This game was supposed to be the one for the ages. Some people seemed to be more excited about Bregman being called up than Correa (I hope its not a racist thing). Personally, both call ups excited me. I am glad to see him succeed and have his opportunity, but I think it is a bit unfair to assume he is Altuve. He’s only played one game so far.

Great defensive plans in the game, both Correa and Bregman flashing some leader. Springer had the offensive highlight, a lead-off HR. It really felt like a good night was going to happen. Knoxbanedoodle seemed to be psychic on the night.

Totally bullshit hot take, granted, but it’s been my experience this year that leadoff bombs are often the chief highlights in otherwise punchless efforts. Hope that’s not the case tonight.

The Astros had their chances but came up short. Bregman remains hitless in the major leagues. Keuchel did a good job pitching, it is nice to see him have good outings, especially this time of the season. Otherwise this game was similar to the other 44 they’ve lost. 7 LOBs will make Astros fans sad.

Astros 4, Athletics 7
W: Graveman, L: Fiers, S: Madson

mlb recap

So, Fiers started out alright, he wasn’t great but he was keeping the team in the game. Of course, everytime they handed him lead he gave it back. But in the bottom of the FOURTH, with TWO outs, he proceeds to give up 6 runs, Feliz helped in that he couldn’t get out of the inning and some of Fiers crap also scored, but Fiers left them there.

So, it is bad enough that you had a bad game, but then you go and throw gasoline on the fire. Here’s the exchange between Fiers and Gomez. But Hinch talked about it later. And then Fiers, Gomez, and Altuve give their explanations of the situation.

For a day that started with the cutest thing ever to end such a shitty way was disappointing. The loss just made it even worse.

Baseball in America, the game was aired on ESPN along with Roots. Since I was given the option of listening to Ashby or not, I chose not. It was rather like sitting with a lot of you guys watching the game, Aaron Boone and friends were trying to guess what the pitcher was going to toss, whether Marisnick would run, and what the batter would do. They did not seem to be intrigued by a game they had once played. Hmmmm.

Overall, McHugh had a decent outing. He did not receive any run support until Shoemaker left the game and the Astros got into the bullpen, but he kept them in the game when at times he could have gotten into really bad situations. Will Harris gave a bit of a scare loading the bases with not outs, but cool as a cucumber that he is while pitching, he gets a strike out then game-ending double play. He seems like nothing bothers him when he is pitching.

Valbuena was in the #2 spot in the line-up, he did pretty good. Springer, Altuve, and Correa were productive, as was Jason Castro (at-bat, he had a bad night defensively).

Great game by the Astros who gained no ground on the stupid Rangers (ugh, they beat the Yankees in the 9th) but are definitely in the race for the wild card. Yeah, I know it is too early to worry about the wild card, but the Astros were one game back of .500 and are now three games over .500. I hope they keep winning series and just play great baseball so the rest can take care of itself.

What a fun evening it was at Minute Maid Park on Monday night. The Astros bats found the ball and the ball found spots where the Angels weren’t. I do think Calhoun for the Angels had a bit of a rough night in RF and Trout could see the ball going over his head. It truly was a great night at the ballpark for Astros fans.

Doug Fister did a great job again. He went 7 innings giving up 2 runs. I think one of those runs should have been an out, but Gomez was not able to catch the ball.

You are also probably looking at the score thinking BudGirl that game wasn’t close the Astros only won by 3 runs. Well, it was close until Tony Sipp entered the game. He proceeded to load the bases, strike one out, then give up a grand slam (by former Astros Gregoria Petite) in the top of the 9th. Take away his third of an inning pitching performance and it was a great pitching effort by Houston.

So, here’s to the Astros making a strong run to .500 tomorrow and hopefully going straight to .507 on Wednesday!

So, I’m working a flex schedule for the summer and Monday was my first day off. It started out great, I went to the Cynthia Woods Mitchell Pavilion box office to get tickets for Jim Gaffigan and met a friend for lunch. So, I was in a good mood and relaxed when the game started. Didn’t take long for that to end. Mike Fiers seems to want to continue challenging the hitters to bail him out. He’s sitting at a cool 5.00 ERA for this season.

