Astros at Cubs, 4/17/2010
Astros 4, Cubs 3
W Oswalt (1-2) L Gorzelanny (0-1)
H Sampson, S Lindstrom
Game Wrapup: Astros.com
This Day Belongs to Oswalt
From the first inning when Roy Oswalt took the mound and painted the outside corner of the plate, you knew this was going to be a good day for the hurler. It was as if the clock had been turned back, not in terms of uniforms but in terms of performance by Oswalt and the Astros. It helped that homeplate umpire Cuzzi decided he liked what he saw in terms of the outside corner pitches and soon enough he put both benches on warning that on this day of the wind blowing in at Wrigleyville, that corner was going to be a strike. One look at Derek Lee’s face the first time that corner was called told you this would be a pitcher’s day and with Oswalt looking for all the world like the ACE of old for the blood n’ mud nine, that was not good news for the Baby Bears.
So what made Oswalt revert to his old self? A quick snapshot of his delivery in the early innings provided by Jimmy D told you that Oswalt had the old long stretch and extension in his mechanics again. Amazing what a full follow through will do for a guy with Oswalt’s stuff. Of course, to have that full stretch and extension, Oswalt needs to have health in his back and legs and today, he threw with ease, so can we expect to say that Sparky is throwing without much pain in the lower extremedies any more? Well, at least for one day it looked that way. Couple being able to spot your mid-90s fastball on the corners with changing speeds and you get what you got today from Roy: 7 innings pitched, 5 hits allowed, no runs.
DUCK!!!
It is good to note that in the top of the next inning, someone in the Astros bench (hopefully Sean Berry) was paying attention to the calls by Phil Cuzzi and the fact that soft-tossing lefty Cub pitcher Tom Gorezelanny was on the mound. First up was Carlos Lee, he of the rediscovered nice swing and good approach at the plate. He prompty took an outside corner offering by Gorey (that is his nickname, right?) to right field for the first hit of the game. Next up, young Hunter Pence, probably with a bent ear from Berry telling him “look to hit it to right field or don’t bother coming back to the bench and sitting near me… got it?”. Pence did the right thing and took yet another outside pitch to right for solid knock and the mini-rally was on. Chris Johnson grounded out to third to give Roy a nice present, an actual lead in a game, as Lee scored from third, a bag he hustled to obtain on Pence’s base knock. Gorey survived the inning but got touched up for another run the following inning by hitting star JR “Screw you TZers!” Towles. He was not so lucky in the fourth when Pedro Feliz took a pitch on the inner middle half of the plate that Tommy boy tried to sneak pass him and lined right back up the middle. Down went Gorey! Down went Gorey! The liner caught him square in left wing and even though he protested loudly to Cub Skipper Lou, he was told to take his soft-tossing wounded limb and sit out the rest of the day.
Keppinger and Sampson, Early Season Spike and Star Award Nominees
Crusing with a 3-0 lead, Roy Oswalt pretty much dominated the Cubs for the rest of the day. In the late innings though, Jeff Keppinger provided an insurance run by stroking a soft liner to center-right field, driving in Mr. Towles (he earned the respect on this day), who got on with his third knock of the day. 4-0, late in the game, Roy is taken out, hand shakes all around. Then the merry-go-round began for the Cubs. Brandon Lyon came into the game and promptly awoke the sleeping bats and drunken fans, and before it was all over, he gave up 3 runs on some hard hit baseballs that luckily stayed in the stadium. One shudders to think what would have happened had the wind not been blowing in today. All this drama though was met with a shrewd move by Skipper Millsie, as he brought in the reliever of the hour for the Astros, Chris Sampson. Chris is having an outstanding year so far (*knock on a TZers head*) because of his approach to pitching. His hard work in the offseason to master a killer changeup helps a lot too. Sampson came in and doused the fire started by Lyon and the lead was safe. Lindstrom came in the ninth and shut down the Cubs even though Tommy Manzella forgot for a minute he’s supposed to be an all-glove, no-hit short stop. Lindstrom got Fukidome on a slider/curve/changeup/wiked googly to end the game and allow the Houston nine to high five around the pitchers mound in celebration.
Gamezone: Read the in-game commentary in today’s Gamezone
JD’s Series Preview: The hate-o-rade is following early and often in this FTC series preview