final: houston 3 st. louis 4
that was an extremely tough game to watch the astros lose. i’m definitely one of those fans that feels sick to their stomach after one of these, and with the division, wildcard and .500 seeming to slowly slip away, it is all the more painful to see the astros free-fall from contention in front of the BFiB.
ivana hitter
rodriguez and his double sevens have been hitting a horrid .091 over the last seven days, and they finally managed to break out of his 0-18 slump. unfortunately, it was one or two at-bats too late. when pudge struck out with the bases juiced to end the 5th inning, it brought the total number of men he had personally left in scoring position to 5. total astros lob this game = 11
no, really, you take the W
alberto arias made sure to help the cardinals steal seal the victory by giving houston’s lead away in the 8th. with one out, he hit pujols with a pitch, which set up holliday (who went 4-4 on the day) to line a double to right, scoring pujols and putting him in position to be the go ahead run…which holliday eventually was, when rick ankiel got it done with a single to make it (what would end up being a final) 4-3. a most undeserved win for st. louis.
a solid 4
moehler looked good, though. everyone thought so. i guess everyone thought so. i really didn’t hear what cooper had to say about his starter, but i did read this:
“Sometimes you get a little aggressive on him, and he just keeps moving it out a little further. He just throws a lot of quality pitches. Big League pitcher. I drink take my hat off to him,” LaRussa said after the game.
moehler has been to the astros what hampton should have been for the team this season. hopefully he continues to stay solid as houston tries to piece it’s rotation back together. if norris pitches well sunday, if oswalt comes back strong, and if wandy continues to look like an ace, mike hampton should consider asking his girlfriend about possible substitute teaching gigs for the fall.
its a lot of “if’s”, sure. but it’s much better than too many “butt’s”.
best (partial) post-game quote
“…I got right up to my release point and it squirted out of my hand. When I let go of it, I thought i was going to throw it halfway up the backstop.”
— Brian Moehler
if you have free time this weekend
and you need a little distraction, here’s some stuff you can try to pass the time:
— read random barzilla threads/books
— count the infinite number of places one can acquire steel tubs in the houston area/start numerous threads about something…ANYTHING….other than baseball and the astros
— take a case of left hand imperial stout (and video recording device) to coach’s house
or,if you want some basball, there’s always the stellar insights of: