The Crawfish Boxes

Bourn’s hitting well enough to justify batting him leadoff, I suppose. I’d move Kepp up, but Blum is hitting pretty well right now, too. I have mixed feelings about batting Tejada 2nd.

hit into dp's,

much? hehe.

well, that's the thing

On the one hand, batting 2nd might mean he has fewer opportunities to hit into those DPs. On the other, it might just mean he erases what few gains the leadoff man makes.

So Kaz has a back problem?

Great.

Groundout to the pitcher

attaboy, Michael

Yesterday and today...

Bourn has looked bad at the plate since being moved to the lead off spot. He started off with a walk yesterday, but looked bad after that.

Tejada grounds out

Lance strikes out

Morgan

hard hit ground ball past a diving Berkman. Double

Wilson sac bunt

JD correctly identifies this as bad baseball

Sanchez

hit by pitch, but the ump calls it a swing. Not really sure it was. In fact, from the replay, it was not a swing at all.

ball in the dirt

right through Pudge’s legs. Morgan scores.

Sanchez lines out to Berkman

ball don't lie,

I suppose

tough ball to stop?

or did it seem like he just was lackadaisical in his approach?

looked like the latter to me

BTastros - April 16, 2009 reply

just late

mental error. I wouldn’t call it “lackadaisical,” but it wasn’t a particularly difficult ball to stop

JD suggested that sun/glare bothered Pudge and Berkman.

That may be a load of BS. But he is there, I guess.

McLouth singles

Adam Laroche belts one into deep center

McLouth scores, Laroche doubles

VERY tight strikezone

Beautiful play from tejada

ranging to his left and back to catch the soft liner/fly ball. Even had to jump a little bit to get to it

WOW

Nice play by Tejada.

BTastros - April 16, 2009 reply

not going to lie

3/4 of the “memorable moments” they keep pushing on us have not exactly been really memorable.

And the only one that really was isn’t a “moment.” It’s a whole game.

fat boy grounds out to short

we can get a Berkman bobblehead tomorrow. It’s got Berkman with one of those puma paws on.

WOW

Pence hammers a pitch up in the zone. 2-1 Pirates

his pitches

are looking mash-able

Blum hit the ball pretty hard

still a fly out

Pudge walks

holy shit

JD, as a former pitcher,

is not particularly happy with the dimensions of the strike zone.

But it’s consistent, if not very pitcher-friendly.

Kepp walks

Pudge almost gets picked off 2nd

Ortiz pops up

K

For Ortiz against LaRoche

Not a very good AB for Andy Laroche

strikes out

I'm just arriving to the game

How bad has the strike zone been?

very tight IMO

Ortiz up 1-2

Should be a quick inning.

Nevermind

He walked Karstens.

and that was very damaging.

not so. Karsten walks.

Damnit

Karstens scores on a triple by Morgan.

At least Karstens had to run and sap his legs…?

nah

he pretty much lightly jogged into home

bourn walks

hooray

Bourn steals

Breaking up Miggy’s GIDP opportunity.

steals second

throw sails to the right, skips into center

Why it a free swing at 3-1 and not 3-0?

you figure that the likelihood of the pitcher throwing a strike is equal in both situations, but if you take all the way on 3-0 and it’s a strike, it doesn’t hurt so bad as taking all the way on 3-1.

Miggy out at 1st on a close one

Bourn to third. Come on run(s).

Lances walks

Lee up…please don’t blow this fat boy.

Lance plows into 2nd

Bourn home, Fat boy safe at 1st, 2 outs.

oh thank god

Lee almost fucked that up. Can’t tell if it was just that fat boy ran hard or that Lance’s slide into second broke it up

Probably both

But Lance definitely saved Lee.

Pence pops up

middle of the 3rd
3-2 Pirates

Carlos Lee beat out an infield single??

is that the first time ever for him?

no

just beat the throw on a fielder’s choice

My error

Berkman out at second. Carlos Lee beat the relay throw back to first to avoid the double play.

Actually,

I checked. He’s had 117 infield hits in his career, including 9 last season.

