AW RIGHT!!!!!!!!!! But he grounded out to Uncle, so Wallace was dead meat at home while Castro went to third. JD was groaning, and so was I – think he was also a lil surprised that Clark stopped Wallace. But Michael hit a hi FB 400′ for a sac-fly and Castro scored to at least break up the shutout. And Bogusevic stole a base – EASILY – off Yadi Molina. Hadn’t realized that he is such a great base stealer – 24 for 25 this year at AAA. He doesn’t LOOK fast – He’s probably a Carlos Lee type stealer – goes when the opposition has forgotten him…

Michael has been tearing it UP since he started his reached base streak on Aug 21 – 47 BA/54 PA with 17 H, 5 BB, 2 ROE, 5 SB, 1 CS, 6 RBI, 6 RBI, 10K: .361 BA/.444 OPS. Not sure what he turned on, but I LIKEY, I LIKEY!!! After an absolutely putrid July, Michael has turned it back on and for August, hit .283/.350 – no power, yeah I know, but he’s not The Rickey, and his job is to get on base, steal, score runs and field. Which he has done very well.

And he did his thing in the 8th, too – singled on a bouncer up the middle, went to second on a rare Yadi Passed ball that clanked off his glove – too busy watching Michael, went to third on a flyout, then scored on a popup to shallow center in which the SS caught the ball while running towards the OF – just like Anderson Hernandez did last week when Michael let Hernandez call him off.

Where was I?

Oh yeah – so with 2 on, Hunter came up and don’t ask me why, but TLR left Suppan in to pitch to Hunter instead of bring in McClallan a little early. Suppan hung a curve and Hunter hit it 10 rows back into the Crawford Boxes just inside the foul line. But that is 3 runs and the Astros never looked back.

Good news is that Lindstrom is back off the DL and he pitched an inning and looked as if he was throwing free and easy without pain. He had no trouble finding the strike zone, neither and he pitched to Uncle and Holliday and retired them both easily. Abad threw an inning, looked great and got Rasmus on a strikeout on a pitch that was way outside. I have noticed that this happens to Rasmus a LOT and I am wondering if he has seriously pissed off umps or something because it wasn’t one of those – last pitch of a 15 inning game and the umps want to go home sort of thing (like what happened to Johnny Damon last month).

Lyon pitched an easy 1,2,3 9th for the save and didn’t look as if he’d struggled last night.

So tomorrow is a blessed day off – FINALLY – then we’re off to Arizona then Phoenix before coming back home for a 10 day stand against LA (goody – I get to see Bradley Awesomeness!!!) Milwaukee and Cincy.

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Posted in Hunter Pence, Matt Lindstrom, Nelson Figueroa | 17 Comments »

Wandy, Wilton And Lyon Shut Up And Shut Out Carpenter

Tuesday, August 31st, 2010

Wandy had a bit of difficulty because the HP ump had a somewhat erratic strike zone on the outside, but Wandy and Castro managed to adjust all right. It took Wandy 20 pitches to get through the first inning, and he walked Albert, but got Holliday looking at strike 3 – off the plate – as I said, the ump was, uh, erratic. He gave up 2 singles in the 3rd, but got Uncle to flyout to end the inning – Uncle has never done well against Wandy. He walked Pedro Feliz in the 4th, but after that, mowed em down 1,2,3 except for Yadi, who ROE in the 7th when CJ bobbled a ball.

7 IP, 2 H, 2 BB, 5 K, no runs, ERA now down to 3.71 – his 8th straight QS, 12th of 13.

He now has a 1.35 ERA for the month of August over 6 starts and has 2 W and 1 L (on 2 ER/7 IP) to show for it. One of the reasons I hate hearing about pitchers “knowing how to win” and all that stuff.

And speaking of win, I really liked seeing Wandy Win and Carpenter NOT win. I don’t like that guy, never have. Every time I see his mug I think about my Mama talking about this guy never mind who – big as an ox and half as smart. And I was glad that Michael Bourn led off the game with an infield single – he got caught stealing when Angel Sanchez effed up a hit and run. But anyway, the Astros were swinging early and often – 6 pitches total for the 1st, 7 for the 2nd and 7 for the 3rd. I knew we weren’t gonna get nohit, but maybe 1 hit? But Michael led off the 4th with a hard smash off Schumaker’s glove, then Angel Sanchez singled up the middle. Then Pence hit a hanging slider to deep center over Rasmus’ head and it rolled UP the Hill, and by the time Rasmus retrieved it and threw it back in, Bourn and Sanchez had scored. Clank struck out swinging, then CJ singled Pence home.

