Detroit 7, Houston 3 (14 innings)
contributed by Mr. Happy
We should have won tonight’s game. Porter did a great job pulling all of the levers and trying to win in regulation, Castro and Pena supplied the runs courtesy of two shots into the Crawford Boxes and, for the most part, the pitching was solid. In particular, Blackley, Veras and Clemens were electric good. Lyles made some mistakes over the plate but displayed some big swing-and-miss action in notching six strikeouts and pitched well enough for five innings to deserve a win.
The problem was execution by two players: Wright and Ankiel. For starters, Wright’s plunking of the hitter that he was sent in to get, Fielder, really was inexcusable. For crying out loud, don’t put the tying run on that way; make the damn guy deserve to be on base. And then Ankiel, who had entered the game as a pinch hitter and who actually got a hit that wasn’t a home run or a double, bobbled a ball that allowed Fielder to score all the way from 1B on the double cost us the ball game because it was over once the Tigers tied the score.
It was just a matter of when and how the Astros would lose, as Chuck pointed out. However, I have to hand it to the Astros as they fought hard and extended the game to 14 frames. Keuchel couldn’t get through the Tigers’ order a second time, but there really was no one else down there to use in a tie game since Porter had to save his other long reliever, Cisnero, for another game or for later in that game. However, since Keuchel ran out of gas in the 14th, having thrown 78 pitches in 4.1 innings, Cisnero had to come in to get the final two outs, tossing 10 pitches and surrendering the two run two bagger by Tuiasosopo that sealed the Astros fate. Keuchel, who allowed seven hits and walked four, bent but didn’t break until the 14th inning, so he’ll probably take that back with him to OkC today.
There was speculation in tonight’s very active Game Zone that I might have to stretch tonight’s recap. Au contraire, mon frère. I made it to four paragraphs with no sweat. We do it again tonight, kids, so come see us in the Game Zone. I’ll be surprised if the Astros don’t make a roster move to bring up another fresh long reliever for tonight’s game.