Tuesday, June 29, 2010

Milwaukee 7 | Houston 5 |
Michael Bourn 1 | Jim Edmonds 0

Astros.com Recap
Gamezone

Often you hear about the game within the game. It was never more evident when the irony of irony happened early in the battle between the Brewers and the Astros. With the score at goose-eggs for both sides, up steps Jim Edmonds, one time considered *THE* premiere centerfielder in the MLB. Taking a page from days of yore when he was a feared hitter, Edmonds took a Brett Myers fastball offering and smashed it to dead center. Cue today’s premiere centerfielder, Houston’s own Michael Bourn. Running with his back to the infield, trying to track the flight of the ball as he ran, Bourn made one final adjustment and at the last minute extended the glove out and made what can only be described as a spectacular over the shoulder catch.

All that was left is for Bourn to smile, nay laugh out loud (Yes, the proverbial LOL personified), as he ran back to his normal position. It’s great when you see Bourn amuse himself with his exploits, but it’s just that much more enjoyable when it is done against a player who often times had the penchant to make the spectacular out of the routine to frustrate opponents. That laugh is going to be a highlight of this miserable season just because it is so much fun to replay over and over again.

Now for the game itself. What can be said other than if you allow four flyballs to get out of the park, then you don’t give Bourn and his outfield friends to help you. Brett Myers had a horrible start in this game, allowing five runs early all to score on Brewer round-trippers. One of them against his opposing pitcher too. It is to the credit of the Astros that they did not mail it in after those five went on the scoreboard. It is as if both Milwaukee and Houston decided to play AL ball, no pitching, all offense. The final score says that the Astros were too little too late to pull out a win, but in the end, you can take Myer’s opinion and shake your head in agreement:

“My job, when we score runs, is to go out there and not let them score,” he said. “I wasn’t able to do that tonight. Everything felt fine and everything looked fine coming out, but you make bad pitches and good pitches and they were hitting them. They had a good approach tonight.”

Thank you Mr. Myers, how refreshing to read someone take accountability for their own performance. Day game today to see who take the rubber game of the series.

Astros at Brewers, 6/28/2010
Astros 9, Brewers 5
W: Chacin (1-0) L: Coffey (2-2)
HR: Bourn (1) dropping it upper tank; Braun (11)

Well, this followed a familiar pattern. The good guys dropped an early score on a defensive breakdown, as Bud showed his aversion to Miller by throwing away a pickoff throw, leading to a cheap RBI single for Braun. The Brewers continued to press the advantage, using a fluke double from their pitcher (off Johnson’s glove) and a nice cross from Hart to go up by an insurmountable 4-0 in the first half.

Sorry… too much World Cup.

The Beautiful Game

Milwaukee. Not Beautiful.

Anyways, the Good Guys started the comeback when Bourn hulked up to smash a home run, his first in about fifty kajillion at bats. This, and his 4-6 night, would soothe the pain of later being rung up for a third strike after attempting to call time and step out of the box.

Bud settled down, only giving up Braun’s solo HR to make it 5 runs thru 5 innings, and the bullpen took care of the rest, with Chacin, Byrdak, Lyon, and Fulchino taking care of business.

Amazingly, the Astros got big offensive contributions from Feliz and Lee in the later innings, chipping in a couple runs apiece, to make this a 9-5 win for your non-last-place Houston Astros!

Check back again tonight as Houston’s ace takes the hill.

contributed by austro (dude went on the DL with writing cramps after this contribution)
Sunday, June 27, 2010

Astros 1
Rangers 10

WP: Hunter (4-0) LP: Oswalt (5-10)

Astros.com
GameZone

Well, now the Astros have BOTH of the pitchers with the most losses in the big leagues (Wandy, of course, being the other). The defense behind Oswalt let him down again, coughing up a monster 2-run jack to Hamilton in the second, and then collapsing for another homer to Young in the third. With help like that, it’s easy to understand why a guy might take the rest of the afternoon off, which Oswalt did after 4 2/3 IP, 8 R, 7 ER, and 7 hits. Of course, that’s a week’s worth of runs for the Astros offense, so there wasn’t really any doubt about the outcome by the time Roy ambled off the hill. Roy’s seeming indifference to the whole spectacle is troubling, as is the increasing doubt about getting back anything of value in a trade. Perhaps we can borrow Evan Longoria from the Rays for an inning or two to let Roy know that we’re not seeing the sort of effort that is expected.

Not a lot of highlights in this one. The Astros lone run scored when Bourn knocked in Blum in the top of the fifth, but the game was already decided by that point. Bourgeois made a nice diving catch on a fly ball, but there is some question about whether that became necessary because of a bad read. Johnson had yet another error at 3B, giving him a total of five since rejoining the big club last Monday; keep that up, and you’ll be back in Round Rock soon, son. And Berkman’s homer on Friday is looking more and more like an aberration rather than the start of something good, since he hasn’t really struck anything solidly since then.

