2005 SEASON

AUGUST 30-SEPTEMBER 1:

CINCINNATI @ HOUSTON

TUESDAY, AUGUST 30, 2005 (Game 131) – CINCINNATI @ HOUSTON

Houston 5, Cincinnati 2

That Wandy is such a lucky guy. Sure, he pitched really well tonight – 5 innings, 1 ER on 4 hits, 1 BB, and 4 Ks – and only took 55 pitches to do it. But the Rocket does that routinely, and gets left high and dry. But that Wandy – the Astros sure do score for him. After 16 scoreless innings in LA, they managed to pull 5 runs (!) out of the hat in the bottom of the 5th, on Wandy’s watch, giving him win #9 for the season.

The highlight of the 5th inning scoring spree was Ensberg’s 3-run home run. It was a cheap shot that landed in the first row of the Crawford Boxes, but with two on and a tight score, who’s complaining?

High points:

• Luke Skywalker is back! He was called up yesterday from Round Rock to fill the roster spot vacated by Chad Harville. Luke had a great welcome-back game – he made an outfield assist on a terrific throw in the 1st inning, and batted 2 for 4 with a single and a double. I’m sure that the Express will miss him; he was leading the Pacific Coast League in home runs with 31, and drove in 87 runs. Hopefully, he’ll hit a few for the Astros in September!
  

• Okay, I finally get to say something nice about Mike Lamb – he came up to pinch hit for Wandy in the 5th inning, with runners on 1st and 3rd and no outs, and the Astros behind 1-0. I was sure that he’d hit into a double play, and was rhythmically chanting “Sac fly, sac fly…” But instead he got an RBI single, and he went on to score on Ensberg’s homer. So I won’t diss him for the rest of the month.
  

• It was great to see Ensberg hitting a home run again, even a cheap shot one, after 11 games without an RBI. Batting again in the #3 spot in the lineup, he was 1 for 2 tonight, with a homer and 2 walks, and 3 RBIs (94 for the year). Afterwards, the TV broadcast showed Ensberg, Everett, and Lamb in the dugout, in a 3-way group hug. I am not joking.
  

• Good batting from Adam Everett too; he went 2 for 4, scoring a run.
  

• Considering that Garner pulled Wandy after 5 innings, it was a big night for the bullpen. And he got good stuff from the relievers – Springer, Gallo, Qualls, and Wheeler combined for 3 scoreless innings, with only 1 walk and no hits between them. Lidge, a thrill-seeker apparently, pulled the Astros back from the precipice of disaster in the 9th, when he got out of a bases-loaded situation of his own making (see Disappointments).
  

Disappointments:

• Alyson wrote a recent column about Brad Lidge, pointing out that he’s not quite as sharp as last year. Good, even great, but not quite as great as he was a year ago. It’s partly because of the scanty and irregular save opportunities. But he’s just not lights out all the time as we’ve come to expect. Tonight was no exception: I groaned when the Astros TV announcers commented on Garner bringing Lidge in to pitch the 9th, with the Astros ahead 5-1 (a non-save situation): They said he was over-qualified. I hate to be superstitious, but when the TV guys say stuff like that, bad things happen. Lidge got the first guy out on a very long fly ball to center, and then loaded the bases on a single and two walks. One run scored on a ground-ball out. And, being Lidge, he struck the last guy out. Not a loss, but not Lights Out Lidge either. Personally, I’d prefer a little less excitement at the end of the game.
  

• I really, really don’t want to sound greedy, because 5 runs in one game is a lot for the Good Guys. But it would be nice to see some runs scored in more than one inning – make it look like something the team does on a regular basis.
  

Notes on the Other Good Guys:

• No such animal in the NL. But the Red Sox won over in the AL, maintaining their lead over the Damn Yankees.
  

Notes on the Other Bad Guys:

• The Wild Card race makes for strange bedfellows, and I find myself cheering for Bad Guys I normally boo – like the Cards, the Braves, and the F-ing Mets!
  

