File this under “Haven’t we’ve seen this before?”.  Aaron “the beast” Harang dominated the Houston nine on this night to the tune of four hits, one run and a whole bunch of weak swings.  In the words of Jimmy D “He just throws a mystery ball.  Nothing special, you just don’t seem to square it.”  On the other side, J. Happ(y) was just as masterful against the San Diego Padres but alas late in the game they got to him with bleeders and seeing eye hits and one big blast double to end the night for the young, tall lefty.  Before you knew it, a 1-1 game became a 4-1 lead for the Friars and with the bullpen they throw at teams, that typically means game over.

But credit the blood n’ mud, they kept fighting and in the end they had their chances.  The high drama was realized when Jason Michaels stepped into the box to bat against the rotund Padre closer Heath Bell.  Seems history tells us that JMike is kryptonite to Bell’s superman saver skills.  This was going to be fun, you may even see Bell sweat a few lbs off in the process.  Eeewww.  Any way, with a man on first, two outs and Houston in dire need of a blast of their own to tie the game at minimum or keep the game going, in stepped JMike to hit.  I’m guessing JMike sees the ball well from Bell, because he spit on pitches he didn’t want to swing at, including a hanging curveball and then swung hard at an outside fastball.  It looked good coming off his bat, but Bell was able to put the pitch where he wanted to, up and away, to keep Michaels from really driving the ball.  Instead, it was a high fly ball to deep right center and the game was done.

And there was much rejoicing by the monkey boy Harang!

Game Quick Hitters:

WP: Aaron Harang | LP: J. Happ
Sv: H. Bell
Player of the game: Aaron “Clyde” Harang

Read and watch more about the game  here:
MLB Game Report
Box Score
Video Highlights
SnS Gamezone Madness

Marlins 4 – Astros 3
WP – Nolasco | LP – Lopez
Boxscore
Gamezone

There are rodeo clowns, and then there are just plain clowns.

I can bat third, no problem!

Yeah, that sounds like I’m going to be just a tad harsh on the young Astros team.  Not really, just a bit realistic because if you wanna be a clown, then don’t be surprised if you’re called one.  More on that later, first today was SnS day at Minute Maid Park and how nice of the Astros to do all sorts of nice things to honor us.  Giant flag, propping Milo up on crutches so he can be on the field to announce the starting lineups (and all team members, coaches, trainers, radio announcers, and even some of the Coca Cola Patrol… I think, I lost interest when Milo rambled on and on).  There was even a young nubile singer dressed in a shiny red dress and an interesting rendention of the National Anthem.  Yeah, there is just no way I’ll ever hear someone just sing the song the way it was intended when penned by Francis Scott Key in my lifetime ever again.  They ended the SnS welcome ceremonies with a flyover of WWII aircrafts… methinks in honor of Coach Raup, who probably flew one of those babies in the great war.

Nice of the Astros Pam Gardner to do all that just for us.  Next time though, get us better seats Pammy, all we could see of the new scoreboard were several gianormous pixels right over our head.  You know how scary it can be to turn to see the young lady singing the National Anthem and all you see is two giant nostrils staring back at you?  No, no you don’t.  And nevermind trying to get an idea on how the opposing team’s players are doing, much less who is batting when all you can see is a giant “1” or “.3″ and nothing else.  I got the sense of what it may be like to be an ant sitting underneath a 62” widescreen tv.  But you know, that is about all Pammy did wrong on the day for us, we were treated well.

Thank you Houston Astros for the warm welcome and even fireworks in our hon… what?  Really?  Not for us?  Are you sure?  Ooohhhh… Opening day?  But that was last week! *sigh*, okay, my bad.

AS far as the game itself, the Astros lost the game in unique fashion: Some interesting baserunning that yields nothing but *yuk, yuk* moments, some very interesting ABs at critical moments in the game worthy of carousel music, and last but certainly not least, bulpen performance that makes one wonder how long until Ed Wade is on the phone to Oklahoma to call up the next wave of batting practice throwing firemen.  I’m sure they will arrive all riding mini motorcycles wearing giant water spouting flowers on their lapels.

Here is the thing, there were good moments on the night for the Astros too: Wandy pitched well, Billy Hall taking out Hanley Ramirez with some hustle even Pete Rose would be proud of and Brett Wallace showing that one day he will be the best hitter on the team… maybe next week if I were doing the managing (but good for everyone, I’m not).  None of those moments were more surprising than JR Towles actually throwing out a runner trying to steal.  I was there, I saw it, it was no fluke.  The guy running was not Benji Molina-like, he looked like a man capable of stealing a bag if necessary.  JR actually managed to throw a laser to second and on the button to actually give notice that this night was indeed his night.  Why?  Because earlier he had a homerun and single and before the night was over, he’d have a significant hit to give hope to the SnS, rally cap wearing, hoarse from screaming gang that a win was in the offing.  It was not a fluke that sitting right behind our group was a young man in a wheelchair who communicated with a bicycle horn.  Quite fitting indeed.  Gave rise to the now signal of honor from the SnS for Mr. Towless, a couple of squeezes of the snozola for a job well done.  Alas, the win was not to be as pinch runner Booj-wah was thrown out trying to steal a bag to end the game.  Fitting end to the whole circus if you ask me.

Quite a festive night, are you sure it wasn’t SnS night at the park?