Check out the GZ for the surprise guest of the night
Alkie
Roy, no curve ball, Country Joe is ignoring middle in for strikes, an offense whose major weapon is the walk, on the plus he’s got shades and a half a tank of gas.
The Reds starter Cueto was just flinging fastballs somewhere near the plate.
Oswalt got some help defensively though. Rodriguez cleaned up the 1st by throwing out Dickerson, who had walked, trying to steal.
In the top the 2nd , with one out, a single, a double, put runners 2nd, 3rd, but the bottom of the order was coming up. Roy had the look of a commuter facing a medium level Soduku puzzle. He went 2-2 on Gonzalez and struck him out overmatched on a fastball right down the middle. He then K’d Cueto to end the threat.
More defensive help in the 3rd; Taveras led off with a walk . The next batter poked a single to right, Pence charged hard and came up throwing. Taveras challenged Pence’s arm trying for 3rd, but Pence delivered a strike that beat Taveras to the bag, Blum missed the tag, but got the out call anyway.
In the 4th the Astros got their first hit, Tejada’s roller was just out of the reach of the shortstop and he made first, Berkman walked, but was caught off leaning for the dp when Lee lined out to 3rd.
Top of the 5th , as we’ve seen so many times, the leadoff batter Taveras (who seemed to lead off every inning) bounces one up the middle, Roy turns and the bouncer ricocheted off his butt straight to Blum who barehands the ball over to 1st. Typical lead off out.
In the bottom of the 5th Cueto’s wildness caught up to him. With 2 outs he walks Roy and Bourn, Tejada delivers the 2nd hit of the night, a roller through the left side. With the bases loaded Berkman works a walk, HE WALKS! HE WALKS! So the Astros get their run.
Roy busts it through the 6th, Geary the 7th on 7 pitches, Hawkins works around a 2 out double in the 8th. But then out comes Valverde to try for his first save of the season. His control was off, Cooper says he said his back was fine, but I’ve seen better follow through by drunks playing darts. He threw very few strikes. A two out walk (Valverde just admitted he felt his back “a little, not much”) then the catcher Hernandez reached out for an outside fastball and lined it over the short right field fence.
In the 9th, Blum and Rodriguez singled up the middle but Jason Smith’s offering up the middle was corralled and turned into a game ending dp.