Can't blame this one on the ump. Sparky is looking decidedly un-Oswalt, non-Roy even. In the 1st with one out, he gives up a sac fly. Then in the 3rd, knee high fastball to the pitcher. In the 4th, he throws Garciaparra the same pitch he struck him out with in the previous atbat. Only this time Garciaparra was looking for it and Roy hung it. The worst was in the 7th, with runners 1st and 2nd he overthrows a fastball and winged it for a huge wild pitch. Moving the runners to 2nd and 3rd, then comes the pop fly.
During spring training Oswalt said he was working on his mechanics, especially falling off to the left. Ever since he mentioned the dead arm, he has really been falling off finishing his delivery. Dierker mentioned it last night. I don't know if that's what is getting his pitches up, but his pitches are up.
Meanwhile, the big Astros offensive explosion came in the 4th. Bases are loaded, no outs. Lamb hit a groundball to second, flip to Garciaparra who throws the ball away, wrenching his back in the process. 2 runs scored. That was it. If you blinked you missed it. Zambrano pitched into the 9th, striking out 10 and giving up 3 hits.
Not that the Cubs didn't try to give it away in the 9th. Neifi Perez and Todd Walker botched 2 easy double plays to give the Astros second and third chances. On the first one Walker's short flip pulled Perez three steps off the bag. Too far for the neighborhood call. And then Perez threw slow to first. Everybody safe. Then, on a carbon copy, the next play, Perez got the force at second and threw low to first. Safe at first. Groundball to short ended the "threat".
Lets see how they fare vs Milwaukee, Clemens at 7:05
