Astros 6, Giants 3
by Mr. Happy
I was lucky enough to get invited along today as a guest in the club section to the “game after THE game” at AT&T Park. The place was teeming with beaming Giants fans, who were adorned in a wide assortment of black and orange attire Most notable were the overwhelming number of Giants jerseys with the number “18” emblazoned on the back running around. It was a magnificent day for our game. Prior to the game, while watching our club take BP, I dined on a $16 crab sandwich, which was very good but not $16 very good, if you know what I mean. Frankly, in BP, our guys looked like they were just going through the motions, still shell-shocked from what had happened to them only hours earlier. Could they muster any offense today, or would the hot or cold No. 75 be hot today?
No sooner had the game started than the perfect game and no-hitter were broken up by our own Jose Altuve, who singled sharply to left field to open the game, the first of his two hits on the day. Although Altuve would get to within 16.6154 Altuves of the pay station that inning, he would get no farther. In the bottom half of that frame, after Wandy had struck out Blanco swinging, that pesky little LSU boy hit a ringing two bagger to center field. Wandy followed that up with a walk of the Melk Man, so the Giants had runners on 1B and 2B with one out for their cleanup hitter, No. 16. Wandy then bowed his neck and caught No. 16 looking. After that, Kung Fu Panda lined out to Maxwell, and the inning was over.
In the top of the second inning, No. 75 lost the shutout too as Downsie took him over the left field wall for a solo home run. Bye Bye Baby!!! Wandy pitched around a two out hit in the bottom of that frame, so it was 1-0 Good Guys going into the top of the third inning.
The fateful inning. Altuve leads off with a walk on a 3-1 pitch. Bixler saw Altuve and raised him a four pitch walk. Same thing for Lowrie, which juiced the bases for our cleanup hitter du jour, JD Martinez. What happened next is courtesy of yours truly, who said in a sparsely populated Game Zone today that JD hadn’t earned the cleanup spot but that someone had to hit there today. After the obligatory visit to the bump from No. 19, No. 75 tossed the obligatory following get over fastball (or so No. 75 claims-it was 84 on the stadium gun) strike. What happened next was pure magic. Not as magical as last night for No. 18, but magical nonetheless.
JD crushed the next pitch-and I mean crushed it-over the left field wall for a grand salami. It was the Astros turn to sing their rendition of Bye Bye Baby. Oh those bases on balls, as the Fordham Flash, former Giants player and Hall of Famer Frankie Frisch would say. So now it’s 5-0. The ball was out of there so fast that the Melk Man didn’t turn around or even move, which was really kind of a shitty way to show up your own pitcher. At least run back toward the wall like you’ve got a chance at it for crying out loud! These young players today! I tells ya!
After a scoreless third, the Giants came up in the bottom of the fourth, and after two outs, No. 29 singled to left field and the Baby Giraffe, ole No. 9, who had been a thorn in the Astros asses in the first two games, stepped up to the dish. Surely No. 9 couldn’t hit his third home run of the series (as well as of the season) off of another portsider? Say it ain’t so, Joe! Well, it was so, as Baby Giraffe took Wandy into the drink for the 61st splash home run in AT&T Park history to narrow the margin to 5-2, and we all reveled in the sounds of Bye Bye Baby-Giants style.
Fast forward to the bottom of the sixth inning, still a 5-2 ballgame, when No. 16 led off with a sharp single. No. 15 put on the ole hit-and-run play, and Kung Fu Panda executed it perfectly, singling where the vacated and diminutive Altuve had just absented himself to take a throw from Castro that would never come. Had Altuve been a sliver of an Altuve taller, he might have had a play-it was that close. Now the Giants had runners on the corners with nobody out for No. 29, who hit a sacrifice fly , scoring No. 16 to narrow the margin to 5-3. Thankfully, Baby Giraffe hit into the old pitcher’s best friend to end the inning. That would do it for the Giants scoring, but the Good Guys weren’t finished. In the top of the eighth inning, after Bixler walked (one of his two walks on the day, together with a single) and made it around to 3B on a pair of fielder’s choice plays, Maxwell singled him home to complete the scoring.
Wandy went six innings, and frankly was not sharp and was having real trouble keeping his fastball down. The Regulators, you ask? Wellsir, today they were up to the task. Wright threw a quick seven pitch seventh; FeRod followed that with a 15 pitch up-and-down eighth. In the ninth, Myers came on to try to close it out. After botching a 1-2 pitch to Kung Fu Panda, who singled to center field, up steps No. 29, who hits a screaming grounder right at Downsie. As Kung Fu Panda, being slow afoot, was leaving 1B, Downsie conveniently tags him out and tosses quickly to Myers covering 1B for the twin killing. Baby Giraffe didn’t have another long ball in him and was retired to end the game, which was an eight pitch inning for Myers, who notched his 16th save.
All four Astros walks today hit the pay station. The Good guys garnered eight hits, two of them long balls, and only had four LOBsters, going 2-6 w/RISP. The combination of Wandy and the Regulators (sounds like a geriatric band) allowed seven hits and three earnies, striking out four and walking two.
No game recap would be complete without a pointless prediction, so here goes: Bixler is so versatile that I predict that he stays on the roster for awhile, which could be bad news for Downsie. Stay tuned to see if I am right. In the interests of full disclosure, I should tell you that I’m betting against me.
