Saturday, June 27, 2009
Houston 8, Detroit 1
WP: Paulino (2-4), LP: Figaro (1-1)
HR: Matsui (2, 3rd inning off Figaro), Santiago (6, 3rd inning off Paulino)
Recaps: Paulino dominates Tigers in DL return (Grodsky, Astros.com); Astros hammer Tigers, held to 3 hits (Detroit Free Press); Paulino shuts down the Tigers as Astros win easily 8-1 (Ortiz, Houston Comical)
For more on the game, take a look at the Box Score or read about it in the Game Zone.
The Marriage Barrage of Figaro
Prologue: Will history repeat itself
The Good Guys have spent much of the season living the never ending saga of seeing opposing teams hammer their starter early, getting themselves on base but being unable to capitalize, and then getting their asses handed to them on a plate. Would Saturday night at MMPUS be yet another one of those games?
Act 1, Scene 1: The introduction of our protagonist
Enter Paulino, a hard throwing righty fresh off the disabled list. Paulino immediately establishes dominance over the opposition, retiring the first three Tiggers that he faces (via strikeout, fly and groundout).
Act 1, Scene 2: Things are looking good for the Good Guys, but along comes the Fool
Enter Figaro, starting pitcher for the Tiggers. Things do not begin well for Figaro, but it could be worse. Bourn singles, steals second and scores on a Carlos Lee single on a line drive to left field. Enter the Fool. Spaz flies out to right, and the Good Guys exit the scene with only a run to show for their efforts. Good Guys lead 1-0.
Act 2, Scene 1: The Tiggers continue to go gently into that goodnight.
Paulino continues to baffle the Tiggers, setting them down in order (via groundout, strikeout and strikeout).
Act 2, Scene 2: Running on empty
Figaro continues to battle, but is touched up again by the Good Guys. Matsui singles to right and advances to second on a passed ball. Bourn singles to right, scoring Matsui, but gets caught in a rundown to end the inning. Good Guys lead 2-0.
(Aside: I understand the long turn around first in an effort to allow a runner to score, but thought it was misplaced in this instance. Kaz is fast and was going to score easily, rundown notwithstanding. That said, Bourn hustled his ass off and but-for a dive by Inge to tag him out just as he was about to touch first base, Bourn would have beaten the 9-3-6-4-3-6-5 run down).
Act 3, Scene 1: Our protagonist suffers a blow, but continues in his quest for glory
Paulino strikes out the first batter he faces, but is touched up for a run by a homer from Santiago to right. He finishes the inning by striking out the next two batters he faces. Good Guys still lead 2-1.
Act 3, Scene 2: The Barrage of Figaro
As this scene opens, the Good Guys have put runners on first and second with a walk to Keppinger and a single by Tejada. Carlos Lee has just flied out. Figaro is still on the mound. Enter the Big Puma. Berkman smashes the first pitch he sees to the base of Tal’s hill (the ball continues to roll to the base of the wall). Keppinger and Tejada both score, and Berkman holds at second. The fool abandons his comedic role and transforms into Pence!!! with a double on a hard liner to left. The Big Puma scores. Matsui mortally wounds Figaro with a two-run blast to right. This scene ends with Good Guys up 7-1, and a dejected Figaro haplessly making his way to the dugout.
(Aside: For the first time in a while, the Astros got an opposing pitcher on the ropes and didn’t let up).
Epilogue: The Good Guys live happily ever after (or at least until the following day)
The Astros score once more in the bottom of the sixth when Quintero went home on a broken bat groundout by Keppinger. This was merely icing though, as Paulino was dealing. Paulino completed 7 strong innings on 96 pitches, holding the Tiggers to 1 run on 3 hits. Fulchino and Wright came in and retired all six batters that they faced. In the end, the Good Guys went home victorious, beating the Tigger 8-1 and assuring their 6th series victory in the last 8.
By the numbers
3: hits by the Tigers
4: games back from the top of the NL Central
5: runs scored by the Astros in the 3rd inning
7: batters retired in a row by Paulino to start the game (also the number of different touches by the Tigers in Bourn’s rundown)
9: strikeouts thrown by Paulino
17: batters retired in a row by Astros pitchers to end the game.
Quotes from the game
Paulino on his outing: “It was a good for me,” Paulino said. “I tried to focus on every pitch and make a good pitch every time to every hitter. My tempo was good. I didn’t give much time for the hitter.” (Astros.com)
Bourn on Paulino: “Paulino has great stuff. When he’s throwing that ball like that – 98-mph on the corners on both sides – because I can see it from center field, it’s hard to beat it. That slider was working down today. You see some of the swings they (were) taking, they (weren’t) seeing them too good.” (Chron.com)
Santiago on Paulino: “He was consistently at 97, 96, the whole game. He threw a really sharp slider and he was really good with the fastball. He was really strong.” (DFP)
Coop on Paulino: “[Paulino] was pretty dominant right from the start. That’s what we always thought that he could do, perhaps not nine punchouts and three hits, but a dominating performance. That was really outstanding.” (DFP); “Tonight was about Felipe Paulino. He did a great job and was pretty dominant from the start. He showed right from the first pitch that he was ready to go.” (Astros.com)
Coop on the offense: “The bats finally came alive, and we didn’t have to sweat it out. We’ve kind of been sweating out some of these wins. I thought a lot of guys contributed and swung the bats well, and we finally broke one open for a change.” (Astros.com)
Figaro on his outing: “Sometimes you are going to have a bad game, but they have all been telling me to keep my head up. There is nothing you can do about it. These things are going to happen.” (DFP)
Coming up next
Astros try to sweep the series against the Tigers. Russ Ortiz takes the hill for the Good Guys, with Edwin Jackson starting for the Tiggers. Game time 1:05.
And I’ll leave you with the following:
In (Astros) Memoriam, Brandon “Big Game” Backe: Dec. 14, 2004 – June 26, 2009
I’m sorry to see Backe’s time with the Astros end. While understandable and appropriate from an organizational standpoint, it is still rough to see one of your favorite players leave the team you love. Backe was a competitor, and left Astros fans with number of memorable moments during his time with the Good Guys.
Monday, October 18, 2004 at MMPUS (NLCS Game 5): Backe set up one of the greatest moments in MMPUS history (Kent’s 3-run shot off of Isringhausen) by holding the Jakes to 1 hit over 8 scoreless innings. (Backe’s line: 8.0 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 0 ER, 2 BB, 4 SO, 0 HR).
Sunday, October 16, 2005 at MMPUS (NLCS Game 4): Backe held the Jakes to 1 run over 5.2 innings, putting the Astros in a position to go up 3-1 in the series. (Backe’s line: 5.2 IP, 2 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 3 BB, 7 SO, 0 HR)
Wednesday, October 26, 2005 at MMPUS (World Series Game 4): Down 0-3 in the series, Backe holds the ChiSox scoreless through 7, striking out 7 in the process. (Backe’s line: 7.0 IP, 5 H, 0 R, 0 ER, 0 BB, 7 SO, 0 HR)
Wednesday, April 9, 2008 at MMPUS: Backe and LaRussa’s gal-pal get into a heated exchange regarding Pooholes dirty take-out slide of rookie catcher J.R. Towles.
Good luck to you Brandon and thanks for some great memories. Who knows, maybe Hickey and the Hun could use another arm…