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The Crawfish Boxes

Game 3: Astros at Rockies

Wandy vs. Hammel, the ex-Rays' pitcher.  The series hangs in the balance.

Other news: Geary placed on DL.  Fulchino is the replacment.  From Astros.com:

The club called up Jeff Fulchino from Triple-A Round Rock to replace Geary on the 25-man roster. The Express are in the middle of a four-game series in Fresno, Calif., and while the club was hopeful Fulchino would make it to Coors Field in time for the day game, given the logistics, that would seem unlikely.

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Comments

Astros take 1-0 lead.

Matsui with infield hit. Bourn with bunt hit. Berkman reaches on error. Lee hits into DP, but Rockies can’t turn it, and get only 1 out.

I don't know if I can give a lot of updates.

I intend on working while I have the game on televison.

Bourn steals home on double steal.

Lee successfully beats throw to 2d and Bourn is crossing home.

talking about dissatisfaction with Hurdle...

JD says these are the type of innings which get the manager fired. Whether justified or not, fans think Astros came better prepared to play, and steal of home makes it look like the team is lackadaisical.

this

is a case of a catcher being lackadaisical

not sure if i’d ever seen anything like it, but boy does Martin have egg on his face.

Astros take 3-0 lead.

Pence with nice line drive to CF. Really, the first well hit ball. Lee comes scampering home.

Pudge K's...at end of top 1st....3-0 Astros.
Wandy with 2Ks, a hit, and 1 flyball out in the 1st.
Kep grounds out, Wandilicous Ks, Matsui Ks

from 28 pitch inning to 10 pitch inning. could be bad sign

bottom 2nd Hawpe flies out to a "ranging" Lee towards the line
Attkins Ks looking on 7 pitchs
Atkins is in a bad slump...and he gets booed after that K

they’re just over all pissed in colorado

Torrealba flies out to Pence to end the 2nd

Top 3rd

Bourn: Foul, looking strike, way out of zone ball, miss big ball, foul, ground ball up the middle into center

Berkman: first pitch flyball to left field wall, out 1

Lee: looking plumb as ever, ball in dirt, fouled back with Bourn running, grounds to short but bll is fumbled. Bourn makes it to 3rd, Lee is at first. 1 out

Tejada: Hammel missed badly again, flyball to center(out), Bourn scores, lee stays. 2 outs

Pence: Ball, right field gap hit . Fat lee tried to score. no cahce for the fat boy. innning over

Pences hit was a double

What's wrong with Geary?

Right Bicep tendinites 15 day DL. aside the fact that he has been sucking this year

Geary had hamstring surgery in the off-season...

and early in the season he was complaining about soreness from it. I wouldn’t be surprised if that caused him to alter his delivery and hurt his arm.

http://houston.astros.mlb.com/news/article.jsp?ymd=20090514&content_id=4731042&vkey=news_hou&fext=.jsp&c_id=hou
ok,thanks!

…yes, sucking indeed.

Bottom 3rd

Stewart: foul, strike, ball, defensive foul, hit to matsui on the ground deep, thrown out

Hammel: strike, foul, swinging strike out

Spilbourghs: ball, ball (where was that pitch), hit in front of Pence

Barmes: ball, fouled back, throw to first, curveball strike, and Pudge thows out Spilbourgh at 2nd

thats it for me
sloppy game

4th error in the game, first for the Astros, allows Barmes to get all the way to 3rd on a comebacker to open the bottom of the 4th.

Helton promptly doubles up the 1st base line to score him. Berkman jumping up and down that it was a foul ball, but alas, it’s 4-1 now.

sorry

it was a bunt, error charged on Berkman missing the throw from Rodriguez.

half-listening at work

n/c

4-2 now....long RBI double by Hawpe

also misjudged a bit by Bourn.

4-3 now. little dribbler hit to LF scores run; runner at 2d thrown out by Pudge.
K to end inning.
Wandy's pitch count

up to 72 after just four innings.

didn't know this

the Astros are 1st in baseball in sacrifice flies.

i think they’re still 1st in baseball in turning double plays. it’s not like leading the league in runs or ERA, but it’s indicative of the club doing some of the little things really well.

Bourn doubles

with one out in the 5th, ground-rule style, with a fan reaching over to grab the ball. he then steals third on a pitch out.

Berkman hits a scorcher, but right to the 2nd baseman.

Lee pops out

to end the threat.

Wandy

K’s the side in the bottom of the inning. Pitch count up to 89. K count up to 9.

NICE!!!
in the broadcast last night

they mentioned that the only way to have success in this ballpark is to get a lot of strikeouts and keep the ball out of play. Wandy is doing just that. He’s had one bad inning, fueled by an error, but has recorded 9 of the 13 batters he’s gotten out (two outs were on the basepaths) on K’s.

Keppinger

GIDP’s to end a 1st and 3rd threat with one out in the 6th.

Tejada HBP, Pence long line drive but right to Hawpe playing deep, Pudge drops in a blooper, moving Tejada to third, then Kep’s GIDP.

Still 4-3 Astros

by the way.

Bottom 6th

Fly out, fly out, K. Wandy gets three more outs (10th K) in just 12 pitches.

And I'm done

Gotta run to a meeting.

wandy

Great line through 6, but with 101 pitches, I had figured/hoped they would have taken him out… but he batted for himself in the 7th. Lets not forget that Wandy has had several minor injuries over the last few years (mostly nuisance muscle strains that cost him a few weeks) … I’d be careful about overextending him… he threw ~115 last time.

That's a good call
On wishing he'd be taken out
Is the game televised?

My cable is on the fritz here in Gtown, and I’ve be tied to my house all day as I’m attempting to collect all my stuff and pack it up. Hopefully next week I’ll be all settled in somewhere and back to some semblance of a normal life. But now i just want to know if I should just crash at some friends place and catch the tail end of the game.

yes it is on FSN cable channel.
Sampson with a quick groundout and now a quick K....

Only 1 out to go in the 8th.

Astros lead 5-3 as we start the 9th inning.

Not mentioned above is that Carlos Lee hit a solo HR in the 8th inning.

UT-ex Street to pitch for Colorado in the 9th.
Hawkins in to pitch the 9th for Astros.

Hawkins get 1 out on medium to deep fly out to CF.

out no. 2: good running catch by Bourn...a bit scary with Helton at bat.
a walk puts a man on base.

Hawpe at bat. I have to go…

Hawkins get called strike 3 on Hawpe.

Game over. Astros win.

Nice win

Wandy certainly has been everything we could hope for so far this year. He’s gone 6+ innings with 3 or fewer runs in every start this year except the one that most agree he was pulled an inning too early in. He’s 4-2 with a sub-2.00 ERA, a WHIP hovering around 1.00, a K/9 of 8.3 after this game, and possibly best of all, he’s been almost as solid on the road as at home. He’s been far and away the best starter of the 09 Astros.

So, we’ve won our last four 3-game series. Hopefully we can get ourselves sorted against the Cubs.

Go Astros!

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