What to say... what to say... Okay, let's start with the good stuff... This should be short. Sampson... nice job man! 3 scoreless giving up 2 hits with two strike outs. This looks promising for a 5th starter. They still need a new picture for Sampson though. That straining picture of him has got to go! What else was good? Biggio was 3 for 5 with a 2 runs scored and a home run(thus tying himself with Ryne Sandberg in career home runs by a 2 bagger at 282... then again he left 3 on so that sucks.
Now on to the bad. Lets start with Woody. Woody basically tried as hard as he could all game to see how close he could get to giving up 20 runs in an inning and get out of the inning w/out being scored on. He did a pretty good job at first giving up only 1 run through the first 4 innings, although it looked like he should have been down at least 5 or 6 to 3 by the time the 5th inning rolled around. Then the infamous 5th inning.. the same 5th inning that the Astros put up 3 errors and basically just gave the game away! Woody just looked old tonight. His fastball topping the radar at about 88 mph. He was hitting corners sometimes but it really seemed like he was just putting the ball right over the middle of the plate. And on to AE, the best defensive shortstop in the game. 2 errors in one inning! What!?! Seriously?? Not sure that's ever happened before and I doubt it will ever happen again. Kinda crazy... maybe his hair got in his way. AE only had 7 errors all last season... now he's sitting at 2 through 3 games. Odd. And to put a really wonderful(yes that's sarcasm) cap on the night, the Astros ended the series with the Pirates by losing 3 straight... If you want to take an optimistic note from tonight's game, you could be happy that at least the bullpen didn't blow the game tonight. The bullpen was eeeexxxccceeellleeent tonight going 4.1 innings between Sampson and Borkowski giving up no runs on 2 hits with 5 strike outs.
The Astros are off tomorrow and play again on Friday against the defending World Series Champion St. Louis Cardinals at 7:05 pm on Friday. Hopefully Wandy can surprise the hell out of me and not get shelled. (sorry for the pessimistic attitude... but not a whole lot to be happy about in this young season.)
0 recs | 15 comments
Perhaps the weekend will end the pain
I mean, at least the Cards are sucking canal water right now, too. Surely we can squeeze some wins out of this series. As long as the starters can all pitch complete games we'll have a chance.jetking - April 4, 2007
haha
the day wandy goes 9 is the same day we find bin-laden. LOL.Big Puma - April 5, 2007
Let's be clear
Adam Everett made two errors on ONE PLAY, not in one inning. That was mortifying to watch. And now that we know it was the game winning run, I can sleep even more peacefully.Kian - April 4, 2007
Not to take a thing away from Sampson
but I thought Borkowski was even more impressive. Maybe that's because my expectations weren't as high.Carlos Lee wasn't supposed to strike out much for a power hitter. Well, he's struck out a lot, but then again he hasn't shown he's a power hitter yet.
Cardinals come to town for the weekend series - winner gets out of the division cellar. Who'da ever thought that would be the case?
bwhite2323 - April 4, 2007
Yes Borkowski was very good
and the reason I gave more props to Sampson, is because Sampson did it for 3 innings... Borkowski was very good though. If I was the Astros coach(and I will admit, I often think I should be /grin), I probably would have left him in to finish off the inning(maybe the game).Stros Bro - April 5, 2007
You know what?
I could go for that in a heartbeat - you be the manager!(FOR SALE .... one well used dart board, call P. Garner, Houston Astros clubhouse)
bwhite2323 - April 5, 2007
Pop-ups
Everybody swinging for the fences, pop-up after pop-up. I only caught the end of the game tonight, but the same holds true for this whole series. Who in the lineup hasn't popped out twice a game (I'd like to see those numbers, actually, sarcasm aside) and flipped his bat down disgustedly? Where are the line drives and the confidence?The only guy who should be swinging for the fences every pitch is Biggio, for he can do no wrong in my eyes and I hang on every pitch thrown to him. I'm not sure yet, though, how I feel about that little 3000 Hit graphic appearing for EVERY at bat. Feels very American Idol.
alamosweet - April 5, 2007
Yeah...
I'm less than a fan of the counter after every single hit. That's the sort of thing you should start up with 20 to go, not 70.BTastros - April 5, 2007
2 cellar dwellers
Instead of the Cards and Astros battling for first, in this series they are battling for last!http://whiteyball.wordpress.com
whiteyball - April 5, 2007
We'll miss Willy
Especially when Woody is on the mound. That fifth inning is a good example of where a more talented (defensively) center fielder would have prevented a run or three. I think Willy catches the ball on the hill and the one that Burke duffed and Everett doesn't even get a chance to make those errors.Not that I'm saying I want Willy back and don't appreciate how much Burke will give us at the plate, but here's an example of us taking the bad with the good.
I don't think that was Woody's best performance, but his defense let him down. I think we'll be able to count on him for 5-6 innings, allowing 2-4 runs. We're going to have to do what we need to do offensively to turn those starts into wins.
Frustrating series for sure. Hopefully we can turn it around quickly. Berkman and Ensberg were nowhere to be found in this series. That's gonna need to change ASAP.
littlevisigoth - April 5, 2007
It's so bad...
I've actually gotten a feeler from a company about my firephilgarner.com domain.(And, no, it's not Uncle Drayton.)
Laurence Simon - April 5, 2007
Meh, I don't actually think Garner's a bad coach
There are a lot worse coaches....Stros Bro - April 5, 2007
0 - 3 start, eh?
Sounds a bit like the Texans. Now for the forseeable future we have to refer to the Pirates as our "dreaded arch-rivals".dangflagpoleinplay - April 5, 2007
thats now what they are calling us
i think they are calling us their bitchesTimStros - April 5, 2007
NLCS no more
You could make a very good case that the Cardinals and Astros have been the two best teams in the NL this decade.Not looking so right now.
As a Cardinals fan, the first series against the Mets could not have been any worse. I watched a lot of the Astros series against the Pirates and that had to be just gut-wrenching if you're an Astros fan.
Let's hope both teams can recover and give us a race like they have for most of this decade.
Cola
http://www.classiccolaforthesoul.com
Cola @ The Crawfish Boxes - April 6, 2007
You must Login with your SB Nation account and be a member of The Crawfish Boxes to post a comment.