The Astros played a creditable game against another team careening towards self-destruction.
Backe and Sampson combined for a shut out against the easiest team to shut out in the league. Nonetheless, they’re major league hitters. Backe avoided the homerun bugaboo, but was still plagued by walks, giving up 4. Sampson was just plain sharp for two innings.
Wigginton homered in the 2nd, Backe, who had 2 hits and scored 2 runs on the day, Berkman and Lee combined for a couple more in the 3rd. Then Lee, in the type of atbat that makes this team still worth watching, singled home 2 more in the 7th .
By the time Erstad chased down a long fly to the 402 sign in center in the bottom the inning, the team was giddy with a 5-0 lead. Tejada came out of the dugout sporting a Groucho style mustache improvised with eye black. This reminded me of a Groucho quote,
“I don’t want to join a club that will accept me as a member.”