Tuesday, May 11, 2010
Astros 6
Jakes 3
W: Myers (2-2) | L: Penny (3-3) | S: Lindstrom (7)
Man, that felt nice. The Good Guys emerged from the NL Central basement just long enough to leave a flaming poo bag on the Jakes’ door step, battling back to win late. The victory insures that, if nothing else, the Turdinals will remain the only team this season that has not swept the ‘Stros*. Baby steps.
Myers pitched well again, working through some traffic to log six innings of two-run ball. The Cards got on the board in the bottom of the first, set up by a Ludwick/Pooholes hit and run that pulled Matsui just far enough towards second to prevent him from snaring the ball to right. With Ludwick on third, Holliday grounded out to Kaz to take the 1-0 lead.
In the third, Ludwick doubled with one out to get things going for the shitbirds. Albert followed with an infield hit and Holliday loaded them up with a single to right. Freese brought Ludwick home on a single to right, but Myers sacked up and got a Squatting Molina to ground into a double play to end the frame relatively unscathed. Of course, being down 2-0 right now has been no different in practical terms than being down by eleventy hundred, so the well of hope was a touch dry – especially with Penny sporting a sub-2.00 ERA and running through unattainable starlets like lesser men go through cans of Chef Boyardee and self-respect. It’s hard to muster confidence in the face of credentials like that.
So it was a bit of a surprise when the BBGs handed the Good Guys an opening in the 7th in the form of Flapjack reaching on a one-out throwing error, and – get this – they actually took advantage of it. I know. Crazy. Thunder Pants chased Lee’s fat ass over to third with a double, and Blum followed with a clutch backstop impression, leaving enough knee in the way of a Penny fastball to load ’em up. Manzella came in hacking, driving the first pitch to right for a sac fly that plated Caballo and moved Gunther up to third.
With two down and a chance to tie, Mills brought Sullivan in for the hitless Cash. The move paid off perfectly, with a first pitch single to left scoring Pence to knot up the game. Mills then lifted Myers and sent in Q, and he cracked the first pitch he saw to left, scoring Blum from second, with Sullivan and Q moving into scoring position after the ball skipped away from Molina at the plate. And because clutch first-pitch heroics were contagious and spreading like syphilis in a brothel, Bourn did the same, but raised the degree of difficulty to OMFG AWESOME by knocking a gorgeous bunt past the mound to second. Dutifully, Princess Pooholes fielded the ball directly in front of Schumaker, alerted the grounds crew that the basepaths were off-angle by 0.5 degrees, changed a lamp in the left field lights, performed an emergency c-section near the concessions in center, and left his base completely unattended for Bourn to easily reach while Sullivan scored for the 4-2 lead. It looked like this, and felt like this.
The Cards got one back in the bottom half, as Venti Fulchino allowed a walk between two singles, before Sampson came in and slammed the door shut on Pujols and Holliday to end the inning with a 4-3 lead intact. In the eighth, Lance lead off against Motte, fouled his way through a few pitches, and then BOOM BITCH he crushed one off the back of the bullpen. Two batters later, Beaker proved that sometimes good things do happen to bad ideas, as he somehow pulled a low and outside slider over the wall in deep left to make it 6-3. Take a look at the stellar effort by Holliday on the play – I had to do a double take, because I thought it was Torii Hunter out there for a second. Amazing.
Lyon and Lindstrom locked it down tight from there, allowing just one single in the final two frames to seal the win. Penny wins the game’s Alan Ashby Silver Lining Award, lowering his ERA to 1.70 while shouldering the loss, as all four of his runs were of the unearned variety. Nice job! The Good Guys look to continue their furious comeback to playoff contention* tonight, as Wandy squares off agin Lohse.