In the first inning, Ezequiel Astacio had a little trouble finding the plate. While he was giving up the second walk of the inning, the cameras were on Andy Pettitte in the dugout. When Hickey popped out, Pettitte gave a ferocious frown. "Already?" he seemed to ask. Not hardly. Zekel settled in after the first and pitched 5 very strong innings. He also had backup, Springer, Burns, Wheeler, and Harvile threw a shutout inning a piece.
The offense took a little while to get in gear. Burke, in the second with the bases loaded and no outs, was able to get a flyball into the outfield. Just in the nick of time too as Ausmus followed up with an inning killing dp.
But in the 6th all hell broke loose. Morgan Ensberg swatted an enormous homerun, well over 400 feet to left center. Then Gonzo, who had just made a terrific catch and test of the structural stability of the left field wall in the 4th, played a base hit off his chest and Jason Lane was standing on second. Several more errors, a Palmeiro pinch hit double, and the score was 5-0.
Not much of a game after that. The relievers cruised, the Astros tacked on a couple more runs. The middle of the order, Lamb, filling in for a queasy Berkman, Ensberg, Lane, and Everett all had at least 2 hits.
As the game wound down, and Wednesday became Thursday, JD was heard to remark "You got the night life". And so they did.
8:40 (8:40?) tonight, Wandy goes for the sweep, against Brad Halsey.