Dear Russ Ortiz

Get through this inning quickly, and don’t give up any runs.

Sincerely,

Two outs

Very quickly.

3 outs

Very quickly.

JD is right Jeremy Roberston

With 15 wins.

Wade Miller a close second

With 14.

Jermey Roberston

Reason number 2,147,836 that Wins are a useless stat.

Mr. lucky charm.

And he f’d up the Astros’ playoff chances that year with a blow out loss in that horrible final homestand against Milwaukee.

86 ERA+

5.1 ERA, had the worst k/9 of any Astros starter…

2 ridicuously quick outs

Both to McClouth.

Keppinger TRIPLES.....

Keppinger with crushed Triple!!!!

Kepp flat out hits a triple

Ortiz ties the game

YESSSSSSS!!!!!!!

Ortiz shows off clutch hittling skill.

ASTROS TIE IT

go russ go

Can Keppinger just play full time?

Tejada broken bat infield hit

Tejada thanking the heavens above for that one

Luck for Tejada...broken bat infield single. bases juiced for Lance.

Almost got lucky with the PB/WP

gah

lance flies out

Nothing

UGGGGHHH

I have to go to class now.

Ortiz is at least working quickly

Andy Laroche's walk up music is

jukebox hero…

I’m not sure what to make of that.

the guy has been getting booed by Pirates fans (like yesterday)

when he does the least bit wrong. Probably tough on a rookie.

Ortiz with a scoreless 4th.

Unfortunately his pitch count is just about 82 or so. Broadcasters say that Cooper was targeting 80 pitches for Ortiz. Will he get another inning is the question.

Carlos pops into right field

but Moss can’t get to it. Fat boy doubles and gives the second baseman a hug

Hansne can't seem to find the strikezone very effectively

Pence flies out to shallow left

Russ walks sanchez

Wesley coming in

Ortiz allowed to pitch 5h and gets 2 quick outs.

But walks the third batter on a very questionable strike call. Cooper takes him out and he loses the chance to win the game. Wesley Wright coming in. Hope that Wright doesn’t do something which tags him with the loss.

wright with an odd pop out gets third out.

McLouth check swing foul out

Cincinnatti Enquirer reporting

that the Reds have found out who the PTBNL is on the Keppinger deal.

Speculation abounds…I’m just hoping it’s not one of our closest-thing-to-a-prospect guys like Norris, Sutton, or Johnson. Some people somewhere have mentioned the possiblity of Michaels, others say Manzella. So it’s pretty up in the air at this point and we just have to wait it out.

what the hell are the commenters in that story thinking?

Several mention Blum (why would the Reds want him?), Bourn (hahahaha), Bogusevic (I’m sorry, are you serious?), etc. One seriously mentions PENCE. What?

My undestanding is that league rules require that it be a player who is not on the 50 man

roster. The exception to that is an interleague trade, which isn’t applicable here. If the Astros take an action to remove someone from the 40 man, then that would be the preface, I suppose. But nobody mentoned fit that category at this point. Dusty said something earlier about waiting on an injured player. Could it be Backe? Strikes me as doubtful. Maybe a player will be moved off the 40 man when Backe leaves the DL? Maybe, who knows.

should read "40 man"

Bourn rips one into center

past the second baseman. Doubles.

PUMA

3 run homer!

! Berkman Awakens!

Berkman's 3-Run Homer

no-doubter, batting right-handed
drives in Bourn (double), Tejada (walk)

3 run HR from Berkman!!!!

They tried to turn Berkman around but he still makes them pay.

Astros just re-using Backe's commercial from last year

He seems so excited about that college scholarship

he should think about applying for that scholarship himself...

he doesn’t seem to have a future in his current field

LaRoche

doubles

Wait

Michaels is still in the game? Double switched for Carlos?

FUCK YOU COOP YOU HAVE NO CLUE WHAT THE FUCK YOU’RE DOING

IT'S THE 6TH FREAKING INNING

WTF

Why?

Is Carlos hurt?

entropic soul - April 16, 2009 reply

i have no idea

JD and Brow didn’t mention anything like that

I'm guessing..

