PITTSBURGH 5, Houston 1
July 5, 2011
PNC Park
PITTSBURGH (SnS) – It was a fairly well-played game. It was a relatively quick game, especially given some of the recent AL-type interleague borefests the club has been involved in lately. Wandy Rodriguez started and pitched okay – not great, but not terrible. But the result was the same, as the Houston Astros fell to the Pittsburgh Pirates here tonight, 5-1. The Astros lost their fifth in a row, the ninth of their last ten, the twelfth of their last fifteen, twenty-fourth of their last thirty, and so on. This looks like a team in free-fall now, and it is hard to imagine a scenario where the incessant losing will be stopped, or even slowed down very much.
The chin-less Jeff Karstens got the start for Pittsburgh, and he continued a season-long hot streak, holding the Astros to one run in seven innings. He was never in any real trouble throughout his stint. The Pirates tight, efficient bullpen took it from there. Wandy had a few lapses here and there, the most notable being a long, two-run bomb to right by Brandon Wood in the bottom of the 2nd. That put the Astros behind early, and somehow one could sense the two-spot would hold up, and be all the Pirates really needed. They went ahead and kept on scoring, though, and Wandy ended up giving up five runs in six innings.
The most distressing thing now, among all the very distressing things surrounding the Astros, is that the offense appears to have shut down, and gone completely south. The Astros rotation has been iffy all season, and the bullpen has been an abomination throughout; but for awhile, anyway, the offense was at least passable, maybe even respectable. Not anymore. Throw that in with the starters and bullpen, and every game from here on out seems kind of hopeless, even before it starts.
Personally, I had a good time watching the game, nonetheless. Apparently a couple of my cousins and their families had decided to attend, and then remembered the biggest Astros fan they knew of. I started getting texts and phone calls in the bottom of the first. “Hey, are you watching the game? We’re sitting behind third base in the second deck.” “We’re in the field level boxes on the first base side.” “What about this kid Karstens? Yeah, yeah, I know he’s from Texas.” “Whaddya think of McCutcheon? He shoulda made All-Stars.” And so on.
I give my cousins shit about the Pirates, but I cannot call them front-runners. Their families have followed the team fanatically for many decades. Like many people up there, they have a Pirates/Steelers/Penguins fandom that is generational. One of them told me the last several seasons with the Pirates have been similar to what is going on in Houston this season. The teams were awful, there was not much in the pipeline, and the management was totally inept, or just didn’t give a fuck, or both. So eventually, they quit going to the park, even though they have one of the most attractive and user-friendly stadiums in all of baseball. My cousin said at some point it began to feel like continuing to buy tickets was some kind of affirmation for the ownership, and they didn’t want to reinforce the recent behavior, so they quit going to games. They never quit hoping, though; and the slightest hint of an upward trend has them back out to the park many nights.
I kept staring at the crowd shots on TV, and I finally saw my cousin DJ and his wife for a couple of seconds in the fifth inning, sitting behind first base. My cousin Robert and his family, up behind third, eluded me. Robert is 45 or so, a part-owner and salesman for a small GM dealership up that way. He and his family live in a nice, older neighborhood in Pittsburgh, near Mt. Washington. DJ is closer to my age and has a full head of black hair and a mustache and beard to match, and in his gimme cap (which he always wears), he pretty much looks like what he is – a coal truck driver who farms on the side, and also does some mechanic work for the extra income. He lives in a 400-year-old stone house on several acres on the side of a hill in a small town outside of Pittsburgh, in Washington County.
I come from pretty humble roots, especially on that side. As far as I know, no one in my family lives in a neighborhood with a fucking HOA agreement. They may not even have heard of one.
Good people, though. Serious, serious baseball fans.
_______________
• The Astros finish out the series tomorrow night, same time, same station. And, sadly, likely the same result.
• It appears Matt Diaz (DYE-azz) wears a dead rattlesnake around his neck on the field.
• Though it is fun from a novelty standpoint, the “three Rod night” is not usually a good sign for the Astros, win-wise.
******************************