With Nolan Ryan throwing out the first pitch, Sparky had a lot to live up to; and he did. The contest got off to a slow start. Bill Brown was shoveling out great huge piles of Ranger offensive statistics. Meanwhile, the Rangers, especially Mench, fouled off pitches and made it tough for Roy to get out of the first; 20 of his 117 pitches came in the inning and Roy?s half lasted 17 minutes. It looked like the Rangers were planning to wear down our boy.
But, the Good Guys had other plans. In the 2nd, Maximus worked a walk; Mr. Peepers, the College Boy and Speed all found the hole between short and third. Ausmus got caught at home for the last out on a good throw by Mench, but not before 2 runs had scored.
They played add on in the 3rd; Jason Lane got one more homerun out of the #24 before they take it and hang it on the Wall. Bouncing his 2 run blast off the EV1.net fair pole, no word whether a Hummer was given away.
Meanwhile, after the gear grinding first, Sparky went through the Rangers lineup like shit through a goose. He got a dp to clean up a rocky 6th that featured a nice play by a hustling Burke, holding pinch hitter McDougall to a single on a shot down the line. Taveras made the inning more interesting than necessary when he hesitated going up the right side of the hill on a chance at an over the shoulder catch. Tricky, but doable.
Sparky sailed on until the 8th, when the Astros marketing department decided to play with all their toys and opened the Roof. The dreaded Roof Opening Jet Stream shot the first batter Barajas? fly ball out to left. Then Laynce Nix took Roy out to right. Oswalt had been living on the edge all night, as most of his outs came on flyballs; even though some were lazy pop ups. Qualls finished off the inning with a wicked slider and a diving play by Bidge to snag a liner.
One of the advantages of this game that may help through the rest of the series was that the Astros got into the Rangers bullpen. Their last reliever Kameron Loe, 6?8" tall and inflicted with some horrible John Rocker and Nuke Laloosh damage all over him; the kind of goof ball that has a boa constrictor for a pet and feels it necessary to bring it with him to work. This huge lantern jawed idiot looked to get out of the 8th, working with 2 outs and runners 1st and 3rd, the Astros tried the double steal. The Rangers? catcher threw through and they completely boxed the play. Everett scored from 3rd and the Astros went into the 9th up 5 to 2.
The Pope struck out the side in the 9th for his 18th save.
Tomorrow, at 3:00, Backe vs. Chris Young. Jimmy Wynn?s Ceremony is at 2:00.
