Tuesday, April 12, 2011
FTC 2
Astros 11
W: Myers (1-0) | L: Cubs. All of them. And their fans.
HR – Colvin (2) off Myers
I must admit that I was not looking forward to my week on SnS this week. Not only was I going to have to watch this dysfunctional Astros team, sans manager for the night, square off against the odious Cubs, I was slated to write the next series preview. A four-gamer. Against the transparent Padres. But the evening started well: I accidentally left the balance of my lunchtime salad at the restaurant, so I ordered Star Pizza instead, grabbed a brew and settled in for the game. There was no point in being all doom and gloom; after all, this is the Cubs. And boy did they put on a show!
Myers had a rocky start to the 1st inning, allowing two singles to put two on with one out. Skinnyass Ramirez hit one deep but lacked the juice to get it out of the park. Myers struck out Pena to end it and was cruising from then on. He pitched 7 innings that were mostly drama free despite giving up 8 hits including a dinger to Colvin (who one-handed one into the RF seats). He earned a comfortable win, and has gone at least six innings in every start so far this year…
Meanwhile, the hilarious Cubs were trying to sneak a reliever past the Astros, starting James Russell. Aided by some comedic defensive work, notably from that fuckstick Soriano, the Astros dropped a 3-run frame on Russell despite Lee’s best efforts to kill every rally of the evening (in this case, with a swinging strikeout at a slow pitch down Broadway). The highlight of this inning was a 2-run, 2-error, “double” by Hall, that saw Soriano boot the ball in left and Barney miss a tag on a stationary Hall (after he’d fallen over trying to reverse to 1B). The Cubs would be charged with 3 errors on the night, but they could easily have posted double figures.
Oh, and Soriano whiffed to lead off the next inning. Hehehehe.
The Astros struck hard and fast, scoring 3 in the 1st, 2 in the 2nd and 2 more in the 4th. Fast was the operative word, as the speed of the Astros’ top three hitters had the Cubs in a world of panic. Russell lasted just 1 2/3rds innings, yielding 7 hits and 5 runs (4 earned). He was up in the zone all night, except when he was airmailing them to the backstop, and the Astros took full advantage. His replacement, Big Bird Samardzija, fared better, but the game was long gone before he threw pitch #1, so he was just killing time.
Myers and the Astros ticked off the innings until the bottom of the 8th, when they treated the Cubs’ 5th reliever of the night (including the “starter”), John Grabow, wather wuffly. Up to this point, a seemingly high number of the Astros’ whacks had gone into the RCF alley. This inning, however, they treated replacement CFer Johnson to a tour of the cavernous reaches of MMPUS, with Q and Pence both sending him chasing for deep flies that he would come agonisingly close to catching…but not. 4 more runs would score, including a RBI for Lee (with a groundout, of course…he went 0-5 but did make some nice plays at 1B).
Another Rodriguez got himself into some bother in the 9th but, given the 10-run lead he had, it was really just a case of leaving him in to get it over and into the books. 2 hits, a walk and a run later, that’s where it was.
Tomorrow night, Home Wandy will try to put the rubber on Zamboner.
Notes:
Myers got a hit, scored a run and has hideous facial hair.
Fulchino pitched a solid inning, but his ridiculous barbs are still no match for Myers’.
Lee played 1B and J-Mike fielded in left. Between them they were 1-10 with an RBI.
Of the starters, only Lee and Johnson went hitless. CJ also posting the Astros’ error on a swirling pop-up near to the Astros’ dugout that he left for Q and Q left for reasons unexplained.
Bourn (2-5, 4 runs), Sanchez (4-5, 2 runs, 2 RBI) and Pence (3-5, 4 RBI) did most of the damage at the top of the order, although Quintero had a nice 3-3, 2-run night. He also got the Astros’ sole walk.
Soriano went 0-4 with 2 Ks and an error. I hate that stroker.
Marlon Byrd had a 3-3 night going before being double-switched out of the game. His replacement went on the aforementioned outfield walkabout. Cubs pushing all the right buttons as usual.
The recap title comes from this song of futility, that springs to mind for when the Cubs come around.