Athletics 7
Astros 3
contributed by NeilT
Kris and I are in Austin for the third Foodways Texas Symposium. It’s our second, and this year the topic is barbecue. The first night Aaron Franklin served brisket and pulled pork. Friday night Jim Goode and Brian Caswell barbecued crabs, shrimp and oysters. It was spectacular. I was full, and a little beered up, and didn’t want to write a recap, so I let Oakland’s most famous daughter write it.
The game, the game was not. Peacock was doing something and standing is one doing something and standing. Someone was doing something and was standing. Coco Crisp led with a homer. Peacock walked two more in the first inning, gave up a single and a walk in the second, got through the third and the fourth, gave up a one-out double in the fifth, and then was pulled for Xavier Cedeno. I don’t know why. After was a seven-run inning, with a Marwin Gonzalez chop-off bases-loaded error, 13 batters, 6 hits, and 4 walks. Two pitchers after Peacock, Xavier Cedeno who achieved infinity with three earned runs and no outs, and Rhiner Cruz. Pigeons on the grass alas.
Meanwhile the Astros struck out thrice in the first, twice in the second, twice in the third, and once in the fifth. They struck out five more times. Wallace struck out three times on four at-bats, Ankiel struck out every plate appearance, so seven of the thirteen strike outs were split between Wallace and Ankiel, but rose is a rose is a rose. To strike out is to strike out is to strike out is to strike out is to strike out is to strike out is to strike out is to strike out is to strike out is to strike out is to strike out is to strike out. When in France one must adapt oneself to the smell of a urinal.
These unifoms look good, but you can either buy clothes or buy pictures. It’s that simple.
Cruz gave up two more singles in the 6th, but Donaldson grounded into a double play, Altuve to Wallace. Wright, Armbriz, and Veras finished the 7th, 8th, and 9th, with one walk in the 9th The offense picked up too. Gonzalez doubled in the 6th and scored on an Altuve single. Maxwell got his third extra base hit in the 7th and scored on a Dominguez single. Gonzalez singled, Altuve walked, and then with the bases loaded Wallace managed not to strike out with a fly ball out to center. For Wallace, there is no there there.
In the 9th Castro doubled, was moved to third on a second Dominguez double, and scored on a Gonzalez ground-out. I have been rich and I have been poor. It’s better to be rich.
Do not let the strike-outs worry you. One does not get better but different and older and that is a pleasure. It takes a lot of time to be a genius, you have to sit around so much doing nothing, really doing nothing. A vegetable garden in the beginning looks so promising and then after all little by litle it grows nothing but vegetables, nothing, nothing but vegetables.