When Jose Vidro, the second batter of the game, greeted Wandy Rodriguez with a homerun; I thought, hang on here we go again. But he got out of the first escaping further damages.
In the bottom of the inning the bats came alive. Like a Bugs Bunny conga line, Taveras, Biggio, Ensberg, and Lamb got a base hit or walked (Berkman struck out looking at a ridiculous 12-6 curve). Then Palmeiro got one of the big hits of the game, a bases clearing double. Lamb coming all the way around from first flopped down in a slide despite both Bidge and Mo telling him to stand up. Sometime you just gotta slide. 4 to 1 Astros in the first. Good start.
But it didn?t last. Wandy was all over the place. In the second, the dreaded lead off walk and a double by Livan led to 2 runs. Now 4 to 3. That lasted until the 4th, Livan put one near the pole in the Crawfords and it was tied. Hernandez?s knee is really bad, his homerun trot was a brisk walk.
But, almost as soon as it was tied, it was untied. In the bottom, Taveras got one of his 3 hits and Biggio, who looked to just be trying to make contact to break his slump, doubled him home. Biggio was 4 for 5 in the game.
This was an action packed game in which something fun happened almost every inning. In the 5th, with 2 on and 1 out, Wilkerson hit a long fly to the wall in left. Berkman made the catch and immediately flung a no look throw to Biggio, Biggio wheeled and pegged a strike to first, catching Castilla off the bag for an inning ending 7-4-3 dp.
In the 6th, Lamb started a 3-6-3 dp, even though, as Dierker noted, his throws are not the best. Yet he keeps trying to make the aggressive play. It saved Springer, who had just come in in relief of Wandy and decided now was the time to hbp the entire DC lineup.
More scoring in the bottom of the 6th; with 2 on and 1 out, the Nats IBB?d Berkman, even though he had already struck out twice looking. Ensberg, just like the last time something like this happened, made them pay. He hit the second big hit of the game; a long, carrying fly to the wide open spaces just to the right of the Hill. Ball bounced over the wall and the ground rule double scored 2. Lamb popped up to end the inning on a 4-2 count. He, home plate ump John Hirschbeck, the Astros bench, and apparently the scoreboard had lost track of the count and missed the walk. 7-4 Astros.
Wheeler and Qualls held the bridge until the 9th, Lidge and Ausmus came in to nail this one down. But, being the fun game it was, it wasn?t that easy. Berkman made a throwing error, but atoned with an excellent catch of a liner and a dive to the bag to catch the runner off and get the dp. The inning featured a double, a walk, a single, two runs scored and the tying runner on third with two outs. There was an interesting reprise of the Castilla/Lidge confrontation from last night. This time Lidge had little control of the slider, Castilla had been noting this and he refused to swing at the off the plate fastball. This one ended with a walk. But all good stories have happy endings and this one ended with the injured Jose Guillen pinch hitting for Preston Wilson and a game ending K.
7:05 tomorrow, a better looking pitching matchup too, Pettitte v. Drese