The hitters did their job for the most part. In fact, I thought the Rangers were being more than accommodating in trying to help the Astros win. I do not know why the Astros do not want to beat the assholes in Arlington. And they made it worse they by allowing Odor to be the one to get the winning hit. Ugh.

Tuesday’s Disaster
Astros 3, Rangers 4
W: Diekman, L: Keuchel, SV: Dyson
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Well, the Astros took the lead early in this one, then let it slip away. Keuchel seemed to pitch well until the 8th inning when he gave up a two-run bomb that was enough to give the bad guys the lead and enough for the win.

I have to admit, I love the Astros. I love this team but I was almost in tears of frustration by their futility when playing the Rangers. I know the boys are trying, you can see it on their faces and in their actions but they cannot seem to cross the barrier that allows them to get the win. I cannot imagine how frustrated they are.

Wednesday’s Recap was brought to you separately by Sphinx Drummond.

Thursday’s Must-Win Did Not Happen
Astros 3, Rangers 5
W: Perez, L: McHugh, SV: Diekman
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Not surprisingly, the Astros dropped another game to the Rangers. Instead of staying even with them by splitting the series, they fall back.

McHugh only lasted 3.2 innings and Devenski did a good job coming out of the pen. Feldman’s run didn’t matter since McHugh did enough damage. But, the Astros just cannot seem to find a way to get runners to cross home or fill the holes for the Rangers hits.

Work was a distraction from watching this game. Of course, the work distraction is not necessarily a good thing. But, that is for another discussion.

The Astros are 9 back of the Rangers and 4 back from .500. I was hoping for a better season. I was expecting a better season. There are so many problems with this team I have a hard time reconciling that with the trust I have in Luhnow. Not every move he makes is going to be good but I hope he has the character to own up to a bad decision and do what the can to make the right change. All this losing makes me sad. I like being happier better. And for that reason, I’m going to share a picture from the vacation I took in early May.

mlb wrap

What an outstanding April 11, 2016 it was!! Getting to visit with friends and talking baseball. I know there are things in life that are better, but that is one of the best. There were a lot of the regulars and some long time OWA posters attending (MusicMan) and newer ones (Doyce7 – who I didn’t meet but heard he was sitting behind me) in attendance for the first time. Waldo has a mini-me, who seemed to have a good time and is a good luck charm. Homer called Rasmus’ homerun. I said at the Flying Saucer that the Astros would win. There is just something about talking about baseball that makes us happy.

In regard to the game, one highlight was literally seeing Collin McHugh’s ERA drop after every out. I wish I had the foresight to take a picture of it when it happened. It was quite cool! Seeing George Spring and JASON CASTRO get hits was for sore eyes. Tyler White and Preston Tucker are doing everything they can to make sure they don’t get sent down. Jose Altuve and Carlos Correa are wonders and make it so easy to be a fan of this team.

Back to the pitching, Collin really did a great job against Kansas City. He pitched himself out of trouble, especially the 7th inning when the defense had a hiccup and helped the bases get loaded. Tony Sipp gave up the 2-run homer in the 8th, he seemed to be pitching tentatively, then got aggressive after he gave up the homerun. Josh FIELDS, did a good job closing the game in the top of the ninth allowing just one hit. It was nice to see the bullpen maintain a large lead. I cannot say enough glowing accolades about McHugh, he really stepped up and probably feels 1000X better than he has since his last outing.

The stars of the night really were McHugh and the bats. Everyone wanted to get involved in the hit parade, except Carlos Gomez, he just couldn’t connect. Colby Rasmus hit the only homerun for the Astros and things got uncomfortable around JimR after that. He got excited anytime Rasmus did anything. He had jalapenos and onions flying and the biggest smile I’ve ever seen on his face. I think Rasmus may need a restraining order more than Brad Ausmus ever did in regard to me!

Needless to say, the team we saw last night is the team we expect to see most of the season. Coming home seems to be good for their souls!

submitted by Neil T

Handsomely rugged Texas Ranger Captain Berk Lanceman sat in the well-appointed office of the Astros’ Director of Public Relations, Miss Lola Laloush, deep in the Astroplex in Minute Maid Park at Union Station. From all around him he could hear the faint whir of hard drives and the tap, tap, tap of computer keyboards as the coldly efficient Astros management, led by the evil genius Mike Fast, carefully calculated the probable outcomes of a Jose Altuve bunt with two men on and no outs. Across the polished mahogany desk sat a particularly beautiful woman, tall, slender, with a sweep of dark hair setting off her red St. John knit. Her long fingers tapped impatiently against the richly figured desktop.

