Astros at Diamondbacks, 4/28/08
DBacks 5, Astros 3
W: Haren (4-1) L: Sampson (1-3) S:Lyon (8)
When your wobbly #5 pitcher faces a Cy Young candidate, you’d better do everything right. The Astros did not as a team, and Sampson certainly did not individually.
Sampson’s outing basically was a laundry list of what you can’t do when you’re trying to be a successful major league pitcher with average (at best) stuff:
– Allow the opposing pitcher to double home a run. Granted, Pence absolutely misplayed the ball, but there is no excuse for allowing a guy with 5 career hits to get such good contact on a 2-strike pitch.
– Walk the leadoff man (Hudson, 4th inning)
– Make a fat pitch on 0-2 (Reynolds’ 2 run double in the 4th)
– Fail to keep your eye on the man on 2nd, resulting in a cheap steal of third with one out
– Hit the leadoff man (Byrnes, 5th inning)
That’s way too many chickens that will inevitably come home to roost.
On the flip side, Haren went through the Astros in the first 4 innings like a hot knife through butter. Just check out the pitch-by-pitch for the first three innings:
Strike (looking), K Matsui grounded out to second
Strike (foul), Strike (looking), Foul, Ball, M Bourn grounded out to shortstop
Strike (looking), M Tejada popped out to shortstopBall, L Berkman lined out to right
Ball, C Lee grounded out to second
Strike (looking), H Pence grounded out to pitcherStrike (looking), M Loretta popped out to second
Strike (looking), Strike (looking), J Towles popped out to second
Strike (looking), Strike (swinging), Strike (swinging), C Sampson struck out swinging
That, folks, could charitably be described as 2 quality at-bats in 9 attempts.
And yet for all of this, the Astros broke through in the 5th. Let the record reflect that this mini-rally was fueled in no small part by Pence actually hitting behind the runner in a 2nd and 3rd situation, thus scoring the run AND moving Lee to third, where he could trot home on Loretta’s single. If Pence does not have a productive out there, then Loretta’s single scores one, and Sampson is flailing with the bases loaded instead of bunting for a single. Unfortunately, Kaz popped out on a 2-1 pitch (his body language was screaming “Oh fucking hell!” in Japanese), and Bourn looked completely overmatched for an RBI situation as he struck out swinging.
On the bright side, Borkowski and Wright looked great in relief. Unfortunately, so did Qualls, in striking out the Bank of America Presents the National League Player of the Week Lance Berkman to quelch the good guys’ 8th inning comeback attempt.
Today’s another shot, and probably the best one, with Cassel on the bump, trying to take Sampson’s starting spot away from him.
Withness the descreasing GameZone activity as the game progressed.
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