contributed by austro (Mr. Pinch-Hitter)
Saturday, July 3, 2010
Petco Park, San Diego
Padres 1 | Astros zip, nada, zero, ziltch
I realize that the San Diego pitching staff is at the top of the league this year, but two shutouts in a row? That’s just not right.
This was an old-fashioned National League pitching duel, with both starters pitching 7 innings of scoreless ball. Norris gave up 3 hits, 3 walks, and 5 strikeouts, and at times dominated batters with well-placed fastballs. It was an encouraging performance that strengthens my suspicion that his shoulder had been bothering him for some time before his DL stint. Corriea also did well for San Diego, allowing 5 hits and 2 walks, and collecting 4 strikeouts.
One of the most satisfying moments of the game occurred in the bottom of the fourth inning, with Eckstein at the plate. He wound up hitting a foul pop-up up the RF side, and Berkman made a really nice grab near the stands as he was moving away from the plate. Knowing that it was Eckstein being robbed made it that much sweeter. God, that little pissant with the not-even-Little-League throwing motion annoys me.
Pence wound up getting himself ejected arguing on a 3-2 punchout in the seventh. That’s apparently the first time he’s been thrown out of a big-league game, and he was quite contrite about it afterward. J-Mike came in for him, but that exposed another problem with the current roster: Manager Blum (“loose bodies in the elbow”, ouch) still hasn’t been put on the DL even though he hasn’t played in the last couple of days and nobody seems to have an idea of when he might play again. So we’re only carrying 4 outfielders at the moment, and when Pence got ejected that meant there was no opportunity to sub Michaels into LF for Lee.
And as always seems to happen, the ball finds the weak link. Cunningham led off the San Diego 8th inning with a broken-bat bleeder into left field and challenged Lee. Of course, these days that’s not exactly a high-risk maneuver, and he was safe at second with a lead-off double. The next batter, Gwynn, laid down a good bunt on the 3B line, and Chacin took the play (Johnson was there, too, and probably had a better play on it) and threw low and wide to first. The ball bounced into the stands and Cunningham was awarded home, scoring the only run of the night. The San Diego bullpen, as they have done all year, nailed things down after that.
The only real offensive bright spot of the night was Chris Johnson, who had three hits, including two doubles. Bourn had one hit and might have had another, but a call went against him on a bunt in the 8th inning. Other than that? Not much.
The Astros’ offense goes for the shutout hat trick Sunday afternoon at 3pm.