Mets 3, Astros 7
W: Doug Brocail, L: Aaron Heilman,
Astros Recap
Yahoo Recap
Box Score
Friday night the long balls won. Kazou Matsui, Brandon Backe, Carlos Lee and Mark Loretta took their swings and made the baseball go long way.
Jose Reyes scored in the 1st after he lead off with a single then moved over with a bunt, and scored on a broken bat single by David Wright. Kaz Matsui lead off the bottom of the 1st inning with a lead off homerun to the bullpen to tie the game.
Brandon Backe took a 2-1 lead in the 3rd. He took Pedro Martinez deep to the Conoco Pump area. Only the third pitcher in Martinez’ career to get a homerun. Kris Benson and Doug Drabeck were the others.
Backe did give up lead in the 4th by giving up 2 runs on 4 singles, all with 2 outs. But, his big buddy, Carlos Lee hit his homerun to the same area Backe did to tie the game.
Joe Smith came into the game for Pedro Martinez in the 6th inning. Went a quick 1, 2, 3 by Astros hitters.
Top of the 7th, Brian Schneider reached on a grounder hit to Miguel Tejada who made a low throw to Lance Berkman. Argenis Reyes tries for a sacrifice bunt, but he reached when Ty Wiggington looked at second and then went to first to just miss Reyes. Jose Reyes up next, hit a liner past a diving Berkman to load the bases with a single. Endy Chavez up next. Cecil Cooper came out to get Backe.
Tim Brydak came into the game to pitch to Chavez. Bases loaded, no outs. Chavez struck out for the 1st out, bases still loaded. Cooper went out to get him with Chris Sampson coming into pitch to David Wright, who has hit 4 grand slams in his career.
Sampson, who has been doing a great job in the bullpen, got Wright to ground sharply to Wiggington who had a hard time handling the ball, but got the force out at home. Carlos Delgado up to bat. Cooper came in to double switch, Wiggington and Sampson with Wesley Wright and Geoff Blum.
Delgado with a 2-2 count flied out to Carlos Lee at the warning track to end the inning. No runs scored!!! None!!! Zip!!! Nada!!! Outstanding relief work. How great to be on the other side of leaving bases loaded with no outs?
Aaron Heilman in to pitch to the Astros. Up first was Darin Erstad, who singles to right field. Humberto Quintero sac bunted Erstad to second. Geoff Blum up to hit with one out and Erstad on second. Blum hit to Heilman who caught Erstad in a run down to get the second out. Matsui’s chance to take the lead but he struck out swinging.
Top of the 8th went quick for the Mets. Tejada started off the bottom of the 8th with a line drive hit past a diving Jose Reyes. Berkman hit a bomb to centerfield, bounced off Tal’s hill for a ground rule double, which left Tejada and Berkman at second and third with Lee on deck. Lee got the intentional walk, which brought up Hunter Pence, with Mark Loretta on deck. Pence grounded to Delgado who threw to home to force Tejada out. Schneider almost caught Berkman rounding third. One out bases still loaded.
Loretta pinch hitting for Brocail. Slider for ball one. Next pitch went deep into the Crawford Boxes. Grand slam. Excellent job Mr.Loretta. Fourth home run of the night for the Astros. 2nd career grand slam for Loretta and 4th HR for the season.
Pedro Feliciano in to pitch for the Mets. He got Qunitero to ground out to Easley to end the 8th.
Jose Valverde came in to get the final three outs. He did them in 1-2-3 fashion. Great win by the Astros.
Bench Tidbits
Great job by the Astros bullpen to go 3 innings of scoreless baseball.
I didn’t realize Ken Griffey, Jr. was traded to the Chicago White Sox, until watching this game.
Aflac trivia: Who did the Astros trade to the Mets for Mike Scott?
Astros fans need to stop booing Carlos Beltran, he’s in his 4th year of that contract. It looks lame.
When Michael Bourn does get another start, I really hope Cooper puts him back in the leadoff spot.
41,000 plus in attendance for this game.