After an opening day aberration that raised some eyebrows and had frontrunners grabbing their ankles and running for the latrines (not an easy feat, you should try it sometime), the Astros settled into what’s hopefully a routine for the year. Pounding on the also-rans. It appears that, aside from Ben Sheets, the Brew Crew have little or no pitching. They have (so far) cut down on the strikeouts but still make outs anyway which is a very Chip Carey / Alan Ashby kind of improvement.
The ship was righted very quickly and with some style in the remaining games to record an acceptable home series win. I still don’t think that the Brewers have given us an adequate read on the 2002 Astros, but that will come this weekend and next weekend against the Cardinals. One thing I like from next week’s schedule is that, after an arm-sapping, bull-pen draining trip to the Rocky Mountains, the Astros have an off day before they roll into St. Louis. That’s a nice bonus for the good guys.
Yoinks and Away!
I was at the Game #2 romp. Here are some observations:-
- Roy-O doesn’t appear to like pitching in the cold. As the temperature dropped on Wednesday, and the Astros’ half-innings became longer and longer, Oswalt seemed to struggle upon (finally) getting back on the mound for the top of the next inning. Not that it made much difference, Roy’s still too much for the Crew even when he’s not totally on, but it’s something to watch. He ripped his groin in cold weather in San Francisco, and I am wondering whether this is a pattern emerging. He better get used to it, because any progression to a World Series will almost certainly go through and city which is cold in October. The Astros go to Milwaukee in mid-September and San Francisco to close out the regular season…
- Speaking of San Francisco in September, wouldn’t it be cool to return the favour and boo the Giants for walking Berkman when he’s on the cusp of breaking Barry’s year-old record?
- Speaking of Berkman, he ran down a shot into deep RCF in Wednesday that I thought was at least a double all the way from the bat. The ball was moving, and slicing away from Lance. However, the longer the ball stayed in the air, the closer he came to tracking it down. I still had no belief that he’d ever get there. Next thing I know, he’s pouching it waist high. A home and 3 RBI a night will make up for some defensive weakness, but right now the outfield has been well handled and has not turned into the comedy of errors that, deep down in the back of my brain, I feared might happen.
Ha, Ha, Hoo, Hoo. It is to Laugh
- Speaking of Hidalgo and Ward (sort of), they do not appear to have kept the weight off that they allegedly lost. In fact, the Astros’ outfield is downright bootylicious! Having watched Ward bust both his arses up the line on Wednesday, I think I shall start calling him Daryle Bigbootay.
- My view on Wednesday was from behind the plate, looking directly down the first base line which was running away from me. I have a perfect angle to watch Bagwell snag that liner, and also to see Bigbootay pound shot after shot into the RF field boxes. OK, so he’ll come up empty on huge rips every now and then. But that night it looked like nothing was going to get by him. I think by mid-season, the Astros line up 1 through 8 will be one of the best in the majors. 1 through 6 will terrify the bijaysus out of opposing pitchers.
- I have still yet to see either Ensberg or Everett play this year (Thanks Jimy). I don’t actually think I have *ever* seen Everett play, not even on TV! Reports are that they are as slick as the slickest slick thing in the infield, and the box scores tell me that they have been more productive offensively than we could have reasonably expected. Maybe it’s just the Brewers making them look good, but a good start builds confidence and that can only be good news. Good.
Well, Waddaya Know. It Disintergrated!
- Astros merchandise at the AFUS is outrageously expensive! The cold weather drove ill-advisedly attired fans to the outlets for some long sleeves, and the stores were virtually sold out by the middle innings. I have never seen so much Astro-garb worn at a game! But $80 for a sweatshirt? C’mon Drayton! Next you’ll be charging tree-fiddy for water! Oh wait…
- People are stupid. The sections are numbered, the rows are numbered and the seats are numbered. Tickets have section, row and seat numbers printed on them which correspond to an actual seat, somewhere in the park, which is clearly marked as described above. How fucking hard is it to find your seat?!!!!!! (PS this is not like the Dome where the seat numbers are scattered according to an unbreakable random number pattern based on prime numbers, it’s the AFUS where everything is sequential).
Fashion tip: This week, I shall not be wearing anything available at The Shed.
I have my tix for Sunday. I’m thoroughly looking forward to watching Wade Miller put his season back on track. I’m also hoping for a nice day, roof open, warm weather Astros baseball. I doesn’t get much better than that!
BTW, Phillip Morris is talking to the South African Brewing Co. with a mind to sell it the Miller Brewing Co. Will this bring about a name change for Selig’s (daughter’s) team? The Afrikaans? The Urquells (SABC’s main brand name)? Watch this space…