Rockies 3, Astros 2
W: Cook | L: Villareal
Rants from the Gamezone
Molony on Astros.com
Box Score
When a player is struggling at the plate, it seems every strike called is of the borderline kind of strike, every ball hit hard is right at someone and even when it seems you’re going to get a knock, someone makes a great play (more on this in a little bit). When a pitcher struggles, every borderline strike is called a ball, every routine play behind you is misplayed and no one seems to be able to come up with any sort of outstanding play at a crucial moment to bail you out. When a team is struggling, all things come into play and it can make for some frustrating baseball.
Ladies and Gentlemen, I present to you the struggling Houston Astros, April 2008.
Manager Cecil Cooper can do little to get his team out of the funk but keep as positive as he can be and perhaps make a few minor changes here and there. You’re never as bad as you look when you’re struggling and you’re never as good as you look when you’re on a streak. In tonight’s game, Cooper decided changing his lineup was the order of the day. He placed Miguel Tejada into the three hole and moved Lance Berkman and Carlos Lee down to the four and five spot in the lineup. In the end, the overall team funk could not be overcome and the Astros dropped a second game to the Colorado Rockies by the score of 3-2.
In the first inning, Houston had the makings of a rally brewing against Rockies starter Aaron Cook as Michael Bourn and Kazuo Matsui got on base via an error and basehit. Men on the corners and Tejada-Berkman-Lee due up. Yeah, seemed just what the doctor ordered to get off on the right foot offensively. Especially since the Houston starter on this night was Wandy “This Is My House” Rodriquez, a pitcher with a 2-0 record against the Rockies and a .074 career ERA against them. Alas, Tejada hit into a double play and Lance Berkman struck out and that was the end of the rally. 1 run, that was it. For a team that is trying to find itself, this would’ve been a good time to start showing everyone the formula to score a ton of runs this year: Bourn and Matsui get on, Tejada, Berkman, Lee make them pay. If the fee is one run, many an opponent will make that exchange.
So it would be up to Wandy to work his MMPUS magic and as the game went on, it was apparent that Wandy had some trouble finishing his pitches. After the fourth inning, the reason was known: groin problem, day to day. At the time, Houston and Colorado were locked in a 2-2 battle, the Astros other run coming by way of a Crawford Box special by Harpo Towles. In the fifth inning, struggling (this seems to be the theme) reliever Oscar Villareal came in to take over and quickly allowed a run to score courtesy of Brad Hawpe’s sharpe single. 3-2 Rockies, fifth inning. No one would believe this would be the final score at the time, but when a team is grinding to break out, some things will go right but you never know what that one thing could possibly happen to help really stop the madness. A three run homerun, a beautiful bunt, a key strikeout when needed, something to key the turnaround.
Anything, but please not something to accent how this team is in a funk.
Take the latter because in the seventh inning, Geoff Blum came up to lead off the inning and Cook, who had been pitching in a rocking chair all night long, grooved one to the third sacker who promptly put a charge into the ball. As the crowd began to rise to their feet, as players in both dugouts rose to watch the play develop, as Blum ran hard to insure at least a double, maybe even a triple out of the hit, Ryan Spillborg, the Rockies centerfielder ran to give himself a chance to make a miraculous play. He didn’t. But as it turned out, the umpires were all woefully out of position to make the proper call on a diving over the shoulder catch attempt from Spillborgh, instead they waited until the play fully developed to make a guess of what possibly happened. For his part, Spillborgh sold the play by laying out, keeping the ball relatively close to his body and quickly snagging the ball from the ground and holding it up as if he had pulled it out of his glove. That was enough for second base umpire Wegner to make the out call, much to the dismay of everyone in the park. Especially skipper Cecil Cooper who knew this could’ve been the hit to help turn his club around. A play like this could also keep the funk around well beyond what is necessary.
Could this mistake by the umpire have been the play that cost Houston the game? No. When a team struggles, things like this happen and you have to keep working your way through it. Could the umpires have done better to get the call right? Oh, you betcha they could’ve. This is perhaps what cause Cecil Cooper to go after crew chief Reid, who was working the plate. After Wegner admitted he wasn’t entirely sure about his call to Cooper, who came out to immediately argue the ball was never caught by Spillbourgh, the umpires gathered together to confer. If one could deduce via amateurish lip reading, it was the home plate umpire who basically counseled Wegner to go with his call because no one could help him. That is inexcuseable that four umpires could not help one another on a play that at the very least could be seen by at least two men in blue, Wegner and the first base umpire who never offered any help from the appearance of things. Cooper had his say as Reid decided the skipper needed an early shower for questioning his whack opinion of what should be done by the umpires. Perhaps Cooper just needed to vent just to scream out loud how frustrating it is when a play like this officially stamps a giant red “S” for “struggling” on the team’s forehead.
Perhaps tomorrow the funk will cease. All the team can do is hit the field, make the plays, hit the ball and let the game take care of itself. Maybe the umpires will show up and stop letting players make the calls on the plays as well.