“Captain Berkman, you are speaking to me and not the Director of Operations because we view this first and foremost as a public relations matter. We do not want your law enforcement officers doing a grab and grope on every fan who enters one of our ladies’ rooms.”

Remembering his manners, Captain Lanceman removed his silver 3X Stetson and set it brim up on a mahogany side table. Having only recently saved the nation-state of Texas from the Canadian Jade Helm 15 invasion, Captain Lanceman was now on his most important mission. “I assure you Miss Laloush, I need do no more than look at a man dressed as a woman to know something is wrong. I am a trained law enforcement officer.”

Her polished nails swept an errant strand of hair from Miss Laloush’s eyes, and Berk Lanceman couldn’t help but feel a momentary thrill. “You said ‘I,’ Captain Lanceman. Is it only you?”

“Yes ma’am. One restroom, one Ranger.”

“You understand, Captain, that Minute Maid Park has more than one women’s restroom?

“Ma’am, you are not taking this seriously. I hope you understand that I have four daughters. I don’t want them sitting in a stall while some troubled man sits to pee right next door. If I was standing at a urinal and looked at the fella next to me and he had lady parts, I don’t know if I’d ever recover. Can you imagine what it would do to a young lady to know there’s a man sitting in a stall, instead of standing at a urinal like God intended?”

“Captain Lanceman, don’t you think that transgendered men are using women’s restrooms now?”

“No ma’am. That would be illegal. This so-called Hero ordinance makes it legal for womanly men to walk into women’s restrooms and expose their manly parts to my female daughters with impunity. It makes it legal and I, Berk Lanceman, am here to stop it.”

“Mr. Lanceman, there are laws against indecent exposure, and our regular season home games are over.”

“Yes ma’am, but there are always the playoffs.”

And that was the real heart of the matter. Did handsomely rugged Texas Ranger Captain Berk Lanceman care if some guy in a dress used the ladies room? Not really, but there was a chance that the Houston Astros could face the Toronto Blue Jays in Houston in a play-off game. Ruggedly handsome Captain Lanceman was here to save Texas from the Agents of Canadian Agression. He planned to be here, ostensibly on bathroom duty, to lay a trap for his arch nemesis, the Canadian. He would catch him at last, and with this bathroom ruse the Canadian would never see him coming.

Meanwhile he had to convince this woman in this richly furnished office that he was there for a completely different purpose. She was a good-looking woman though. At least there was that.

***

So this is my last recap for the season, and I’m supposed to write some maudlin stuff about how come whatever I’ve loved them. T’ain’t true. These guys have given me fits most of the season, I have spent entirely too much time watching baseball, and they have taken this business entirely too far. I want to be watching more baseball next week. They need to take care of business.

And last night they did a pretty good job of it. Correa hit his team record 22nd home run, breaking Lance Berkman’s record. He missed the cycle by a double. But as he said, it’s not about him and his accomplishments.

The Astros were 9 for 18 with risp. The 9 missed chances were all with Altuve at the plate. Altuve was 1 for 4 with 2 RBI, and has 195 hits for the season.

Springer, Valbuena, and Rasmus were 2 for 4 with hot dates with Homeruna, and of course everybody got hits. The D-Backs starter, Rubby De La Rosa, made it through three innings, gave up 4 earned runs, and started on my fantasy team.

Meanwhile, over at the mound, Keuchel forgot he wasn’t at home and pitched 6 innings with 2 earned runs for his 20th win. Thatcher, Velasquez, and Feliz closed it out. Feliz gave up two earned runs, but iI don’t think it was a save situation.

Thanks to BG and Arky for joining me at the Armadillo Palace for the venison Frito Pie. It later demanded two Tums, but was very good. It mignt not be better than the Frito pie at Avalon Diner (which might have some cinnamon in the chili), but it’s different. And it’s very effective.

