Wednesday, April 29, 2009
Astros 0
Reds 3
W: Volquez (3-2) | L: Paulino (0-2) | S: Cordero (7)
HR: Non
Katzowitz?
AP via Yahoo!
Game Zone
The seats were packed at GAB. Not all the seats were filled but the ones that were, boy howdy!
Even I know you don’t sit Berkman in Cincinnati. For some reason, Coop didn’t know this and the packed seats at Great American got to see their Pedro clone toss 8 scoreless and for a brief moment, forget how bad their team gets punked in their own house. The Good Guys could only scrape out 1 hit on the wily righty Volquez and while he didn’t go the distance, it didn’t matter to the Astros lineup. A perfect 9th by Cordero finished them off and they left Cincinnati with a series win but a 3-0 loss.
It’s a shame the bats couldn’t get it together because Felipe Paulino pitched well himself, holding the Reds to 2 runs until running out of steam with 2 outs in the 6th. He was aided early by some fine defensive play in CF as Bourn made a few stellar plays among his 6 put-outs through the first 4 innings. A triple/single in the 5th got the Dicketies on the board, then a single and sac bunt had Reds on 2nd and 3rd with one out but Paulino got a ground ball to Blum who gunned the runner at home and then a strike out to Hairston to clean up the mess.
More mess in the 6th as a Votto routine fly ball to LCF, tracked and called for by Bourn, bounced off of Carlos Lee’s glove in a classic miscommunication play. The error was given to Bourn after Votto cruised into 2nd. A K then a ground out moved Votto over to 3rd for Laynce Nix whose single on the infield to Tejada brought the unearned run home. A 4-pitch walk to the next batter ended Paulino’s night.
Sampson finished the 6th with a K and shared the scoreless 7th with Byrdak. With 2 out in the top of the 8th, pinch hitter Jason Michaels (2-3 career vs. Volquez) worked a walk and Coop finally decided that maybe this Berkman guy could hit. Lance hit a liner but right at the diving Jay Bruce in RF to end the inning.
Brocail entered the 8th to keep the score in reach and gave up a single and 2 walks to promptly load ’em up. A sac fly scored the Reds 3rd run, effectively ending it.
11-game winning streak at GAB snapped and 3 more on the road at Atlanta after an off-day. Vent your Cooper frustrations in the Talk Zone ya’ll!