• The F-ing Mets came from behind to beat the Phillies – a short-term gain for the Astros, since the Phillies are ahead in the Wild Card race. But the Mets are neck and neck with Houston, so I can’t really cheer for them either. Hopefully they’ll split the series.
  

• Washington eked out a win over the Braves, 3-2.
  

• The Marlins beat the Cards, 7-6. For once, I’m sorry that St. Louis lost – I really was hoping that they’d pull Florida down in the Wild Card race.
  

In Other News…

• Backe finally got his rehab game in Corpus. He pitched 3 innings, 43 pitches, and felt pretty good. He gave up a 2-run home run in the 1st inning, but otherwise pitched well in 100 degree weather in Corpus. He’ll pitch again on Friday.
  

• Bagwell is on his way to Corpus Christi to be the DH in the games tomorrow through Friday. He had been expected to go today, but delayed a day due to getting a cortisone shot.
  

• Chad Harville is gone. The Astros put him on waivers, and he was claimed by the Red Sox. The good news for him is that he has a great chance of getting to play in the playoffs.
  

• The Padres’ Jake Peavy was a whiz on the mound last week when he beat the Astros. But he’s not as good at more mundane manual efforts – like taking out the trash. Evidently he cut his hand while performing this task yesterday morning. But it wasn’t his throwing hand, and he was able to pitch tonight anyway.
  

Final123456789RHE

Cincinnati       000010001250

Houston  00005000x590

W: W. Rodriguez (9-6) L: R. Ortiz (8-10)

=============================================================================

WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 31, 2005 (Game 132) – CINCINNATI @ HOUSTON

Houston 10, Cincinnati 0

There are so many things to love about this game that I hardly know where to start. There was Pettitte, pitching 7 innings of shutout ball. There were those ten (count ‘em, 10!) runs on 15 hits. There were the 9 hits shared between the players in the bottom of the lineup. There was Lane’s 20th homer of the season -- and Vizcaino’s first. Ausmus’ 4 RBIs – and his move to play second base in the 9th inning. And more good relief pitching.

Pettitte was awesome. He threw 98 pitches in 7 innings, giving up 4 singles and 1 BB, with 5 Ks. The game was his 13th win, and he lowered his ERA to 2.50 – tied for 3rd in the NL with the National’s John Patterson.

The Astros wore home stripes.

High points:

• Great hitting and scoring tonight. Every Astro starter (except Pettitte) got at least one hit, and 5 of them – Taveras, Burke, Everett, Ausmus, and Vizcaino – got multiple hits. After a dry spell the first time through the lineup, Houston again put a bunch of runs on the scoreboard in the 5th inning. Just about when I was mooing to myself  “Well, it’s nice that they had a big inning, but why only one scoring inning per game?”, Houston came back to score 2 more runs in the 7th, and 4 more in the 8th. As Ensberg said after yesterday’s game: "If we score five runs a game, I'm convinced we'll go to the playoffs." If they score 10 runs a game, they’ll go to the World Series.
  

• Lane’s 2-run home run in the 5th, and Vizcaino’s 2-run home run in the 8th were both Crawford Box specials – what in other stadiums might be called pop flies. In Lane’s case, the ball actually hit the rail and fell back onto the field. Viz’s homer dropped into the last seat in the first row. Cheap thrills -- or maybe bargains?  
  

• Ausmus got his 4 RBIs on a double in the 5th inning, scoring Burke and Everett from 1st and 3rd, and on a single in the 8th, scoring Gipson (running for Berkman) and Burke. Garner moved Ausmus to 2nd base in the 9th inning, his 2nd opportunity to be a middle infielder this year. (But he didn’t get a fielding opportunity this time.) I wonder if Bagwell is jealous again?
  

Hitters   ABRHRBIBBSOLOBAVG

Brad Ausmus, C-2B4  12  4 0   0   2.257

• Burke went 3 for 4 with a double and 2 singles, scoring 3 runs.
  

• Everett went 2 for 3 tonight. He’s been hot at the plate in recent games – he’s batted 8 for 13 in the last 4 games he played.
  

