Wandy started well. In the first inning he established the fast ball in, even to the point of figuring out that home plate ump Tim Welke was going to call the “corners”; the corners plus about a half a foot. He was able to accordian the fastball in and out and had good control of the curve, until the 7th. We’ll get to that later.
The Astros had a chance to score in the 1st when Matsui sliced an opposite field single and stole 2nd on Molina’s high throw. But Tejada K’d flailing badly at pitches out of the zone and Berkman lined to left sending the ludicrous Barton back to the wall where he made a leaping catch over his head.
The teams traded two on run scoring opportunities in the 2nd.
In the 3rd Lohse let slip a curve ball that ended up around Hunter Pence’s head, sending him sprawling. Later in the game Miguel Tejada was rocked back by a fastball aimed at his head by the rookie Perez. Either pitch would have sent La Russa flying out of the dugout squawking and trailing feathers like the mother hen he is. We’ll keep that in mind next time he lectures on how a pitch should never be at a batters head. He’s a posturing jackass but there were no incidents this series.
Lohse’s pitch of course “slipped” and it was just by happenstance that his next pitch was a low and away slider that Hunter was expecting and he ripped it down the 1b line for a leadoff double. Tejada followed with a full count walk that featured Molina hopping back and forth behind the plate like a toad on mescaline. Berkman, next up, cracked a 3 run homer that landed in the last row of tables in center. 3-0 Astros and it would stay that way until the fateful 7th.
Easy innings until then, the only occurrence of note was Berkman trying to follow his 460 foot homerun by popping up a bunt on his next at bat. It is possible to get too cute.
The 7th.
It seemed to me that Wandy tired. He didn’t have the control he had earlier in the game. He hit the first batter on 1-2 count, got a hopper to 3rd that had dp written all over it, but Wigginton dropped it. A single followed to load the bases. A flyout to right scored a run and advanced both runners. Wandy nipped the next batter, again on a 1-2 count. Bases loaded, 1 out, Wandy gets a swinging K on a fastball away.
The next batter, Brendan Ryan, first pitch he swings wildly and his bat lands 3 rows up behind the visiting dugout, another wild swing at a fastball. Then Wandy tries to finish him with a low curve, but he bounces it in front of the plate. It goes over Ausmus and another run scores. Still 3-2 Astros. But Ryan then singles straight up the middle scoring 2 and chasing Wandy with the score 4-3 Cardinals.
That’s it for Wandy. In comes Brocail. First batter he gets a high pop to short right center. Bourn comes on, in comes Pence. Bourn is calling and waving his glove hand at Hunter who doesn’t back away. The ball drops between them as Bourn alligator arms the attempt. 5-3. Brocail gets the next batter on a fastball looking and steams off the mound yelling at anyone and everyone. T.J. in the GZ lip reads “What the FUCK are we doing??!!” Link
What the fuck indeed.
More shenanigans and pratfalls to come.
To start the bottom of the 7th Bourn finally gets the drag bunt down correctly. Pujols has to field it far to his right. Bourn slids head first heavy and beats the tag. Ausmus follows with a double in the right field gap and Bourn comes around to score.
Ausmus is sitting on 2nd with no outs. The score, 5-4. The pinch hitter Loretta fails, striking out, Pence bounces to 3rd, the runner unable to advance and Matsui ends the inning grounding sharply to short.
Top the 8th Brocail returns and brushes off 3 Cardinal hitters as if they were irritating gnats.
In the bottom of the 8th, with 2 outs, Carlos Lee lines a shot to left that bangs off the Crawford Wall right under the blue border. It was hit so hard he only gets a single. The new speedster, Abercrombie is sent in to pinch run. The pinch hitter Erstad rips the first pitch he sees, steaming down the right field line. The right fielder is able to get to the ball quickly and keep Abercrombie from scoring. So with runners 2nd and 3rd, two outs, Bourn flies out to center.
The Cardinal closer Franklin ends the game striking out the side, Pence the final batter Ks swinging at a slider, low, away, and out of the strike zone.