Contributed by Reuben
Reds 4, Astros 2
W: Leake (4-6)
L: Cordero (3-6)
More tough luck for Lucas Harrell. More predictable slop from the rest of the Astros. Harrell was excellent, again, striking out 6 and giving up 1 run in 7 innings. On this night, though, we were distracted a bit from the game itself, as news started to come in over Twitter, starting around the 3rd inning, that Wandy might be in the process of being traded to the Pirates.
Twitter. That stupid invention that’s turned us all into junkies for instant resolution, instant news. I’m not even “on” twitter, yet I’m a junkie for it at times, for baseball stuff. But this time, somehow, twitter wasn’t fast enough, which meant looking away from the game, repeatedly checking the twitter feeds on the Chron’s Astros page, or checking mlbtraderumors (which gets all its breaking news from twitter, of course). Had Wandy really been traded? Well, that became apparent soon enough, when he started making the rounds in the dugout, hugging everyone goodbye. Well, if he has to go, what are we getting back? Long twitter silence. Nobody seemed to know (or care, perhaps). Come on, we need to know, Right Now, so we can instantly judge the trade, Right Now.
Anyway, eventually that essential info filtered out, at a 2008-ish pace, and we were all able to get back to the game, where the Astros, somewhat surprisingly, still had a 2-1 lead, courtesy of a Justin Maxwell line-drive Crawford Box job. Wilton Lopez pitched a scoreless 8th inning after the Astros had pinch-hit for Harrell (to no avail, of course, one of many wasted opportunities to pad their lead, of course).
Then twitter struck again. I was watching the game on my laptop, on the couch. Francisco Cordero had just given up a one-out groundball single and the next batter, Stubbs, was getting ready to walk up to the plate. The Chron’s twitter feed was scrolling, only partly obscured by the mlb.tv window on my screen, and what do I inadvertently see? “Astros down 3-2 after 2-run HR by Drew Stubbs in the 9th”. Thanks a whole fucking lot, twitter, you unwanted crystal ball! Seems my mlb.tv feed was a bit behind. So I had to watch the Stubbs AB, already knowing the horrible outcome, the only question which pitch the blow would come on. “Don’t do it, Cordero!” I shouted at the screen. “Walk him! Take the Delorean and go back in time and kill him when he’s just a baby!” Alas, he did neither, and foolishly still threw the 2-0 pitch down the heart of the plate. How can we blame Cordero, though? From his comments after the trade, he knows he sucks now, and is a shell of his former self. He was probably just as puzzled/worried as we were when he was named closer.
As you can imagine, that was the ballgame. It didn’t really matter if the Reds’ closer was a fellow who throws 102 or one who throws 85. These “hitters” weren’t likely to score two more runs off of anybody.