Houston 3
Baltimore 4
contributed by NeilT
Houston has now played 36 games. There’s some magic in the number 36. It’s 22.2222% of the season. It’s 6 squared. If I add 3 and 6 I get 9, which is the number of innings in most baseball games.
Because it was kind of magical—not like a 7, but kind of—I thought about checking in on Miss Lola, just to get some sense of the numbers. I emailed her and she said she was busy counting votes on the human rights ordinance, and wouldn’t really have time to talk until after the city council vote on Wednesday. I don’t know whether she’s for the ordinance or against it. I guess she hangs out at that gay bar, and maybe that means she’s for it, but she really doesn’t dress like a liberal. She always dresses like a lady.
She did tell me in the email that yeah, this team is not the small-garden-shed burner I had hoped it would be, but that it’s not really much worse than last year. Last year the team had a winning percentage of .315. This year through 36 games it’s .314. The team OPS for 2013 was .674, this year it’s .656. The team ERA was 4.79, this year so far it’s 4.91. Get this: Miss Lola pointed out that the team fielding percentage has actually improved: .982 to .979. That made me feel a lot better.
It was nice to have Feldman back as the starter. He pitched a fine 6 innings, and left with the game tied 2-2. Williams gave up 2 runs in the 7th and the final score was 3-4. Dominguez had a nice night, with a double and a single on 3 at-bats. Karter had a home run in the 7th to tie it, and no Ks. The Stros made their final run in the 9th, and for a brief shining moment in the 9th I once again had hope, but then Karter GIDPd, and Springer Kd.