The Astros played a creditable game against another team careening towards self-destruction.
Look Ma, I found another…
Astros 0, Nationals 10
W: Tim Redding, L: Chad Paronto, S: Steven Shell
Astros Recap
Yahoo Recap
Box Score
Astros found another way to lose. It did not help that Roy Oswalt started this game and left after one inning with an injury, but Roy probably would not have had a win anyway. The Astros potent offense got 9 hits on the night, none of them plated a runner though. Tough night for a bullpen that gets used a lot. Tough night especially for Dave Borkowski and Chad Paronto.
Tim Redding, former Houston Astro, was probably thought by many to be the pitcher the Astros would beat in this series. He wasn’t. He went six innings giving up 7 hits but getting 6 strike outs lowering his ERA to 3.85. Steven Shell pitched the final 3 innings only giving up 2 hits.
Kaz Matsui seems to be doing okay coming off the DL earlier this week. Lance Berkman is doing what he’s been doing all season. It is really disheartening to see some players really doing great when the rest of the team is doing really bad.
Bench Tidbits:
Check out the GameZone for in game action. (Or to read about the game you may have missed.)
The Series Preview, a must-read Masterpiece, is one reason to care about this series.
I’m having a great weekend visiting my parents in San Antonio. Hope everyone else has a great weekend also.
Oswalt and Villarreal
Oswalt said. “The first month I got off on the wrong foot. It might have been a little bit lingering of throwing so many innings in years past and might have been going through a dead-arm period. But I’m better now.”
Astros @ Nationals – Fading Into The Break (July 11-13, 2008)
THE LAST RIDE
Houston Astros (42-50) at Washington Nationals (35-57)
Nationals Park
1500 South Capitol St., SE
Washington, DC 20003
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This is the last series before the All Star break, and it is easily among the most meaningless series being played this weekend by anyone anywhere in baseball on the entire planet.
You have the Astros coming in to Washington after a 10-16 June and a 2-7 start to July, floundering about the cellar of the National League West (Central, whatever.) If everything goes perfectly for them the rest of the way – the offense becomes consistent, the pitching magically becomes consistently effective, and a couple of teams ahead of them stumble – the Astros are looking at an outside chance of finishing in fourth place in their division. If they are really, really lucky.
The Nationals were out of their division’s race before the season ever started. They, too, had a terrible June (9-18) and are having a terrible July, and should soon start bringing up prospects to try out with a look to the future. They are going nowhere presently. They have lost seven of the last eight, thirteen of their last eighteen. Lovely.
No one will be watching these games except the hardcore fans of each team. And maybe not so many of those. The only thing that will keep me inside this weekend, in front of the TV and watching these games, is rain, and lots of it. And right now, it doesn’t look that is going to happen. I suppose it is possible by then that Hurricane Bertha, which is, as I write this, tracking in the general direction of the upper Eastern Seaboard, will make these games seem even more irrelevant than they already are.
Whatever. Wake me up when September comes.
Good Guys salvage one in Pitt
Wednesday, July 9, 2008
Astros 6
Pirates 4
W: Moehler (5-4) | L: Burnett (0-1) | S: Valverde (23)
Footer Recap
AP Recap / Box via Yahoo!
Game Zone
The Good Guys averted the series sweep last night, touching up John Van Benschoten (fake name, obviously) for 4 runs in the first, then pulling away from the Bucs late to seal it.
Who is “John Van Benschoten”, and what is he hiding?