Tuesday, April 29th, 2008
Astros 6
D-Backs 4
W: Brocail (1-0) | L: Gonzalez (1-2) | S: Valverde (5)
HRs: Towl…wait.
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One night after Dan Haren held his thumb down on the Astros offense for most of the 7+ innings he pitched, the boys seemed determined to not let that happen again. Granted, Edgar Gonzalez is no Dan Haren and the bats jumped all over him in the 1st, then the 3rd to post just enough runs to best the D-Backs 6-4.
And Jack Cassel is no Chris Sampson. Cassel did a good job keeping one of the best offensive teams in baseball on their heels, mixing speeds and spotting pitches, his only real mistake was hanging a 1st inning 1-0 change that Conor Jackson blasted into the LF seats to erase the 2-run lead the offense gave him.
But the bats would bounce back in the 3rd. With 1 out, Miggy singled, then Berkman grounded to 3rd and caught the middle infield napping, allowing a sure out – maybe 2 – to be wasted. The Bull then walks to load ’em up, bringing up Blum, who Mark Grace astutely pointed out “has never been much of a hitter.” He spanked a looper into the left field corner that damn-near killed Jeff Salazar. Well, the ball didn’t damn-near kill Salazer, Salazar damn-near killed Salazar, slamming himself needlessly into the railing as the ball did a taunting little dance around him and the clown car emptied at home plate. Dust settled, bases cleared with Blum standing on 2nd. After a Cheito K, JR Towles stepped in and blasted a fly ball deep to left that seemed to hit the top of the wall and bounce back into play. In fact, that’s how it was called as the umps made JR dive to a halt just past 2nd and retreat. Upon further review, the ball actually hit the railing above the yellow line and should have been called a HR. Dem’s de breaks, Blum scored. 6-2 Astros.
I’ll just say, it’s a good fucking thing the Snakes starter was not Max Scherzer. 4.1 perfect with 7 Ks in his ML debut. Truly an epic performance. He was blowing it by Astros one-by-one and made quick work of the middle innings to try and give the D-Backs a chance to come back. Ahhh, but alas, t’was not to be. Cassel was pulled with 1 out shy of a win but after 2 walks. Byrdak, Brocail and Villarreal pitched 3.1 of 2-hit, 1-run ball until Papa Grande, with possibly the BIGGEST save opporunity of his career, Kd the side against his old mates to secure it.
Chacon takes on the Sea Hag today at 2:40 CDT
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Don’t miss the TZ on the Radio debut this Saturday. Unfortunately, I will because I’ll be here.