August 22, 2007
Astros 3, gNats 2
W: Woodrow (8-12) | L: Bacsik (5-7) | S: Lidge (12)
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The Good Guys held on last night to take a close and entertaining bitchin’ matchup v. the gNats of DC, 3-2. Woodrow was the big story of the night, allowing just 2 runs in 6.1 innings while striking out 8, including a hat trick by Zimmerman. Woody kept ’em off-balance all night, in part by not knowing exactly where the ball was going to go when he threw it. The control was mostly there when it counted, though he got away with a few. Don’t look now, but Woody’s 4-2 in 8 starts since the break, with an ERA of 3.78 and a WHIP of 1.20. My sources tell me that these figures are above average.
It got off to an exciting start when Lopez lead off the game with a double to the wall in left center, and decided to challenge the Gunther/Pigpen relay team in a race to third, losing badly. On the face of it, you can see why Lopez thought he had a chance, but that is some shitty situational baseball right there. I had to pause to make sure it wasn’t an Astros baserunner.
Beaker came right back and hit one to approximately the same spot in the bottom half, but it died at the base of the wall, and he cruised in to third standing up before scoring on a Twinkie sac fly. In the third, Fat Elvis added a 2nd RBI on a big triple up the hill that plated Bidge from 1st with 2 outs. Private Pyle, OBTYN completed the scoring for the ‘Stros with a hearty solo cracker over the boxes in the 4th, making it 3-0 in favor of the Good Guys.
El Vendo made a bid for more extra bases in the 5th, blasting another one on the fly to the hill. Nook Logan totally fucked him over, stretching like taffy to pluck it out of the air over his shoulder on a dead sprint up the base of the slope, holding on as he sprawled out face first halfway up. That was an awesome, awesome catch.
The damage came in the 6th, following a double off of the wall by the fluffy wrecking ball that is Dmitri “Meat Hook” Young. With Kearns at the dish, Woody got behind 3-0, and threw what looked a lot like ball 4, but got a charitable call to keep the AB alive, which proved unfortunate. The next pitch was flat, grooved, 86 mph and absolutely unloaded upon by Kearns, probably taking a chunk off the facade above the Crawfords in the process.
With the score now at 3-2, Woody carried on for 2 more outs before handing it over to Qualls with Schneider on 1st and one down in the 7th. After a single put runners at 1st and 2nd, Qualls got the DP ball he needed to finish the frame. Chad worked the 8th as well, striking out the side around a single and a walk. Lidge was nails in a perfect 9th, with the game ending on a nice play by Burke running in and to his right on a Fick grounder. Juan Gutierrez makes his first start in the majors tonight against John Lannan, wish him luck.