final: houston 3  st. louis 4

espn recap

that was an extremely tough game to watch the astros lose.  i’m definitely one of those fans that feels sick to their stomach after one of these, and with the division, wildcard and .500 seeming to slowly slip away, it is all the more painful to see the astros free-fall from contention in front of the BFiB.

ivana hitter

rodriguez and his double sevens have been hitting a horrid .091 over the last seven days, and they finally managed to break out of his 0-18 slump.  unfortunately, it was one or two at-bats too late.  when pudge struck out with the bases juiced to end the 5th inning, it brought the total number of men he had personally left in scoring position to 5.  total astros lob this game = 11

no, really, you take the W

alberto arias made sure to help the cardinals steal seal the victory by giving houston’s lead away in the 8th.  with one out, he hit pujols with a pitch, which set up holliday (who went 4-4 on the day) to line a double to right, scoring pujols and putting him in position to be the go ahead run…which holliday eventually was, when rick ankiel got it done with a single to make it (what would end up being a final) 4-3.  a most undeserved win for st. louis.

a solid 4

moehler looked good, though.  everyone thought so.  i guess everyone thought so.  i really didn’t hear what cooper had to say about his starter, but i did read this:

“Sometimes you get a little aggressive on him, and he just keeps moving it out a little further.  He just throws a lot of quality pitches.  Big League pitcher.  I drink take my hat off to him,”  LaRussa said after the game.

moehler has been to the astros what hampton should have been for the team this season.  hopefully he continues to stay solid as houston tries to piece it’s rotation back together.  if norris pitches well sunday, if oswalt comes back strong, and if wandy continues to look like an ace, mike hampton should consider asking his girlfriend about possible substitute teaching gigs for the fall.

its a lot of “if’s”, sure.  but it’s much better than too many “butt’s”.

best (partial) post-game quote

“…I got right up to my release point and it squirted out of my hand.  When I let go of it, I thought i was going to throw it halfway up the backstop.”

— Brian Moehler

if you have free time this weekend

and you need a little distraction, here’s some stuff you can try to pass the time:

— read random barzilla threads/books

— count the infinite number of places one can acquire steel tubs in the houston area/start numerous threads about something…ANYTHING….other than baseball and the astros

— take a case of left hand imperial stout (and video recording device) to coach’s house

or,if you want some basball, there’s always the stellar insights of:

gamezone

series preview

Thursday, July 30, 2009

Astros 3
FTC 12

W: Hart | L: Ortiz

astros.com
AP via Yahoo!
Game Zone

Brutal. Not much more to say than that. Ortiz sealed his fate with just over 2 innings of 9 hits and 9 runs tossed. The best thing about this game was that CB Bucknor got hit. Twice. I can’t even go over what happened except to say that I had to look away numerous times for fear of acting out in ways that would frighten my co-workers. At times, it was much like staring at a picture of Shane MacGowan.

Wednesday, July 29, 2009

Astros 0
Baby Bears 12

W: Wells (7-4) | L: Hampton (6-8)

MLB.com Recap
AP! Recap! On Yahoo!
GameZone

Astros 11, Cubs 6
W: Jeff Fulchino, L: Angel Guzman

Astros Recap
Yahoo Recap

Well, this game started out great Michael Bourn leads off with a first pitch single, Jeff Keppinger follows with a single. Then Miguel Tejada hits into what could have been a 3 run homerun but Fukedome snags his hit at the wall only scoring Bourn.

Onto the bottom of the second the Astros go. Roy Oswalt seemed to be doing good, then Ivan Rodriguez goes to the mound and that’s when the “oh shits” and other kind of comments from Astros fans start. Roy leaves the game with a lower back strain. Great news.

So, Wesley Wright comes in to finish off Milton Bradley and the second inning. Wesley continues to pitch 2 other innings giving up 3 runs, which I’m going to cut him some slack since right after or right before the end of the game he goes to the hospital with possible appendicitis. (ETA: Ends up being dehydration.)

So, in comes Jeff Fulchino to save the day. He pitches 3 innings, but also gives up 3 runs. Good news is he did not turn over the lead.

Tim Byrdak came into pitch a scoreless 8th frame and Jose Valverde closed it out.

Astros Highlights:

Jeff Keppinger is hot, hot, hot. He went 4 for 5, 3 runs, 3 RBIs, and no injuries. Awesome day at the “friendly confines.”

Miguel Tejada wasn’t shabby either, he went 2 for 4 with 5 RBIs. One of those hits landed in the fencing so the fans couldn’t throw the ball back. Sometimes I am so proud of the Astros.

Michael Bourn went 3 for 5 and a walk on the night scoring 3 runs. He had a pretty good catch out there in centerfield also. Seriously, who doesn’t like watching this kid play?

Astros Lowlights:

10 walks given up by the Astros. The Cubs had more walks than hits.

All the injuries.

Game Analysis:

I am very proud of the way the Astros played on this night. The Astros used 5 men on the night while the Cubs used 6 to lose. Hopefully a game like this can help a team keep chugging along, but I have to wonder if Music Man is still willing to wait until Thursday to decide if the Astros should be buyers or sellers.

I also think the ending to Monday night’s game didn’t sit well with the Astros and they came to take names last night, and they did. Hopefully they continue to take names since they have 2 more in Chicago and then go to St. Louis for the weekend.

Bench Tidbits:

The GameZone had something happening in there.

Read GreatBagwell’sBeard’s Series Preview for information on the rest of the series. Or some of it, you might want to check out this for the rest.