Astros 0, Pirates 9
L: Roy Oswalt, W: Paul Maholm

Astros Recap
Gamezone

To quote Austro, “The Astros have been almost comically inept at times this year. Saturday night was one of those times.” Just change Saturday night to Sunday afternoon.

I do not believe a single batter in the Astros lineup puts fear into an opposing pitcher. Paul Maholm tossed a 3-hitter. 3 hits on the whole afternoon. Now, I’ll give an opposing pitcher credit, but really, Paul Maholm. He’s not known as a dominating pitcher.

The Astros pitching staff gave up 19 hits, 8 of which were for extra bases. Tim Byrdak and Gustavo Chacin were the only pitchers to not allow any runs.

This was just a shitty game. The Astros had 4 baserunners on the day, 2 erased by double plays.

Oh well, maybe they were saving all the hits and runs for the next series against the Cubs. God, I hope so.

Contributed by austro
PNC Park
July 17, 2010

Astros 6 Pirates 12

WP Lopez (2-1) LP Norris (2-7)

Astros.com
GameZone

The Astros have been almost comically inept at times this year. Saturday night was one of those times.

The fun started in the bottom of the 1st, when Chris Johnson made a nice pick-up of a hopper between 3rd and short but threw poorly to 1st. That was followed by a single, a double, a strikeout, a single by the spectacular Lastings Milledge, and a pop-up by catcher Kratz in his first ML AB. When the smoke cleared, the Astros were down 3-0.

Pence led off the 2nd with a drive to the seats in LF. Castro lined a single to right, and then Sanchez drove a ball to deep RCF that misplayed into a double, driving in Johnson and leaving Castro and Sanchez on 3rd and 2nd. Then Norris bunted for a base hit, leaving the bases loaded. Bourn then doubled over an inexplicably drawn-in outfield, leaving Norris on 3rd and Bourn on 2nd, and still no outs.

At this point, it seemed that the Astros were about to make a mockery of things. They were, but not the way I expected. Keppinger grounded a ball up the middle and somehow Bourn managed to get himself tagged out on the play. Berkman then walked, and that was the end of the evening for Ohlendorf. Carrasco came in to relieve,and then Lee came up and performed his GIDP specialty. The Astros went to the bottom of the inning leading 4-3, but the lost opportunity foreshadowed later trouble.

The Astros immediately gave the lead back to the Pirates in the bottom of the 2nd. Cedeno led off with a double, followed one out later by a McCutchen walk. Tabata spanked a double, scoring Cedeno and McCutchen and giving the Pirates a 5-4 lead.

The Astros gave it one more shot in the 5th inning. Berkman walked with one out, and after a Lee fly out, Pence singled to RF. The Pirates replaced Carrasco with Lopez, and Johnson greeted him with a solid double to CF, scoring Berkman and Pence and giving the Astros a 6-5 lead. However, that lead was short-lived, as the Pirates scored two in the bottom of the inning. Norris got the first two outs of the inning but couldn’t ever get a third. Successive singles by Milledge, Kratz (his first ML hit), and Cedeno scored a run and chased Norris. Sampson came on to pitch, and Church greeted him with a pinch single to drive in Milledge and reclaim a 7-6 lead for the Pirates.

And that was the end of the offense for the Astros. The Pirates abused a variety of Astros relievers for 5 more runs before it was all over. Ugly.

The Astros will go for the series win Sunday at 12:30pm. Oswalt will face off against Maholm. A win for Roy will tie the club record for victories (with Niekro), so come join the fun in the GameZone.

Contributed by austro
Friday, July 16, 2010

Astros 5
Pirates 2

WP: Myers (7-6) SV: Lindstrom (22) LP: Duke (3-9)

Astros.com
GameZone

Ho, hum: another Myers start, another 7.2 IP, 2 ER effort. It’s too bad there’s no Most Consistent Player award, because Myers would be the hands-down winner.

The Astros started the night off with a run in the 1st inning. Bourgeois led off with a single, stole 2nd and 3rd, and then came home on a Keppinger FC. In the second, Pence led off with a single (Bagwll-as-hitting-coach already yielding benefits!), moved to 2nd on a WP, and then scored by a double to RF by Q.

PIT managed to scrape up a run in the bottom of the 4th. McCutchen led off with a double, moved to 3rd on a ground out, and then scored on a sac fly to LF. Myers got the third out without a hitch.

The Astros picked up two more in the top of the 6th. Keppinger led off by smacking some weak-ass shit down the LF line for a solo homer. Pence followed with a one-out walk (after another Berkman K) and moved to 2nd on a Johnson single. Both runners moved up on a WP to Sanchez, and then Sanchez squeezed Pence home for the second run. They added one more run in the top of the 7th when Bourgeois walked, moved to 2nd on a balk, moved to 3rd on a ground out, and scored on a Keppinger double.

The Pirates closed out the scoring when the incomparable Lastings Milledge led off with a double and eventually scored on a McCutchen single. That was the end of it, though, when Lyon and Lindstrom closed things out.

There’s a half-assed rumor floating around that the Astros could wind up with Milledge in some whacko three-way trade; please, God, don’t let this happen.

Catch the Saturday game at 6pm. Accoring to strosrays’ outstanding preview, that’s a Bud Norris vs Ross Ohlendorf matchup. Break out your Sears poncho and help cheer the Astros to victory.

Contributed by austro
St Louis at Houston
Minute Maid Park
July 10, 2010

Astros 4 | St. Louis 1

WP: Myers (6-6) SV: Lindstrom (21) LP: Suppan (0-5)

Astros.com
GameZone

I imagine that Roy Oswalt isn’t the only pitcher people are asking about when they call Ed Wade. Brett Myers once again showed why he could be a very valuable pick-up in the right situation, putting up an 8 IP, 1 ER, 5H, 0 BB, 5 K line. That was his 18th consecutive start of 6+ innings, and it dropped his ERA to 3.41.

