Chavez Ravine has traditionally been a very good place for pitchers to find themselves. Basically, the way it works is this: If pitcher wants a little support other than defense, then find a pitcher’s park to pitch in. That in essence explains Chan Ho Park, but that is another story for another day. On this day it was Brett Myers, a struggling ACE for the Houston Astros. After a couple of hours of toiling on the mound, Myers picked up his third win of the season by tossing a 4 hit, one run, complete game gem.
Thank you Chavez Ravine, thank you very much!
Houston Astros 7 – LA Dodgers 3
WP: Brett Myers | LP: Ted Lilly
For the rest of the team, it was a matter of finally getting back to the type of game they can win, a good defense supported by timely hitting. By and large the Astros have been running into a bit of bad luck hitting the baseball lately. The old atom ball had vexed the team, but on this day against the LA Trolley Men, the well placed key hit dink fly ball double helped as well as some extraordinary hitting by Carlos Lee. Clint Barmes, he of the dink double and Chris Johnson, he of the hard hit double, were the rbi men for the team along with Lee. So frisky was Lee on this night that he attempted not one but two stolen bases against the LA’ers. He snuck one off Ted Lilly who ignored him and let him take a running head start to second and then he was not so dastardly the second time, getting gunned down easily.
Overall, nice 2011 Houston Astros win on the night. JD and Brownie wondered out loud if both JA Happ and Myers could turn their season around, exactly what type of team would the Astros be? Yes indeed, the team has to win with pitching and timely hitting to succeed, as do all teams in the MLB. However, for the Astros, it just seems to be the *only* way to win. Hopefully the way Myers is starting to pitch isn’t about trade rumors and the possibility to pitch somewhere else if he steps up his game.