Astros 6 – Brewers 2
W: Backe | L: Parra
AP Recap
Astros.com Jim Molony
There is an old joke that kinda goes like this:
Q: How do you know God loves baseball? A: Because His first words in the bible were “In the big inning…”
The Houston Astros used the big inning to down the Milwaukee Brewers on this night by the score of 6-2. Facing the old nemesis of young left handed pitcher throwing for the opposition, in this case Milwaukee phenom Manny Parra, the prospect of the Astros breaking out the whopping stick on the pitcher were slim. For most of the first four innings of the game, that seemed true as Parra was cruising along allowing only one run to the Houston nine.
That run came courtesy of a third inning walk to Kazuo “Bonzi” Matsui, a Tejada single, moving Bonzi to third and then a fielders choice grounder by Lance Berkman. In that same inning, Lance decided that he needed to remove himself from the stifling air space Prince Fielder was occupying so at first opportunity, Berkman got the feets a’movin. The problem was the pitcher still had the ball and so he was a dead man semi-wobbling to second. End of mini-rally, end of Berkman’s good run of stealing bases and smart basepath running. Did you really think he’d go an entire season without being “Lance Berkman, adventure between the lines”? Houston’s solo run in the third matched Milwaukee single tally off Brandon Backe. Said Brewers run came in the first inning off the bat of the leadoff hitter Rickie Weekes who sent a shot right at the choo-choo with malice intent to knock the conductor on his caboose. Backe then held down the Milwaukee nine while his teammates tried to figure out Parra.
And so the big inning began.
Bottom of the fifth, score tied 1-1 and up steps none other than Brandon Backe himself. All night long, Parra used an effective curveball coming off his low to mid 90s fastball. Taking a page out of the Borkowski book of “How to challenge a good hitting pitcher and live to tell about it”, Parra inexplicably threw a hanging curveball to Backe which was quickly deposited into the Crawford Boxes for a MMPUS special homerun.
Milwaukee moundsmen have the Crawford Boxesitis or at least it’s in there heads because the next hitter was Michael Bourn, a hitter who Parra made look silly the two prior at bats with nasty curveballs. A curveball from a lefty hurler to a lefty hitter is very hard to hit, evidenced by Bourn’s two strikeouts. Parra decided he needed to shelve good old uncle charlie and gave Bourn the heat, down and inside. The happy zone for all lefty handed hitters. Bourn quickly connected and drove the pitch just far enough to right to hit a line drive homerun. More MMPUS induced cursing for the pitcher for sure. Down 3-1, shaken by the MMPUS specials, Parra completely melted down from there. Single Matsui – who went 2-2 this night, with two walks and a steal – double Tejada, single Berkman, wild pitch, walk Lee produced the hook for Parra. Having allowed 5 runs total already, Parra gave way to Dave Bush who was quickly greeted by a Thunderpants single. Five runs scored, nobody out and two men on base had all the makings of a complete laugher of an inning. Alas, this is all the Houston nine would be allowed to score for the night, closing out at six runs total and a good night for all.
Backe allowed another run to the Brewers in the 6th inning and then left the game in the capable hands of the Houston bullpen. Wait, let me say it again… “capable hands of the Houston bullpen”… man, that sounds nice! Oscar Villareal took the 7th and shut them down. Wesley Wright took the 8th and ditto on the shut down. Wright did his work against Prince Fielder, Corey “Sunglasses” Hart and Bill Hall. This was after Villareal had allow a leadoff walk to Ryan Braun. Nice job Wesley, extra cookies and milk for you tonight! Valverde took the 9th and even though he went full count on the hitters, he managed to record a 1-2-3 inning and secure the win for the team.