Miami Fish 5|Houston Welcome Home Mats 4
Super Mario Park
The visiting Houston Astros brought house warming gifts to the Miami Marlins tonight, giving them four runs in the first three innings. Playing the part of the good guest that Ms. Manners would be proud of was Lucas Harrel, who resembled anything but a starting pitcher on this night. He may as well serve tea and crumpets all night long the way he was making the Marlins feel so warm and fuzzy with all the nice-nice he was serving up. Oh, he had help from his mates out in the field, but all in all, Harrel was just what the Marlins needed to fluff the pillows and prop their feet up in their nice new home.  Just a second…

GOOD LORD! WHAT A HIDEOUS MONSTROUSITY OUT IN LEFT FIELD!!! NOOOO, SERIOUSLY?!?! COME ON!!!

Okay, now back to your recap. The good guys spotted themselves a one run lead early in the first inning, looking for all the world like a team wanting to compete tonight. The Harrel took over and that was that. So it was up to the bullpen to play the role of rude guest tonight and shut down the Fish while the team tried to climb back into this game. It’s becoming a staple of this team to fight, fight, fight to get back into games that seem lost causes and that’s good to see. Perhaps too young to know better is at work here, but honestly, the best way to compete is to score enough runs and prevent the other team from scoring any (or at minimum fewer than you). That means good pitching and good defense… so the young Astros have to work on that part, mkay. Wait a moment….

I’M SERIOUS, WHO THOUGHT THIS WAS A GOOD IDEA?!?! ANYONE? THIS IS PURE INSANITY…

In the end, the Astros tied the game at four to reward the bullpen for doing good work on a seriously huge blast by Miami native J.D. Martinez. Way to go kid! Of course, it would be all for naught in the eleventh inning when Brandon Lyon came in and promptly brought out the nescafe and sweet bread to end the night for the local nine. He gave up the winning run on two straight hits and sent everyone home happy. Ah, what a beautiful scene of bliss for the home team and fans. Good night everyone, drive home safely!

LOOK, YOU’VE GONE AND BLINDED OZZIE WITH THIS.. THIS… WHAT THE HELL IS IT?!?!  I HOPE YOU’RE HAPPY MIAMI!!!

You win as a team, and you lose as a team. But sometimes, you just have to take matters into your own hands. Else, you may have the manager deciding to do radical things, like deciding your not contributing to the cause. Maybe even send you down to the farm to regroup (are you listening JR?). Or worse yet, someone may decided to bring in a head shrink that will say things like “Do your best, it’s all you can do” or “Visualize a win” or even “Losing is like a disease, as contagious as the Bubonic plague”. If so, then we need a MASH unit in here, pronto!

Truth be told, Jordan Lyles is young and this will serve him well for the long run, but the short term of not winning a game yet is going to gnaw at him. It doesn’t help when you run into a red hot Florida Marlins team bolstered by the home cooking and fan attendance… oh wait…. nevermind that last part, let’s just leave it at red hot Florida Marlins. Lyles was spotted an early two zip lead in the first inning, only to have it go away as quickly as it came in the first opportunity for Lyles to toe the rubber. 2 zip was quickly 2-2 on a Hanley “Showboat” Ramirez dinger to right centerfield. BTW – why is Hanley not dotted more than any other player in the history of the game? The talented “me first, game second” player is just about the closest thing to a prima donna that I’ve ever seen. But I digress.

It didn’t take long after that for Lyles to lose the opportunity to win a game in the mlb. No, Lyles is not going to win a game all by himself, he doesn’t have the stuff to do that sort of thing. He needs help from his teammates who look lethargic out in the field and almost resigned to their fate as a second class team. Words like “We are trying hard” and “We leave it all in the field” are nice, but actions would be good to match said words too. Lyles had a huge part in the lost last night, missing spots with regularity that he cannot afford to miss. Not with this team. In the end, it was yet another loss to the tune of 6-3, almost predictably so sad to say.

Image of Losing Is a Disease Like Bubonic Plague
Losing is a disease, call a doctor!

Florida Marlins 6 – Houston Astros 3
WP: Javier Vazquez | LP: Jordan Lyles
Astros.com recap
Game videos
There was a gameszone for this game?

Chavez Ravine has traditionally been a very good place for pitchers to find themselves. Basically, the way it works is this: If pitcher wants a little support other than defense, then find a pitcher’s park to pitch in. That in essence explains Chan Ho Park, but that is another story for another day. On this day it was Brett Myers, a struggling ACE for the Houston Astros. After a couple of hours of toiling on the mound, Myers picked up his third win of the season by tossing a 4 hit, one run, complete game gem.

Thank you Chavez Ravine, thank you very much!

Houston Astros 7 – LA Dodgers 3
WP: Brett Myers | LP: Ted Lilly

For the rest of the team, it was a matter of finally getting back to the type of game they can win, a good defense supported by timely hitting. By and large the Astros have been running into a bit of bad luck hitting the baseball lately. The old atom ball had vexed the team, but on this day against the LA Trolley Men, the well placed key hit dink fly ball double helped as well as some extraordinary hitting by Carlos Lee. Clint Barmes, he of the dink double and Chris Johnson, he of the hard hit double, were the rbi men for the team along with Lee. So frisky was Lee on this night that he attempted not one but two stolen bases against the LA’ers. He snuck one off Ted Lilly who ignored him and let him take a running head start to second and then he was not so dastardly the second time, getting gunned down easily.

Overall, nice 2011 Houston Astros win on the night. JD and Brownie wondered out loud if both JA Happ and Myers could turn their season around, exactly what type of team would the Astros be? Yes indeed, the team has to win with pitching and timely hitting to succeed, as do all teams in the MLB. However, for the Astros, it just seems to be the *only* way to win. Hopefully the way Myers is starting to pitch isn’t about trade rumors and the possibility to pitch somewhere else if he steps up his game.

Gamezone
Game Videos
Astros.com Recap