But at least Arlington is in the rear view mirror now, along with the rest of the AL. Now it’s off to Milwaukee to face the Brewers, who are finally starting to show a pulse.

contributed by austro (pinch-hitter dee-lux!)
Saturday, June 26, 2010

Astros 2
Rangers 7

WP: Wilson (6-3) LP: Banks (0-1)

Astros.com
Gamezone

Josh Banks drew the short straw for the afternoon start at the Tandoori in Arlington. He was in trouble from the beginning in his first start as an Astro. He managed to escape unscathed in the first two innings, stranding 5 baserunners, but in the bottom of the third the Rangers finally broke through to take a 1-0 lead. Meanwhile, the Astros were producing some baserunners, but Keppinger and Berkman both hit into double plays to kill innings.

There was a brief moment of hope in the top of the fourth when Jason Michaels smacked a two-run homer to give the Astros a 2-1 lead. But the Rangers extinguished that hope in the bottom of the fourth, first with a run-scoring double by Ramirez and then with a 3-run shot by Kinsler. That put the Rangers out to 5-2 lead and effectively meant the end of the game. The Rangers added two more in the fifth, and the Astros didn’t.

At the end of the day, the Rangers had 7 runs and 15 hits to the Astros’ 2 and 5. Banks was charged with 6 ER in 4+ IP. Just another day at the office.

Tune in Sunday at 7pm for the series finale (finally).

contributed by austro (our very own Corey Sullivan… oh wait)

Friday, June 25, 2010

Astros 7
Rangers 4

WP: Moehler (1-4) SV: Lindstrom (14) LP: Lewis (7-5)

Astros.com
Gamezone

Well, this game had a little bit of everything:

* Spazz slipping and falling while coming in on a line drive, then reaching up and knocking the ball down to keep it to a single;

* Blum rounding first too wide and getting caught in a rundown when the Rangers threw behind him;

* Elvis Andrus making a ridiculous over-the-shoulder diving catch on a blooper by Berkman;

* Twinkie returning the favor by making a diving stop on Adrus’ ball down the line;

* Ian Kinsler gettng thrown out for not saying anything (although the bat flip and helmet chunk were probably enough);

* Chris Johnson committing his fourth error in five (?) games on an easy two-hopper hit directly at him;

* The return of the Puma, as Berkman absolutely crushed a homer to dead center;

* HP ump getting beaned by a fastball when the Rangers’ catcher got crossed up;

* Q laying down a bunt with 2 out and making it to second when the Rangers threw the ball away (no doubt aided by the fact that Q was about 5 feet out of the basepath in fair territory);

* Navarro dropping a simple little pop-up when he tried to transfer the ball to his throwing hand (ruled an error).

Moehler gave a serviceable effort; not his finest, to be sure, but at 5IP-3R-2ER, it certainly wasn’t a disaster either. Most importantly, he never gave in to a batter: he always kept trying to work corners, even when that meant walking in a run, and worked his way out of a couple of bases-loaded jams. With the help of Sampson, Chacin, Lopez, and Lindstrom, that was enough to end the Rangers win streak and give Moehler his first win since last August. Johnson provided 3 RBI, and Pence, Blum, and Berkman had one apiece. Bourn and Bourgeois both stole a base. For the Rangers, Hamilton (who is hitting over .500 for the last three weeks) had three hits to extend his hitting streak to 19 games.

Come back tomorrow for some hot, steamy action at 2pm. The game is on Fox, so there’s no telling what kind of slap-dick announcing crew we’ll get. You may want to start drinking early to numb the pain.

Thursday, June 24, 2010

Gints 5
Astros 7

W: Wandy | L: Cain | S: Lindstrom

Astros.com
Gamezone

These chumps missed Wandy's win!

...and Castro's first MLB jack!!

Happy iPhone 4 Day, all you tech geeks (and Limey)! Good thing you weren’t out waiting in line for a phone because you would have missed a good one. I missed most of it but it wasn’t Steve Jobs’ fault. The geniuses who made sports watchable on the interwebs have cost me a bit of productivity this week and it all has come crashing down. But, I saw enough to scare up a coupla bullet points:

► In his last 7 starts, Matt Cain had given up only 7 earned runs. Today he gave up 7 in less than 3 innings.
► Pence blew it open early when he hit a chest-high FB waaay out towards the Conoco Pump for a 3-run HR.
► Jason Castro went yard for the first time in his Major League career with a mammoth blast to the upper deck in right.
► Wandy seemed to right things a bit, going 6 and giving up just 4 hits. He did a great job pitching around…
► …ugliness again in the field as 4 of the 5 SF runs were unearned. 3 errors for the 2nd straight game (2 for Blum) almost cost them this one.
► The only SF run earned was during another creative “save situation” for Lindstrom. 3 hits and a run before he gets the Uribe K to end it.

The last round of interleague horseshit begins tomorrow night in Arlington with Moehler facing Lewis. Check out more of Craig’s epic Dallas-hate in his Series Preview.

Yesterday, SnS Apple analyst Limey reported the hubbub regarding the iPhone 4’s signal issues when holding the phone a certain way, particularly left-handed. Steve Jobs has a brilliant solution; don’t hold it that way!