What a neat and tidy game that was. The Astros had only nine baserunners tonight, but two of them touched home plate. Hunter Pence battled back from being behind 0-2 to plate Ivan Rodriguez and Kaz Matsui for the pair of RBI.
That wasn't the story though. The story nearly from start to finish was the 30 year old Dominican with the blessed left arm. Wandy putting together a solid season for the Astros this season was imperative to being relevant. So far. So very, very good. Tonight he threw a ridiculous eight innings, coupling seven strikeouts with zero walks. He was John Maynard Keynes: economical. As in, he averaged fewer than fifteen pitches per inning.
We needed a stopper tonight. Wandy has been The Best Pitcher on the Astros, and he definitely deserved that title tonight. I don't know if any team would have been able to do much damage the way Rodriguez pitched. To quote the aforementioned Keynes: In the long run, we're all dead. The long run snuck up on the Padres offense tonight.
0 recs | 5 comments
WANDY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
entropic soul - May 8, 2009
what a performance!
hats off to Wandy and Pence for coming through big time.
AronV - May 9, 2009
Saw some highlights on TV last night
He looked really good and was getting some love from the talking heads. I still get a kick out of the evaluation of him by bleedcubbieblue as a “junkballer.”
ol Pete - May 9, 2009
yeah, that demonstrated spectacular ignorance
To be fair, he’s throwing his fastball at the lowest rate of his career since his rookie season, and he’s throwing his curve and changeup each at the highest rates of his career, but he’s got pretty good velocity for a lefty (and that’s what really distinguishes “junkballers” to me. Of course, what’s wrong with junkballers, anyways?).
And if Rich Harden could throw a curve like Wandy’s, he’d probably use it 1/3 of the time, too.
Only_A_Lad - May 9, 2009
based on their view, Tom Glavine has been a junkballer...
and I suppose he will ride that style all the way to the Hall of Fame. Ol’ Pete’s reference to the BCB statement irritated me because it seems to get picked up by other bloggers who repeat the “junkballer” label without even seeing Wandy pitch. Wandy is not a Moyer type pitcher (which I have seen some compare him to), whose fastball maxs out in the low to mid 80’s. Regardless of how often he is throwing it, Wandy’s fastball is in the 89-92 range, which is probably above average velocity for a lefthander. Because Wandy is a lefthander, and he doesn’t have a lot of fame, people automatically pigeonhole him as a junkballer. I thought it was funny when Wandy faced the Cubs,and the WGN broadcasters kept putting him in the “soft tosser” category—even though his velocity of 91 was consistently higher than Dempster’s 88-89 velocity.
clack - May 9, 2009
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