Astros 7, Brewers 4
W: Roy Oswalt, H: Geoff Geary, H: Doug Brocail, S: Jose Valverde, L: Carlos Villanueva
Box Score
Yahoo Recap
Astros Recap
A night where fireworks are promised and boy did the Astros deliver. Five homeruns (Hunter Pence, Miguel Tejada, Lance Berkman, and Carlos Lee) were delivered and aided Roy in getting his third win of the season.
This game had me thinking and saying for three and two-thirds innings the Astros are being no-hit. Could have been a quick night for the Astros. Luckily for us Astros fans the BBGs were in the mood for fireworks.
Carlos Villanueva started out strong. He retired the first 11 batters he faced, four of those for strike outs. Finally, Miguel Tejada hits a single but got stranded as Berkman left hit a pop fly to RF.
While the Astros were looking for their bats the Brewers were tallying up the runs with two in the first and two in the fifth. Ryan Braun (2-run HR in the first) and Mike Cameron (solo in the fifth) homered for the Brewers, but I think the best player for the Brewers, offense, was Prince Fielder. Fielder went 3 for 4, but he had to run really hard for those. That big boy does not run smooth. I think people south of San Antonio thought there were aftershocks from the earthquake felt in the second inning after he tripped tagging the base for Berkman’s out in the second inning.
After allowing only 2 runs in the top half of the fifth inning, Oswalt was able to leave a Brewer on each base. Astros started to show their fire power in the bottom of the inning. Lee led off with a double, Pence hit a homerun into the right field stands to cut the lead in half. Ty Wiggington followed with a single, Brad Ausmus made his out. Oswalt singled, bringing Michael Bourn to the plate with runners at first and second. He grounded into the double play (Admit it, you probably were expecting Ausmus to do that.). End of 5 the Brewers were leading by 2 runs.
Oswalt came out for the sixth and got three straight hitters with two strike outs and a ground out. The bottom of the sixth is where the fun started. Kaz Matsui reaches on a hit that Villanueva could not get a hand on. Tejada followed with his promised homerun. Game tied. Berkman not willing to be left out of the fun, followed with a homerun of his own. Up next is Lee. After fouling off a couple pitches, he parks his homerun into the Crawford boxes also. Back to back to back homeruns. Astros have now taken a 6-4 lead and Villanueva is gone from the game. Torres comes in and gets two quick outs but gives up a single to Beautiful Brad Ausmus and a walk to Jose Cruz, Jr., but they get left on base due to a swinging strikeout by Bourn.
Geoff Geary came in to pitch the seventh. Creates expectations for the Brewers who have the bases loaded but leave them stranded as Jason Kendall grounds out to end the top of the seventh.
David Riske comes in to pitch the seventh and eighth innings. He does a good job in the seventh but falters a bit in the eight by serving up Pence’s second homerun of the night. I did not think that hit had the distance, but glad to know I was wrong.
Jose Valverde comes into the game for the save. After the way his season started there can be some worry about how he is going to pitch. And tonight, he psyched me out. He hit Fielder on the leg (just above the knee). That pitch had to hurt. Corey Hart strikes out looking and Bill Hall reaches on Matsui’s THIRD error of the game. J.J. Hardy ends the game swinging.
Bourn did not have a good night going 0 for 4. Ausmus upped his average by going 2 for 4. I fell the need to point out that Tejada is an outstanding team player. He is always shown being encouraging in the dugout and on the field. I love that. Absolutely love it.
Jason Kendall seems to think he should try and pass Craig Biggio on the HBP record.
Roy did not look all that great. Was the strike zone moving around a lot for the pitchers? Check out the Game Zone to find out what they thought.
Bench Tidbits:
Tejada promised a kid he’d hit a homerun for him. He delivered. With expectations like that he’s going to be better than Superman and Iron Man combined.
Brad Ausmus has a new catcher’s helmet. This is one is currently solid black.
Astros homeruns cost CITGO $50,000.00. That much is being donated to MDA tonight. Great job guys.