Astros at Reds, 5/7/07
Score: Astros 5, “Chili”-eaters 4
W: Roy Oswalt (5-2) L: Kyle Lohse (1-3) S: Wheels (6)
Homeruns: Dunn (9), Gonzalez 2 (7)
March to 3000: 2,961 (1×4)
Read Alyson’s Report Here: Footer
Or the AP recap here: Yahoo!
Oh, what a night.
Let’s start with Ryan Freel, whom I sincerely hope is seeking endorsement opportunities with Aflac. Freel treated his body with a reckless abandon not seen since Chris Farley in the early nineties, twice launching himself into the stands in pursuit of foul balls. In the first inning, the umpire ruled a catch despite having no frigging clue whether the ball actually landed in his glove; fortunately, Everett’s foul in the second bounced safely away while young Ryan was head over heels.
Dunn and Gonzalez took Sparky deep in the 2nd, and it was fair to question whether the Astros bats could come up with three runs in a game.
In the fourth, we were treaty to a truly bizarre inning of baseball. First, Berkman launched a majestic shot to right field that was only a few rows short of leaving the stadium entirely. Carlos followed with a double down the left field line, and Ninja worked the walk to set up PENCE!!!. The youngster stepped up and launched a liner to deep center; fortunately, Hamilton took twelve steps to his left before ever going back on the ball, turning a likely catch into a double. The next shot the viewers had after the ball cleared Hamilton was of Scott literally RIGHT ON THE HEELS of El Caballo, seeking the benefit of what certainly must be a significant draft left by Lee. The two rounded third together, with Manso likely ducking for cover, and came in for the play at the plate. SAFE! Signaled he umpire, and then OUT! As he pointed to Scott. From this viewer’s vantage point, it was a guess basaed on the throw actually coming in between the two; Scott was only out if Valentin did a remarkable job of blocking the plate after Lee had scored.
But it didn’t stop there. An Everett single moved PENCE!!! to third, and an Ausmus walk loaded the bases. Garner called for the rare bases-loaded squeeze, but Narron sniffed it out with a pitchout. For reasons passing understanding, Valentin chose to tag Oswalt first, and then dropped the ball on the transfer to his throwing hand, allowing PENCE!!! to scamper back; unfortunately, Everett was not so quick, and was picked off second. Oswalt followed with a sharp liner to left that only Dunn’s freakish height allowed him to avoid misplaying. Four hits, two walks, and two runs. Astros baseball in 2007, folks.
The pitchers dominated the middle innings, with Biggio then leading off the 8th with a single, followed by Ensberg sacrificing him to second. Morgan, please turn in your power hitter card on your way out. Narron then made a critical error; he went to the bullpen. Berkman walked, Lee flied out, and Ninja absolutely crushed one to right field for the 5-2 lead.
It looked like Revert would make things interesting in the bottom of the 8th, as lefties continue to play The Sisters to Miller’s Andy Dufresne, but Qualls managed to clean up the leadoff mess. Wheeler then made things more interesting in the 9th by giving up a 2-run dong to Gonzalez, but settled down to close it out.
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