2005 SEASON
APRIL 23-24: HOUSTON @ ST LOUIS
Three Game Series on Passover
FRIDAY, APRIL 22, 2005 (Game 16)
St Louis 8, Houston 7
SATURDAY, APRIL 23, 2005 (Game 17)
St Louis 1, Houston 0 [10 innings]
SUNDAY, APRIL 24, 2005 (Game 18)
St Louis 8, Houston 5
I missed the whole St. Louis series, due to Shabbat and Pesach observance, but maybe I didn’t miss anything… Think New York series. Kind of a rerun of that one – yet another Clemens’ 7-inning shutout with no run support, and another one-run loss besides that one, and another sweep out of town. The Astros have only won one away game so far the whole year. Ouch!
I have to admit that my knowledge of these games is from Alyson Footer and the Houston Chronicle and Sportsline reports. Now that it’s chol hamoed, I haven’t had time to watch any of the games on archive. And I’m thinking that I don’t have the heart for it. Maybe later in the week (after Wednesday’s day game or Thursday’s off day), I’ll get an urge to watch a game and go back for the painful replays.
So the bad news first, since there’s so much of it, and then I’ll see if there’s anything at all good to say about these games.
- Duckworth was Duckworthy. I hear that Garner is really committed to start him again on Wednesday to give him another chance. But giving up 8 earned runs in 4 innings in game 1 was totally in line with my expectations of him. The only surprise of the game was that Houston managed to pull off 7 runs and almost catch up. Meanwhile, it’s very hard to imagine that Ducky will be in the rotation after this month. Maybe if he can get his ERA down under 10? (It’s 12.60.) "Tonight wasn't indicative of what I can do," Duckworth said. But I suspect it is. This isn’t even a Tim Redding story, where he loses, but everyone goes on about how he’s got such great stuff, blah blah blah. I hear that Astacio isn’t really ready yet, but Wandy Rodriguez is showing some good stuff in Round Rock.
- Clemens must feel that he’s trapped in a baseball version of the movie Groundhog Day. For the third game in a row, he pitched 7 solid innings, gave up only 4 hits, no runs. And for the third game in a row, the Astros scored nothing at all for him. Or for his relievers. The third extra-innings 1-0 loss in three Clemens starts. And in his previous start, when the Astros managed to score 3 whole runs to give him a win, he hit in two of the runs himself. Sure his ERA is phenomenal – down to 0.32, with 23 consecutive scoreless innings. But they aren’t paying him half a mil per game to get the best ERA. I can’t even imagine how frustrated he must be, continuing to read AP wire stories that recount how he was “outpitched” by Ishii or Hudson or Mulder, when he’s pitched so incredibly well.
- To add insult to injury, Lidge was pitching in the 10th when the Clemens’ game ended with a St. Louis run. He gave up a double to Larry Walker with a runner on 2nd (Quall’s runner, and his game loss). Lidge says it was a good pitch, down and away, and that Walker just reached for it. So it wasn’t just a dumb move. Not having seen the game, I can’t really second-guess Garner, and wonder why Qualls started pitching the 10th – he already had pitched 2 perfect innings. Yeah, the game was tied, but Lidge could have pitched two innings if he had to, and he might not have put that that runner on. This game breaks Lidge’s long streak of games with at least one strikeout; I think it was at about 29.
- Backe was Duckworthy too, unfortunately, giving up his 8 ERs in 5 innings, in the 3rd game. His ERA is up over 6 now. Hopefully, this was an aberration, and he’ll be back to pumping his first by his next start. He didn’t manage to get a base hit of his own in this game, but he did get on base on a walk, and scored on Bagwell’s hit.
- Where are the Astros’ home runs? One by Ensberg – and that was it for the whole series.
Tiny bits of good news scattered in…
- The relief pitchers were terrific. Other than the Qualls-Lidge 10th inning loss in Clemens’ game, the relievers pitched 9 innings without giving up a single run – and only gave up one hit. The bad pitching was all by the starters. (So why do the Astros score runs for them, and not for the guys pitching great starts???)
- After being made to sit out a game on Saturday, Bagwell had a couple of hits on Sunday, with an RBI single in the 1st inning, and RBI double in the 3rd.
- Taveras did some good batting Friday night, going 2 for 4, with 2 RBIs.
- Lance Berkman has gone to Florida for extended Spring Training, with plans to move to Round Rock later this week. It is too much to expect that just putting him back in will change everything. But given the high number of close games that the Astros have lost this year, an extra run here and there will really make a difference between winning and losing. I suspect that until he retires from baseball, Berkman will never play football in the offseason again.
APRIL 22
Final 123456789RHEHouston 0010051007111St. Louis « 05030000x8 9 0W: J. Marquis (3-0) L: B. Duckworth (0-1) S: J. Isringhausen (6) APRIL 23
Final 10th12345678910 R H EHouston 0000000000 0 4 0St. Louis « 0000000001 1 6 1W: M. Mulder (2-1) L: C. Qualls (1-2)APRIL 24
Final 1 23456789RHEHouston 1010030005 8 0St. Louis « 41201000x8131W: M. Morris (2-0) L: B. Backe (1-1) S: J. Isringhausen (7) 
