Thursday, July 26th, 2007
Padres 1
Astros 7
W: Rodriguez | L: Wells
Light-hitting Game Zone
Trade deadline frothing in the TZ
Other Coverage:
Wandy Rodriguez was coming off of back-to-back losses in which he gave up 11 earned runs in a little over 8 innings. Of course, those games were not at Minute Maid Park where the last earnie he surrendered was way back in June. Eny survived a rough 1st and the Astros offense went berzerk to frustrate the Fathers, 7-1. Back-to-back-to-back wins for the Good Guys.
“Somebody remind Wandy he’s at home.”
Out of the gate, it looked like our lefty’s Minute Maid magic had worn off. First two batters, B.Giles and Cameron, single, double and just like that, the Padres had the lead with no outs. “Somebody remind Wandy he’s at home,” JD says. Somebody must have as Wandy got Bradley to K without taking the bat off his shoulder, followed by a fine play by Loretta at 1st, moving to his right, he backhanded a sharp grounder by Adrian Gonzalez and flipped to Wandy covering the bag with Cameron moving to 3rd. After an 8-pitch walk and a 7-pitch K, Wandy was out of the inning with no more damage done. 32 pitches in the inning.
Back…
44-year-old lefty David Wells didn’t hang around too long. In the bottom of the inning after 2 quick outs, Lance, right-handed, blasted a double to the gap in right center. El Kabong! stepped up and stung Well’s hanging bender deep into the Crawfords for a quick taking of the lead. Lee’s 21st. OK, I’ll admit I didn’t see this coming; DAMN if Morgan Ensberg didn’t crush the very next pitch high into left and bouce it off the yellow line railing for back-to-back jacks, instantly sending his trade value into the stratosphere. Back-to-back walks kept the threat going but Brad flied out to end the inning.
to…
After Wandy breezed through the top of the 2nd, the Astros bats went at it again. Wandy K’d to start the inning but back-to-back singles by Bidge and Loretta brought Lance to the plate with RISP. After still-agile Biggio stole 3rd, Lance slapped a Wells curve down the left field line, just fair, and into the hands of one stupid motherfucker. So stupid, in fact, that just before being escorted out of the park, he let Padres LF Milton Bradley swipe his tainted contraband right from his dumbass clutches. JD was nice, saying he probably would have picked up the ball, too but folks, please, be aware of the game and don’t interfere with it. It probably wouldn’t have made a difference in what happened on field, which was Bidge scoring, Lo to 3rd and Berkman standing on 2nd. The fun continued. After a Lee intentional walk, an Ensberg unintentional walk scored Loretta. Then Lane sacrificed Berkman on a long fly to the scoreboard that Bradley made a very nice play on. 6-1 Astros after 2.
Back!
Another easy inning for Wandy in the 3rd, 3 up, 3 down. Biggio capped off the scoring, as well as Wells’ day on the hill, with a solo bomb deep to left to make it 7-1. It was mentioned more than once that Bidge should announce his retirement every month or so if this is the result. Man, I’ll bet it was fun to be there.
Zeros
Wandy went 7 strong with only 3 hits, 1 walk and no runs after the first. A few fine defensive plays helped including Lee’s running catch of a Bradley fly in left up against the scoreboard in the 6th and Lance leaving his feet at the warning track to snag Cameron’s fly to right in the 8th. Qualls and Moehler eached pitched a perfect inning to close it out.
3 more with the Pads with tomorrow’s match-up being Peavy vs. Williams. Check the preview here.
Personal agenda
Anyone who is able to procure an Oswalt Buldozer Bobblehead on Saturday and is willing to part with it, I will gladly take it off your hands. Thank you.
