Tuesday, April 21, 2010

Astros 7
Fish 5

W: Lyon (1-1) | L: Wood (0-1) | S: Lindstrom (3)

Astros.com Wrap

Oh, shit. I write these things for Tuesday games now? Terrific. Let’s go…

The hottest team in baseball, Vegas favorites and inevitable World Series champions – YOUR 2010 HOUSTON ASTROS – kept the good times rolling with a late comeback victory last night against the hated rival extant Marlins of Florida. The game saw the restoration of order and reason to the lineup, with Berkman’s return to the snack corner and the three-hole in the order. He looked just as nimble and spry as he’s capable of looking, driving in two (on groundouts, yeah, but still…), doubling to left and diving all over his designated chat zone in the field. Let the record show that the first opposing player chatted up on defense was Cameron Maybin in the 1st, the first while standing on base was Dan Uggla in the 3rd, and Fat Elvis did not see his shadow.

The Fish struck first on a barrage of singles to open the game, plating two in the 1st. The Good Guys got one back in the bottom half, with Bourn walking, thieving his way around the diamond, and scoring on a slow Puma groundout to third. Scoring went back and forth all game long, with the Marlins holding a 4-3 lead heading into the bottom of the 7th.

Blum and Bourn both reached with no outs, and Kepp moved them into scoring position with a sac bunt. Twinkie plated Blum with the tying run on a sharp grounder to second, before the inning ended on a Flapjack pop-up. In the 8th, Thunderpants doubled to left, then moved to third on a Feliz single. Kaz broke the tie with a damn fine sac bunt down the first base line, after showing bunt on the previous pitch. Michaels came in to pinch hit in the next at-bat, and crushed a smokey to deep left, extending the lead to 7-4 and providing the crucial cushion.

Lindstrom came in to seal it, and notched his third save in three games, after allowing one run on a couple of singles and a wild pitch. Lyon picked up the win with a perfect 8th, leaving Myers with a no-decision after seven pretty decent innings of not punching anyone in the face. The ‘Stros have now won 4 of 5, and are clearly bound for the postseason. The presumptive victory tour continues tonight with Bud Norris squaring off agin Josh Johnson at 7:05, in which Carlos Lee drives in three runs because I said so that’s why.

WHAT IS MY POINT?
I’m not going to lie. As I sit down to write this it’s after midnight.  I’ve had more than a few margaritas. And I’m about to watch the dvr’d game with absolutely zero knowledge as to what transpired earlier this afternoon.  I’m feeling a mix of hope and a very real desire for chocolate, and I’m fine with that.

WHY DOES IT MATTER?
This is going to be the cliff’s notes version of a game that I am fast-forwarding through not because I’m lazy, but because I’m a thousand miles from sober and some of us have to work in the morning.  So if you aren’t up for reading my random thoughts along with a little dab o’baseball, I would politely ask that you to fuck off.

LET’S PLAY BALL

Noscorenoscorenoscorenoscorenoscore

Someone got a hit. Who is this paulino fellow and why isn’t he in the lineup everyday? Sombitch.  Why are the astros unable to get anything out of the middle of the order.  That really needs to change.

I have a ridiculous amount of change in my wallet right now.  Entering the beltway the other day, I handed the toll worker a fiver and she gave me back four dollars all in jingly change.  I didn’t ask for that it that way and wasn’t ready for it, as is evidenced by my left wrist which is now “stove up“ (or is it “locked up”? I always confuse the two) from the 3 pounds of coinage that was plunked into my hand.   

Hate. The. cubs.

Fastforwardfastforwardfastforward

How old is carlos silva?

2x…15x…go faster!

Ok, cool. The astros are ahead. Paulino must be comfortable out there.   Cubs fans are horrid, horrid creatures.  Or, as my kid would say: bigscusting.   

I’m actually really excited about following Manzella and Johnson this season.  And not at all in a restraining order way.  not yet, anyway. 

Uh oh.  What’s going on felipe?  Fuck.  I wonder what the gamezone has to say about this.

There should be leftover easter candy somewhere in this house. It’s down to the final remnants, so while I long for a peanut butter cup I know all I can really hope for is a kit kat, or a mini krackle at best.  Last weekend we made cookies from scratch and crushed up a couple handfuls of easter chocolates and added it to the mix.  They were fucking awesome.  Also – rum is always an acceptable substitute for vanilla extract. 

Damn. Other Lee just put the cubs ahead by 5.

Fuckthecubsfuckthecubsfuckthecubsfuckthecubs

Ninth inning…….
And, ballgame.

WHAT DID WE LEARN?
That “take five” is not only a stupid name for a candy bar, it is a piss poor excuse for one as well. It sounds lovely when you take a look at the ingredients: milk chocolate, peanuts, caramel, pretzel and peanut butter.  However, the execution of the middle three has been a disappointment.  Really, it’s up to those three to provide the punch and bring things together.  And to my taste, they’re not getting the job done.  While the key ingredients have much potential, overall it just falls flat.

The Astros lost. Their record stinks.  Roy is pitching Saturday.  Goodnight and good luck.

