Pirates at Astros, 4/23/2010
Astros 4, Pirates 3
W Oswalt (2-2) L Maholm (1-2)
H Lyon (2), S Lindstrom (5)
Game Wrapup: Astros.com
Rock-a-bye Sweet Baby… oh nevermind
There are times I wish I were as clever and talented as stros-ray and tonight was one of them. If I were, I’d take James Taylor’s “Sweet Baby James” and change it to a tribute to Michael Bourn. Then again, perhaps it’s best I not add to the “SBB” gushing as it is on the fringes of the macho meter and frankly, I just don’t have too much of a relationship with my feminine side to make the attempt. Maybe the tribute should be restricted to a picture painting a thousand gushing words of praise.
WOW!!!
This play happened in the ninth inning as the Pirates were trying to overcome a one run deficit. The first batter in the inning was Jones and right off the bat, you knew he had a single and quite possibly a double. But out of nowhere appeared our hero, Mr. Bourn to lay out and absolutely rob the Pirates of perhaps an inning and thus help seal the win for the Astros. Bourn made several plays on this night that were of the “blue star” variety, but none was greater than this one. For his part, closer Matt Lindstrom had the best poker face about the whole thing, looking for all the world as if he knew it would be an out all the way with the speedy centerfielder out there covering his back. Note to self: don’t play texas hold’em with Matt Lindstrom.
Don’t look now, we have an ACE
Roy Oswalt turned in an really good night of work with seven innings of 4 hit baseball. It was his unfortunate “Oswalt Inning” that bit his good night in the rear and made this game closer than it should have been as two of his four hits allowed were homeruns that scored three runs (two were unearned – thank you Ashby). Overall, a night of great pitching, outstanding defense and just enough offense to secure another win for the good guys. It’s how you draw it up on the whiteboard, folks! By the way, this was also the night that Oswalt passed JR Richard on the all-time Houston Astros list of strikeouts by a pitcher. Oswalt now sits all alone in second place on the list behind Nolan Ryan.
Don’t look now, we have a Bullpen
Someone mentioned in the GZ that Lindstrom and his mates are starting to give the same vibes as Lidge-Dotel-Wagner. Funny how these thoughts pop into the head of most of us at the same time. Lindstrom has the type of stuff as Lidge in his breakout season, and if he masters the slider for a few strikes here and there, it’s going to be the return of Lights Out, only this time Lights Out Lindstrom. So the key is Sampson, Lyon providing key bridge work to Lindstrom (or so it’s looking like right now). In a very long season, a pitching staff that is strong in the pen and a starting rotation than can give you quality outings is a very scary proposition for the opposing teams.
This will be worth keeping an eye on.
Gamezone: Read the in-game commentary in today’s Gamezone
stros-ray’s Series Preview: The read is awesome as always