Only 3 runs, but fortunately, it was all Wandy needed.

Although he just might could have got hisself some serious high blood pressure when Byrdak came on in the 8th and immediately walked  pinch hitter Aaron Miles. Mills, to my surprise, pulled him right quick and sent in Wilton Lopez, who got out Wilton Lopez, Rasmus and Uncle.

Brandon Lyon, uh, made things, uh, INteresting in the 9th – threw a first pitch FB right down the middle to Holliday, who doubled. Uh oh. Then he had fun with Yadi Molina – threw 4 pitches in almost the exact same spot – I mean, millimeters – and 2 were called strikes and 2 were balls and Yadi decided to swing at one of em – guess he couldn’t guess WHAT the call was gonna be and fortunately, he swung right through it. OK, 1 out. Feliz grounded out. OK, 2 out.

Then he walked Schu – and all those balls were WAAAAYYY out of the zone. And now Randy Winn is up and Lyon looks VERY tired and no one is up in the pen. 4 pitches, more borderline funfunfun, it’s 2 and 2 and Winn does Lyon a favor by swinging at a pitch at his neck and game ovah.

And we have shut out the Cards for the second straight game. Carpenter being the shutout pitcher is just icing on the cake.

Tomorrow afternoon, it’s Nelson Figueroa vs Jeff Suppan.

Would be nice to sweep…

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Posted in Hunter Pence, Michael Bourn, Wandy Rodriguez | No Comments »

Happ-y Astros Shut Out Happ-Less Cards

Monday, August 30th, 2010

JA Happ pitched the 3rd Astros complete game this year, a 3-0 shutout of the Cards. Unlike his previous starts, he threw mostly strikes, going to only three 3 ball counts. One walk, 2 singles, 1 GIDP (from Uncle). And that was really all she wrote.

It was a nice quick Roy-O style game – 2 hrs, 1 min, first pitch to last – probably because there was exactly 1 mound conference – the Cards in the 7th. And only 1 pitching change, and that was to start an inning.  I LIKEY!!!! It’s true that all the running out to the mound, stepping out, stepping on, stepping off makes games incredibly more boring and I wish the time limits were enforced (yeah, they are ALREADY ML rules, but not enforced…)

Jake Westbrook wasn’t bad – 9 hits, 1 walk, FOUR GIDP (Castro had 2, Clank had 1, Sanchez had 1) and gave up only 3 hard hit balls (only 1 was an out – Manzella’s flyout to the wall at the RF bullpen) and the other 2, both singles, drove in runs. Pence singled and Clank drove him in with a double down the RF line that had some funny bouncing after it hit just inside the line.

CJ broke his ofer 9 with a single in the 7th, then Brett Wallace, who went 3 fer 3 – yeah, he DID, and now he’s hitting about 20 points under his weight!!! drove him in with a double to the LF bullpen wall.

Oh yeah – and we had our all rookie infield tonight – Wallace, Sanchez, Manzella, Johnson, Castro. Manzella made awesome plays all night long, Sanchez made a fabulous catch of Miles’ pop fly into shallow right center, Wallace made a nice DP when he caught Rasmus’ liner and doubled off Yadi Molina in the 8th. Castro called a great game and Happ shook him off once.

Manzella hustled BIG time to beat out a crucial infield single in the 8th. And speaking of hustle, Carlos Lee, yes, CARLOS LEE hustled in the 4th – when Wallace was up, he had second easily stolen, only it was a foul and then on the next pitch, he ran HARD from first to third when Wallace singled. In fact, this August was the first month this year that he hit his usual career numbers – .295/.339/.514/.854. He SAYS he’s worked out his troubles with his swing, seeing the ball, etc. OK, but he’s got to do it for more than 1 month, seeing as how we’re prolly stuck with him for 2 more years, unless Drayton wants to eat more dough.

Tomorrow, it’s the Wand Man vs Chris Carpenter. Root root root for the Wand Man. Especially because I don’t like Carpenter…

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