Marlins 5, Astros 4
W: Volstad (5-8)
L: Rodriguez (6-6)
Staggering through the desert of the 2011 season, your Houston Astros really do seem to be on their own version of baseball’s Death March. It’s the mark of a truly bad team that even when the law of averages comes into play and some part of the team works well, there are other pieces just as important that come up woefully short. Teasing us with these fragments of competency seems to be the hallmark of this season.
Staked to an early 2-0 and 3-1 lead, Wandy the Enigma lost his way and couldn’t get the strikes he needed, handing out free bases and hard hits until the Fishmen had a lead they wouldn’t relinquish. The pressing, frazzled Astros appear to be incapable of any approach at the plate other than “Swing hard!” and the result is popups, strikeouts, pitcher’s counts and out after out.
The latest meme is that the starters are walking too many leadoff batters, taking an expected ERA from 3.5 to 7+ with that act. The truth is that this team doesn’t have a single achilles heel to overcome – the losing comes from a systematic failure to be good enough to win. If the starters are walking leadoff batters this week, next week it’ll be that the relievers are giving up 0-2 home runs. The week after that it’ll be that the hitters aren’t getting on base, or maybe they’re trying to pull sliders into the Crawford Boxes instead of going with the pitch. One day it’s the umpires squeezing the zone and making the pitchers come over the plate too much, the next day it’s bumbling in the field. It’s all of these things and more, all mixed together, all season long into some kind of Carousel of Suck and we can’t get off the damn ride.
Shuffling toward the break, this team seems to have ‘gone French’ and is waving the white flag. An extended team meeting may have helped clear the air but unless they come back next Friday with a new attitude I’m afraid Mills may become the sacrificial lamb, taking the heat for the collection of dry turds that take the field these days.
Enjoy your All-Star break. Perhaps you can come back to support the spirit that once was the Astros, until the ghost is made flesh again for all of us to celebrate.