Astros at Reds, 4/27/09
Astros 4, Reds 1
W: Sampson (2-0) L: Cordero (0-1)
HR: Berkman (5)
Roy Oswalt. Lance Berkman. The mainstays of the team. If you want to know how the Astros are doing, you generally look to these guys. And the Astros have pretty much been a .333 team thus far.
So it was timely that the Astros traveled to Cincy, a place where Roy and Lance close their eyes and visualize the Reds as the Gimp from Pulp Fiction.
(ed. note: I was all set to do an xtranormal movie here featuring Roy and Lance as Jules and Vincent, asking a trembling Jay Bruce if Cecil Cooper looked like a bitch. Alas, they are still down for maintenance. Damn you, xtranormal, for hooking us and then taking away our fix.)
Roy Oswalt: 23-1 lifetime vs. the Reds. Roy was cruising most of the night, but I’m sure our astute readers will not be surprised that the one run he allowed came immediately after the Astros had taken a 1-0 lead in the top of the 6th on a Berkman solo shot. That was Berkman’s 20th HR in GA Ballpark, a place he wants to make sweet, sweet love to.
Otherwise, it was the typical story of wasted opportunities by the Astros’ offense; for example, a 1-out double by the New Michael Bourn and a Puma walk set the table for Lee, but a GIDP quickly erased that. Tejada led off the next inning with a single to set things up, but was erased trying to stretch to a double. And so on, and so forth.
Come the 9th, Dusty played things by the book and brought in his closer. POW! – a Carlos Lee single. BAM! – Tejada rips a single past 3b. BOOM! – Pence rips a double the other way, plating both. (Something he is apparently not supposed to do. Fundamental hitting is boring, let’s get ribbies!) And in a seemingly insignificant, but actually important, insurance run, Blum brought Pence in from third after he had advanced on the bobble by the Reds’ “new and improved OF defense”. This made the score 4-1 and allowed Coop to do the sensible thing for once, and leave Sampson in the game to close things out.
The Good Guys look to continue living on the air in Cincinnati tonight as Wandy takes on Harang.