Thursday, June 11, 2009

FTC 1
Astros 2
F-13

W: Fulchino (2-1) | L: Ascanio (0-1)

astros.com
AP via Yahoo!
Game Zone

“It’s fair! Holy shit!” The exact words that came out of my mouth as I’m having a discussion with my boss about something I can’t remember. He’s a pretty cool guy and I have a pretty cool job but even he was a bit taken aback. He knows that every so often I have to keep an eye on an afternoon game to write about later and unless I have clients in the office, he has no problem with it. The reason I’m telling you all this is that I never would have had my expletive exclamation at the time I had it had events in the game turned out the way it was headed. 9 innings. Pitcher’s duel. Over by 5. Recap by 6. Meeting with boss. BAM!

Enough about me, here’s the story. Russ Ortiz had a hell of an outing. He kept the mighty FTC in check to the tune of 3 hits and 3 walks through 5.1 without allowing a run. It was precarious at times, 1st and 3rd with 1 out in the 2nd after the Good Guys got 1 in the 1st was worrisome but the well-turned DP took care of things.

Dempster settled in and had the Astros on their heels, never able to capitalize on men-on-base situations. He effectively shut ’em down the rest of his 7. 1-0 Astros.

As Ortiz approached 90 pitches into the 6th, he walked fucking Dempster to leadoff the inning, then gave up a double-play ball to Miggy’s left, who flipped to Kepp for 1, then on to Twinkie for 2 single into CF to the Temper Tantrum to leave 1st and 3rd with no one out. Coop kept his faith in Ortiz and it paid off with a big K of Terry-o to put the inning-ending DP back into play. Then Coop went match-up, bringing in Byrdak to face Fuku. Tim slidered him into submission then blew the FB by him for out #2. Arias was next to face Lee, who grounded sharply to Kepp to FUCK THE CUBS!!! Sorry, that just came out.

If you haven’t seen this, do yourself a favor and click the link. That WAS the 7th inning.

Sampson ho-hummed the 8th.

LaTroy jogged out to the mound to save a 1-0 lead in the 9th and he faced the heart of the FTC order. Fuku made him work, fouling off 4 before grounding out to 2nd. Next batter Lee turned on a high slider and deposited the ball into the RF seats. Shitfuck!

We gotta fast forward here. Bottom 13 and the FTCs Ascanio is on his 2nd inning in relief. First batter Miggy is out on a nice play by Scales off of Ascanio’s foot. Tejada’s slide into 1st made it look more routine than it should have. Next up, newly patient Beaker takes a pass, then steals 2nd as Michaels Ks. 2 out for Twinkie, who’s put on intentionally to bring up interim manager Blum, with last night’s heroics still dancing around in his spiked 80’s ‘doo.

Astros 2
FTC Babybears 1

W: Sampson (3-0)
L: Guzman (2-1)

Astros.com Wrap

Cubs 7, Astros 1
W: Ted Lilly, L: Brian Moehler

Astros recap
Yahoo recap

All I can think to say about the Astros for this game is they are shitburger factory.

The offense was bad against “a slop throwing lefty that sucks shit through a straw” pitcher, Lilly. The defense wasn’t always sharp for Moehler, I guess he forgot to tell Maysonet not to screw up before the game. And the pitching wasn’t all that great either.

Seriously, why do the Astros treat us fans like this when they play these assholes? Why? What did we ever do to them? Not buy enough food and beverages at the games? Not go to enough games? Is Hunter mad because not enough people are sitting in the lodge? What could the reason possibly be for them to produce shitburgers against this team? Ughh, I hate the Cubs.

Hopefully Wandy will find a way to get off his 3-game skid to allow the boys a chance against Zambrano. (Talk about an asshole that I absolutely hate.)

Question of the day for the Talk Zone. If you could get rid of one of the current Cub players, which would it be. I honestly can’t decide between Zambrano and Sorryano. I hate them both. And I don’t usually hate, usually I stick to a strong dislike of someone.

Bench Tidbits:

The Red Wings wanted to win the NHL Lord Stanley’s Cup on home ice, so game 7 here they come.

The Orlando Magic were able to win a game against the Minnesota Lakers, so they won’t get swept.

Check out Mark’s preview for more information on the series.

Read the GameZone for game-time reactions.

Want to know something about the future of this team/organization. Check out the 2009 Draft thread in the Bus Ride Discussion Forum.

Houston 6, Pittsburgh 4
WP- Fulchino (1-1), S- Hawkins (8), LP- Jackson (1-1):   Boxscore
McTaggart (Astros.com)
Game Zone 

Don’t look now, but you 2009 Houston Astros have won three straight series moving them up to, um, last in the NL Central.  “Big deal, they only beat the Pirates, D-backs and Pirates” you say?  Well, yeah, but the Pirates swept The Mole in between their two series with the Good Guys and the D-backs just completed a 4-game sweep the Co-ards, so that’s gotta count for something, eh?  (Well, no.  The wwl says the Astros suck, so it must be so.)

In any event, Sunday was a good day for the Good Guys.  Sunday was also a good day for the oft overlooked Barney Rubble (aka  ‘Q’) and Russ Ortiz.  Sunday was not a good day* for the Pirates. 

*In fact, it was a bad week for the Pirates (Mole spanking notwithstanding).  The Pirates players are not happy about the about the trade of All Star center fielder Nate McClouth to the Atlanta Braves for a Larry Wayne Jones topless photograph (autographed) and a gross of Snuggies.  “There ain’t a guy in here who ain’t [ticked] off about it” Roach #1 said. “They might be trying to hide it or whatever, but … hey…”.  Anyway, I get it that they were mad and missed their boy… but… making his replacement McCutchen paint himself in whiteface and call himself ‘Nate’?  That’s just stupid.  Even Ted Dansen thinks that is stupid. 

Alas I digress.  Oh yeah, the Rise of Barney Rubble.  In case you haven’t noticed, Q has been busting his butt behind the dish (Mike Cameron will attest to that) and is putting some nice at bats together as well.  Russ Ortiz is starting to put together some solid innings in relief also.  Which brings us to the game.

Roach #2 scored on a 1 out Jaramillo double in the top of the 2nd.  Paulino got the next guy out with his 4th K of the game but then left with a strained groin (currently listed as day-to-to).  Ortiz came on in relief, and proceeded to throw 4.1 scoreless innings giving the Pirates 1 run through 6.  The Good guys, however, faired much better against Pirates starter Snell.  Blum scored on a 2-out single by Keppinger in the 2nd, Kepp scored on a 1 out double by Q in the 5th and Pence scored on a single by Carlos in the 6th putting the Good Guys up 3-1.

Then things got a bit dicey (for the first time).  Byrdak came in for Ortiz in the top of the 7th and proceeded to load up the bases with none out.  Fulchino came in and allowed 2 runs to score (rbi groundout, single) tying the game, but with the bases loaded got Roach #1 to ground into a 3-2-3 DP to end the inning.  Kata scored on a Miggy single in the bottom of the inning to put the ‘Stros up 4-3

Sampson threw a scoreless 8th and the Astros added some insurance in the form of a 2-strike 2-out opposite field single by Q (scoring Erstad) a ground rule double by Michaels scoring Berkman.  End 8: PIT 3, HOU 6. 

Things got dicey (again) in the 9th, but Hawkins was able to close it down (after giving up a run) with the tying  run at the plate. 

BALLGAME: HOU 6, PIT 4.

Up next:

Moehler takes the hill against Lilly and the FTCs.  Read all about it from MRaup here.