Astros 3
Padres 1
WP: W. Williams (7-12) S: B. Lidge (10)
LP: H. Bell (5-4)
"The Lance Berkman show, I guess," Peavy said. "He had some great at-bats and won the game." APFooter notes; over Berkman's last seven games, he's hitting .462 (12-for-26).
"Certainly I've gotten a few more hits here recently," he said. "You've got to kick it in for the pennant drive, so it's a good time of year for it to happen." Before the game, when Biggio was introduced, he received a standing ovation and stood out on the field for about half a minute. Stay classy San Diego.
About half way through the game JD put his finger on why Woody was having such a great night, “fly ball pitcher in a fly ball park”. Williams went 7 innings, gave up one run, on a dreaded FC ground out. 13 outs were lazy flyballs.
He weasled out of a one out, bases loaded jam in the 2nd. Fly ball wouldn't have helped him here. So he struck out the Padres catcher looking and got Peavy to ground out. Weasling out of things is what sets humans apart from the animals. Except for the weasel. Morgan Ensberg’s first at bat against his former team came in the middle of loading the bases. He walked, naturally, but he did swing the bat. Fouling off several pitches into the stands. One hitting an anorexic girl on her twig of an arm while her bohunk boy friend dove for cover
Top the 3rd, Berkman lifted a low curve way up into the seats. He hit a good pitch. Peavy threw a lot of good pitches and was grinning like an idiot for some reason the whole game. The Astros employed a rope a dope strategy on Peavy. The idea was to make him throw pitches, at least 3 to most every batter. Making contact with his “side ways Frisbee” wasn’t a real option so they went up there striking out. Peavy struck out 11 and by the 7th inning had thrown 113 pitches and was done.
The 7th inning got interesting. Bill Brown had the FCC on the edge of their seats recounting what he remembered of the derivation of the name San Diego from the movie Anchorman. “What was it he said? San dee AH go? Settled by the Germans? Or something like that?” JD quickly steered him clear with “Yeah, good stuff.” The censors sighed and switched back to Family Guy.
Woody, in the bottom of the 7th, gave up a Giles double with 2 outs. But K’d Blum looking with a fastball on the corner for his last pitch of the night. As happened earlier, Berkman followed the Padres failure to score with a homerun. This time a 2 run shot on a similar low breaking ball from the reliever Heath Bell. The guy the Padres figured could replace Linebrink. “Right where I like em!” He crowed as he rounded the bases while his friends pelted him with their gloves and yelled at him because they didn’t have another ball.
Lidge did what he does in the 9th. With two outs, Giles, him again, cracked a triple just off Lane’s outstretched glove. But again Blum ended the game with a K, this time swinging at the slider.