The Astros got things started in the 1st. Bourn flied out, but Keppinger followed with a double and Berkman walked. Lee tried to ground into a double play, but the SS was slow delivering the ball to the 2B and Lee was safe at first by a whisker. Pence walked to load the bases, and then Feliz drove in Keppinger and Lee with a single to LF. Q blooped a single on the RF line to drive in Pence and make it 3-0 for the good guys.

The 2nd inning featured a couple of nice defensive plays by the Astros. Jon Jay — playing for Rasmus, who has a tender hamstring — singled, but Q nailed him when he tried to steal second (with a nice tag by Keppinger). And Navarro got the third out on a slow hopper that he had to come in on and throw across his body. In the 3rd inning Feliz made a nice reaction stop on a hard-hit ground ball by Lopez.

In the 4th inning Pujols mashed a one-out triple off the Astros’ bullpen. Pence gave it a good try, climbing the fence to try to get it; he looked like he was there in time, but he miscalculated the spot and the ball bounced off the fence and back into RF. If Pence had bothered to hit the cutoff man they might have thrown Pujols out, but of course, that’s not part of Pence’s game. Holliday drove Pujols in with a tapper to SS to give the Cards their only run and make the score 3-1.

The Astros closed out the scoring in the bottom of the 5th inning when Jeff “You can’t throw that weak-ass shit to me, bitch!” Keppinger went deep to LF off of Suppan, making it 4-1.

And that was all that Myers needed, as he just kept mowing down the Cards. Lindstrom came on and pitched an uneventful 9th inning to wrap things up, although he walked two batters.

The series concludes Sunday afternoon at 1pm.

Contributed by austro

St. Louis at Houston
Minute Maid Park
July 9, 2010

Houston 0, St Louis 8

WP: Wainwright (13-5) | LP: Norris (2-6)

Astros.com
Gamezone

This one started out as an interesting pitching matchup, since Wainwright owns the Astros and Norris has owned the Cards recently. And for 7 innings that held true, although Norris surrendered single runs in the first and the second. The Astros, ever the accommodating hosts, declined to score.

But in the 8th inning, with 2 outs, the Cards mounted a rally. Rasmus ripped a ground ball double down the 1B line. The Astros elected to IBB Pujols, which seemed to upset Norris a little bit. Whatever the reason, he wound up giving up a gigantic crank-ball to Holliday for a 5-0 Cards’ lead. That’s unlucky, because he really pitched much better than his overall line will lead people to think.

The bad news continued in the 9th. Schumaker hit a one-out single through the hole, and then Lopez hit a line drive into RF. What happened next is hard to describe. Pence hesitated a moment, then decided to come in, and then decided to dive for the ball. When I was a boy, my family used to go up to the southwestern part of Michigan to visit cousins who owned a wonderful cottage on the shores of Lake Michigan. When the wind was out of the northwest, we would get pretty good waves breaking on a sand bar about 100 yards out into the lake. My brother and I would go out there and try to catch those waves and body surf into the shore. One particularly good day he and I caught a good wave and surfed our way in. I got in first and turned back to watch him, but he was unlucky enough to get caught up in the wave as it broke just before the shore. All I saw were arms and legs flying in different directions, and I after I determined that he was ok I decided it was one of the most hilarious things I had ever seen. That’s pretty much what Pence looked like as he tried to make the catch. Naturally, he failed, and the ball went to the fence for a double, scoring Schumaker. One out and one pitcher later, Pujols came up and finished the story, clobbering a Conoco Pump shot off of Daigle to produce the final 8-0 score.

So it’s yet another shutout for the Astros, and yet another submission hold for Wainwright, who is now something like 9-1 against the Astros (we’re beginning to get the idea of what the Reds feel like when Roy takes the hill). On the other hand, Norris actually did pretty well, and there’s hope for the future. This season isn’t going anywhere, so we’ll take our encouragement where we can.

Thursday, July 8, 2010

Pirates 0
Astros 2

W: Oswalt | L: Ohlendorf

Astros.com
Gamezone

Roy pitched a gem when it counted. Sure, he helped the team sweep the lowly Pirates and stay safely above them at the bottom of the standings. But today’s 1-hitter counted more in the “when” column, as in “when will the trigger be pulled” on the swap that will finally give Roy what he wants and hopefully, the Astros some needed pieces looking towards the future.

McTaggart Tweet:
“Teams with scouts here watching Oswalt: Dodgers, Phillies, Rays and Mets.”

What they saw was, I suppose, vintage Oswalt. Efficient and effective, he held the Pirates hitters down with 8 Ks and just 2 BBs. A few fine defensive plays helped the cause, including a diving stab of a hot liner in the 9th by Berkman.

In fact, Twinkie did everything but sell popcorn between innings. His 1st inning pop fly found the Crawfords after about 15 seconds in the air. He did it again in the 4th, this time with a little more ‘oomph’ to top out the Astros scoring at 2.

Roy’s win leaves him 1 shy of the Astros wins record held by Joe Niekro. It was a Roy/Lance lovefest. Twinkie offered this up after the game:

“I don’t know that we need to start singing his swan song just yet with the Astros,” Berkman said. “I’d say it’s probably a longshot that he gets traded. I just feel that way. I’m not saying it won’t happen, but I don’t know that it’s a great possibility.”

Hmmmm?

Astros start the last series before the All-Star break tomorrow night as the reeling Turdinals come to town. Wainwright at Norris @ 7:05 CDT.