Cooper want Sampson pitch multiple innings..
any other choice?? Berkman? Tejada? Bourn(maybe)?

that’s not totally no clue :)

HubertL - April 16, 2009 reply

I didn't hear about an injury

Probably just part of the double switch, looking to put a more capable defender in that big LF, trying to hold the 3-run lead

It's possible that they switch Erstad into that slot when the batting order rolls around

LaRoche finally gets a hit

good for him. Good hitting, too.

Double play

1-4-3

Well, Jason Smith is Cooper's "go to" pinch hitter apparently

Pudge and Blum on (consecutive singles)
Jason Smith getting in the game in place of Keppinger, just to get some at-bats, according to Dolan and Raymond

Amazing how much better the Astros look

when Berkman is productive at the plate

Do we know why Oritz removed

one out of qualifying for the win? Surely not because he walked one man.

concerns about being stretched out

Radio guys said Coop was giving him 80 pitches for the day, he ended up removing him at 99 pitches

Cooper probably told him he would be removed if he allowed 1 base runner in the 5th.

But I probably would have been inclined to let him get out of the inning for at least one more hitter.

Sanchez

has gone through 15 pitches and 2 bats now

long, scary at-bat

so many foul balls that they’re having to bring some new ones in to the umpires

18

finally flies out to center

"Freddy the 13th"

JR said after Sanchez fouled off pitch number 13

Record for pitches in an at-bat

supposedly 24, done before they really kept records of that stuff

Alex Cora had an 18-pitch at bat a few years back…apparently at bats that long are kind of rare

kind of a perfect match up for that kind of outcome.

Sampson throws strikes but doesn’t have a real “out” pitch. Sanchez doesn’t walk a lot, but makes lots of contact.

Bourn has two walks? Damn

entropic soul - April 16, 2009 reply

BB ref showed him as only having 1 BB for the year

before today. I can’t doubt BB Ref, but it seemed like he had at least a couple

lnewcomer - April 16, 2009 reply

you are right!

Bourn has a “COUPLE” walks before today.
He had 1 walk yesterday, and Baseball Reference did not update that fast

HubertL - April 16, 2009 reply

Firstinning.com

usually updates stats faster than Bb-ref

interesting.

I think I had always assumed BB Ref updated nightly. I like their spiffy site update though. have to checkout first inning

lnewcomer - April 16, 2009 reply

I give him credit...but maybe with an asterick.

The strike zone has been very small in this game. If the Astros had more players with good OBP skills, I think they would have a bunch more walks.

Trivia

Including today’s game, Sampson has not allowed an earned run to the Pirates.

who will close? Hawkins? Valverde?

Hawkins it is.

Historically, Hawkins has never done well as a closer.

No Valverde?

Cmon Coop I gotta get those fantasy points! Damn you.

unsure why....Valverde pitched last night.

But announcers were wondering if there is a reason which will be announced later.

Well

hooray for that news. Seems half of my team is hurt right now.

odd thing is that Valverde was used in 2 straight non save situations, I think

Transitioning

Hawkins for a closer committee?

with 1 out, single by Doumit

Tejada for the out...looked a DP ball, but Morgan was running.

Unrelated

but Sizemore just hit a GS against the Yankees that blew the game wide open.

YES

4 RBI for me!

who started for the Yankees?

C.C.

120+ pitches, in 5.2 IP or something like that. It was on live MLB Network.

10-1 Indians

\/ 7th

If it keeps getting this bad

Nick Swisher will be pitching 78 MPH lob balls to the Indians very shortly

dammit...he is on my fantasy team.

Haha well...

+4 Only_A_Lad, -1 to clack

CC wasn't charged with the runs though. You can breathe a little easier, but 5 BB

GAME OVER Astros win 6-3. Tejada takes ground out for last out.

Hooray!

Astros win a series!

Just the Pirates though : (

Astros win...

and the Pirates are still a major league team… A win is a win… Go Lance, Go Astros.

NocturnalMatt - April 16, 2009 reply

Movin' on up

Astros tied with Brewers in the standings.