Thursday, August 23, 2007
Nationals 7
Astros 6
W: Lannan | L: Gutierrez | S: Cordero
Curse the kids in the Game Zone
Praise the wiener in the Talk Zone
Other coverage:
Alyson soothes
AP tells it like it is.
It had the makings of a classic. Promising young Astros pitcher making his first start vs. young Nationals left-hander the Astros had never seen before. It was all that as Juan Gutierrez and the boys dug a 1st inning hole a bit too deep to climb out of as the gNats took the game 7-6 and the series 3 games to 1.
The book on Juan must have been to swing away. 1 pitch, 1 out. 3 more pitches, the Nats had the lead. 1 more pitch, it was 2-0. The pesky gNats went after everything and when the dust of the inning cleared, 2 singles, 3 straight doubles and a HR found the Astros down 5-0. Guti continued to battle, giving up only 1 more run through 5.
The Astros bats were bewildered by the young lefty until the 5th. With 1 out, Pigpen singled and PENCE!!! walked. With Lance at the plate, a passed ball advanced the runners which enabled Twinkie’s 4-3 ground-out to score Bidge. El Kabong! strides up to the plate with a shit-eatin’ grin and plops the first pitch into the second row of the Crawfords to get within 3 with 4 to play.
Lefty McLemore’s 2nd relief inning of the game was the 7th. He walked Zimmerman then Dmitri laced a shot to left center that just got past Lee’s diving attempt. Beaker backed him up well and held Zimm at 3rd but after a Kearns IBB, Church sac’d Zimm home for the 7th Nats run.
Despite getting that run back in the bottom of the inning and a rather exciting bottom of the ninth that included a PENCE!!! double that tied him for the rookie lead and Lee’s 26th bomb that made him the NL’s first to 100 RBI, the boys fell short. C’est la saison.
The bottom of the barrel arrive tomorrow to see if they can sink the ship. But HEY! Patton starts Saturday! WOOHOO!