Wednesday, April 8, 2009
Astros 6
Baby Bears 11
W: Lilly (1-0) | L: Moehler (0-1)
HR: Yes, many.
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(Ed. note: Holy shit, what a day. Sorry for the delay, but remind me to tell you about what’s been keeping me from my appointed rounds over a beer sometime.)
Like this, but with more Astros players, fewer Minnesotans
The wind was out of the sails early in this one, and though the Good Guys’ bats were lively, it wasn’t nearly enough to overcome a horrific first two innings in the form of 8 Cub runs. Moehler opened the game with a hail of bat shrapnel as four runs came across via a potpourri of dribblers, conventional hits and detonated maple in the first. The second inning didn’t go any better, and Moehler was pulled with two men on base after allowing the fifth run.
In a bit of bad luck, Russ Ortiz’s first official pitch as an Astro accidentally bounced off of Fontenot’s bat and landed in the right field bleachers for an 8-0 Cubs lead. From there, he settled in reasonably well, at one point striking out six of seven batters. Ortiz appeared to tire after three innings, and handed the ball to Sampson with two outs and the bases loaded in the top of the fifth. An ErrorMiss double put a couple of extra runs on Ortiz’s tab, but the majority of his surprise outing was good, the start and finish notwithstanding. Sampson, Geary, Li’l Wesley and Brocail all looked good in relief, though Brocail gave up a solo tater in the ninth.
With the beer league softball format in place early, the ‘Stros went apeshit with the long ball, plating all six of their runs on five big flies. Keppinger, Twinkie, Pudge, Kaz and Thunder Pants all got in on the action, which dulled the sting of getting pimp-slapped by the fucking Cubs. At least a little bit. I’m not sure if this will wind up being the standard batting order vs lefties, the standard batting order vs everybody, or just the standard batting order for April 8, 2009, but the card Cooper turned in worked a lot better with Pence at 6 and Pudge at 7, at least to these eyes. Small sample size caveats aside, this was a more rational order than anything that’s been run out since the club acquired Pudge, and hopefully marks the return of wildass tinkering by Coop on a nearly daily basis some sort of reason to the process of filling out a lineup. Fingers crossed.
The Good Guys are back in action tomorrow agin the Co-ards, with Hampton taking the ball for Houston. No word on whether Hampton’s Hammies will make the trip, or whether they’ll debut on the Furries Concourse at MMPUS during the next homestand.