Astros 15
Pirates 3
AP FooterStarting in the 4th inning on Saturday the Astros seemed to wake up and realize, “OH!
those Pirates!” “So… when’s the season start?”
Rookie Josh Anderson, 2-5 yesterday, 5-5 today and had a chance to break the Astros most hits in a game record held by Joe Morgan (6 but in extra innings) so it was especially disappointing that he got hbp in his last ab in the 8th.
The Astros scored 11 runs by the 3rd inning and Brown asked JD “to what do you attribute this scoring?” His answer, “good hitting’; lots of good hitting, 22 hits. Ty Wigginton hit his 3rd homerun in 2 days, Cody Ransom started the onslaught in the 1st with his first homerun in the majors since forever. J.R. (Junior) Towles had the one hit today (2 yesterday) and was also solid behind the plate. (Yesterday he caught Lidge in the 9th.) Chris Burke homered way into center, so far that Nyjer Morgan couldn’t even catch up to it. Nyjer thinks his catch on Friday was better than Mays in ’54 because he didn’t have as much room. “Confidence is a great thing” chirps JD.
Backe pitched OK. He got to work on his fastball but his control wasn’t all that great. However, even though Jack Wilson spotted a tell and told the Pirates dugout, with visual aids, they still only managed 3 hits in 6 innings.