***Batgirl had some posting issues, so JaneDoe posted this for her.  Sorry its a little late.

Astros at Cubs, 4/17/2010
Astros 4, Cubs 3
W Oswalt (1-2) L Gorzelanny (0-1)
H Sampson, S Lindstrom

Game Wrapup: Astros.com

This Day Belongs to Oswalt
From the first inning when Roy Oswalt took the mound and painted the outside corner of the plate, you knew this was going to be a good day for the hurler. It was as if the clock had been turned back, not in terms of uniforms but in terms of performance by Oswalt and the Astros. It helped that homeplate umpire Cuzzi decided he liked what he saw in terms of the outside corner pitches and soon enough he put both benches on warning that on this day of the wind blowing in at Wrigleyville, that corner was going to be a strike. One look at Derek Lee’s face the first time that corner was called told you this would be a pitcher’s day and with Oswalt looking for all the world like the ACE of old for the blood n’ mud nine, that was not good news for the Baby Bears.

So what made Oswalt revert to his old self? A quick snapshot of his delivery in the early innings provided by Jimmy D told you that Oswalt had the old long stretch and extension in his mechanics again. Amazing what a full follow through will do for a guy with Oswalt’s stuff. Of course, to have that full stretch and extension, Oswalt needs to have health in his back and legs and today, he threw with ease, so can we expect to say that Sparky is throwing without much pain in the lower extremedies any more? Well, at least for one day it looked that way. Couple being able to spot your mid-90s fastball on the corners with changing speeds and you get what you got today from Roy: 7 innings pitched, 5 hits allowed, no runs.

DUCK!!!
It is good to note that in the top of the next inning, someone in the Astros bench (hopefully Sean Berry) was paying attention to the calls by Phil Cuzzi and the fact that soft-tossing lefty Cub pitcher Tom Gorezelanny was on the mound. First up was Carlos Lee, he of the rediscovered nice swing and good approach at the plate. He prompty took an outside corner offering by Gorey (that is his nickname, right?) to right field for the first hit of the game. Next up, young Hunter Pence, probably with a bent ear from Berry telling him “look to hit it to right field or don’t bother coming back to the bench and sitting near me… got it?”. Pence did the right thing and took yet another outside pitch to right for solid knock and the mini-rally was on. Chris Johnson grounded out to third to give Roy a nice present, an actual lead in a game, as Lee scored from third, a bag he hustled to obtain on Pence’s base knock. Gorey survived the inning but got touched up for another run the following inning by hitting star JR “Screw you TZers!” Towles. He was not so lucky in the fourth when Pedro Feliz took a pitch on the inner middle half of the plate that Tommy boy tried to sneak pass him and lined right back up the middle. Down went Gorey! Down went Gorey! The liner caught him square in left wing and even though he protested loudly to Cub Skipper Lou, he was told to take his soft-tossing wounded limb and sit out the rest of the day.

Keppinger and Sampson, Early Season Spike and Star Award Nominees
Crusing with a 3-0 lead, Roy Oswalt pretty much dominated the Cubs for the rest of the day. In the late innings though, Jeff Keppinger provided an insurance run by stroking a soft liner to center-right field, driving in Mr. Towles (he earned the respect on this day), who got on with his third knock of the day. 4-0, late in the game, Roy is taken out, hand shakes all around. Then the merry-go-round began for the Cubs. Brandon Lyon came into the game and promptly awoke the sleeping bats and drunken fans, and before it was all over, he gave up 3 runs on some hard hit baseballs that luckily stayed in the stadium. One shudders to think what would have happened had the wind not been blowing in today. All this drama though was met with a shrewd move by Skipper Millsie, as he brought in the reliever of the hour for the Astros, Chris Sampson. Chris is having an outstanding year so far (*knock on a TZers head*) because of his approach to pitching. His hard work in the offseason to master a killer changeup helps a lot too. Sampson came in and doused the fire started by Lyon and the lead was safe. Lindstrom came in the ninth and shut down the Cubs even though Tommy Manzella forgot for a minute he’s supposed to be an all-glove, no-hit short stop. Lindstrom got Fukidome on a slider/curve/changeup/wiked googly to end the game and allow the Houston nine to high five around the pitchers mound in celebration.

Gamezone: Read the in-game commentary in today’s Gamezone
JD’s Series Preview: The hate-o-rade is following early and often in this FTC series preview

Astros 1, Cardinals 2
W: Brad Penny, L: Brett Myers, S: Ryan Franklin

MLB Wrap and Box Score

The change for this game was the Astros pitching. They only gave up 5 hits and 2 runs on the night. Tommy Manzella didn’t have his gold glove on tonight, but the Astros need to stop stranding runners in scoring position. Brett Myers had a really good night. If he and the other pitchers start pitching mroe like that every night, the season might not be as bleak as it seems right now.

Michael Bourn seems to be the good spot in the line up. He got on base 3 out of 4 plate appearances. He only scored once. Not surprising, he was stranded at third.

Kaz Matsui was very consistent in ending innings on 6-3 put outs. Hunter Pence and Carlos Lee have continued to produce next to nothing in the middle of the order.

Observations:

Great night in the GameZone. All kinds of great information can be found there. I thought there were quite a few posts worthy of nomination for POTW.

Check out Taras’ Series Preview. Be sure to note that the Astros try for win #1 at noon on Thursday.