WP: Tony Sipp (3 – 4)
LP: Danny Farquhar (1 – 7)
SV : Luke Gregerson (31)

submitted by Sphinx Drummond

BOX
Game Zone

Sometimes a baseball god needs an assist. It has been well documented that Wóden is a big baseball fan and tends to favor the Astros more often than not. It is also well documented that sometimes the Astros ask for more than one god is able to deliver. Wóden did his best but the Norse sea god Ægir is a Mariner fan and was determined not to let Wóden succeed. However Ægir was so preoccupied with Wóden that he totally missed it when Thor took over after the midnight hour.

Thor has a close relationship with Wóden, and when Wóden needs someone to put the hammer down, he has often looked in Thor’s direction. So when Wednesday ebbed into Thursday, Thor was at the ready, caught Ægir looking at Wóden and quickly handed his hammer over to their beloved Scandinavian son Colby Rasmus, whom they know as a direct descendant of St. Erasmus, Colby took the hammer and and used it to hit a single and drive in the winning run in the form of Jonathan Villar who was on third and running for Evan Gattis who had tripled. Thank you Thor. Fuck you Ægir. I’m glad Loki killed your servant Fimafeng. HAHAHAHAHAHA.

Now you know why the Astros won, If you want to know how the game played out check out the gamezone and boxscore. Thursday is a day off, Friday the Astros are in Phoenix to start the last 3 game series of the regular season. Just win boys.

Howdy! I guess all ya’ll have been wonderin’ how things have been since I dropped out of the Presidential race. It was a tough decision on my part, and to be honest, I’d probably still be in if I hadn’t received this from the Houston Astros Baseball Club:

Dear Governor Perry:
Thank you so much for your kind invitation for us to participate in your campaign for President. It is a noble endeavor, and the Houston Astros have long been your friend and have admired your leadership in our great State and Nation.

Yours,
Miss Lola LaLoush
Director of Public Relations
Houston Astros Baseball Club

Ain’t that just the last nail in the coffin? I know a Dear John when I see it, and that’s a brush-off if ever. Of course they haven’t been all that hot themselves. Did you see that catastrophe last night? Couldn’t get out of the 4th without Kazmir given up 6 runs, their two runs were pretty much afterthoughts, and their second best player clotheslined their best player to put him out for the rest of the season, I reckon. That’s some mighty hard steppin’. Hell, if this were the Republican nomination they’d be me and Scott Walker. I guess now that they’re out of first I’m reminding everyone of my lifelong support of the Texas team, the Rangers. No one can ever say that this governor changed his loyalties.

Droppin’ out hasn’t been that bad. I’ve spent a lot of time with Anita and the kids, and have a good chance to do some coyote huntin’. And I’ve been calling lots of old friends from my gubernatorial days. Shoot, some of them even returned my calls. And I’m really glad that Walker fella was next. People were always talkin’ about how he hadn’t finished college. Hell, I was surprised he’d finished junior high. What a Wisconsin Weanie.

Meanwhile I received some nice notes from folk, includin’ this from that fella Bench:

Oh woe! Wail-y! How can this be?
A President who’s not Perr-y?
Oh woe! Boo-hoo! What can we do
Without our Rick? We have no clue!

He was always sendin’ me the nicest notes, and they say poetry is dead. Just goes to show you just have to start with a properly poetical subject.

I have been lookin’ for a new gig. That job as Commissioner of baseball got filled while I was campaigning, and the National Rifle Association hasn’t yet returned my calls. Ted Kruse called and said that once he and Trump were Co-Presidents, I could be Secretary of Energy, but I’m not being anybody’s secretary. It ain’t manly. Anyway I think I’ve found just the thing.

As you know, I was a Aggie Yell Leader back in the day, and that gives me a long history in sports. Plus I’ve been recappin’ Rangers/Astros games here on OWA for almost three years. You probably heard by now that that fella’ Patterson resigned at TU, and I’m thinkin’ it’s a fittin’ job for me while I’m waitin’ for Chancellor at A&M to open. As soon as that fella Abbott returns my calls, we’re gonna be talkin’.

Your friend,
Rick

WP: Gott (3 – 2)
LP: Harris (5 – 5)
SV: Street (40)

Submitted by Sphinx Drummond