• Ensberg made a couple of really fine fielding plays. The best was a great diving catch of a hard liner in the 5th. He also made a foul ball catch leaning into the Reds’ dugout. 
  

• Good relief pitching by Qualls in the 8th and Gallo in the 9th. Both had hitless/scoreless innings. Qualls hit a batter and Gallo walked one; other than that, they didn’t allow anyone on base.
  

• Today’s minor league callups made it into tonight’s game. Chavez caught the 9th inning. Gipson pinch-ran for Berkman in the 8th, scoring his first run as an Astro.
  

Disappointments:

• You must be kidding!
  

Notes on the Other Good Guys:

• HA!
  

Notes on the Other Bad Guys:

• The Nats and the Braves played a double header today, to catch up from the game that was rained out from the leftovers from Hurricane Katrina. The Nats lost the first game, 5-3, and won the second, 4-3.
  

• The Phillies beat up Pedro Martinez and the F-ing Mets, 8-2. Philadelphia hit 4 homers off Pedro. With these two teams so close to the Astros in the Wild Card race, it doesn’t really matter who wins – as long as they lose in the end.
  

• The Cards beat Florida, 10-5.
  

In Other News…

• •In Corpus tonight, Bagwell played in a game for the first time since his shoulder surgery almost 3 months ago. As a DH he wasn’t a superstar yet: He was 0 for 3, with two strikeouts (one swinging, one called), a fly ball, and a walk. The fans didn’t care: They gave him a standing ovation before and after every at-bat. Bagwell enjoyed the fans, if not his at-bats: "A standing 'O' for striking out, that doesn't happen very often." He’ll be with the Hooks for a couple more games before returning to Houston.
  

• More last-minute callups: Raul Chavez is back with the Astros, and Quintero was sent back to Round Rock. Outfielder Charles Gibson was called up, and pitcher Mike Burns was sent down.
  

• wenty-five thousand hurricane refugees from the Superdome in New Orleans are on their way in buses to Houston, where they’ll be put up in the Astrodome. Hundreds, if not thousands, of people have died in New Orleans. The Superdome was damaged by the hurricane, lacked power, food, and water. I can’t even imagine what it would be like to have thousands of people living in the Astrodome for weeks at a time.
  

Final123456789RHE

Cincinnati       0000000000 40

Houston «       00004024x      10      150

W: A. Pettitte (13-9) L: B. Claussen (9-9)

==============================================================================

THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 1, 2005 (Game 133) – CINCINNATI @ HOUSTON

Houston 3, Cincinnati 1

September…!!!

That alien who took over Roy Oswalt’s body last Saturday night, giving up 5 runs in the first inning, was not in sight tonight. Roy was back to his usual overpowering self, striking out the side in 11 pitches in the 1st inning, and going on to strike out 8 more batters in the next 5 innings. He dominated the Reds, giving up one run (on a double and single in the 2nd inning) on 5 hits and 1 walk, and those 11 Ks.

Oswalt threw 100 pitches in 5 2/3 innings, 70 of them strikes, for his 16th win for this season. He started running out of steam in the 6th inning, largely due to some changes in his mechanics: Rather than extending his arm all the way back, he’s shortened his delivery, bringing his arm up at a 90 degree angle before moving it towards the plate. The new throw is intended to reduce the batters’ view of the ball coming out of his hand, and it seems to be working well. But it puts more pressure on his arm than his legs, and sapped his energy sooner than the typical game.

Losing to Oswalt’s not news for Cincinnati – Oswalt extended his career record against the Reds to 15-0, a win record by a pitcher against a single team that is unparalleled in major league history. The Reds are only hitting about .200 against Oswalt.

Cincinnati’s Aaron Harang pitched a good game too, but just not good enough. Now that is one seriously big dude – 6’7”, about 275 lbs. Next to him, Oswalt at 6’ and 185, is tiny. Harang also only gave up 5 hits, but the Astros managed to squeak out 3 runs against him, one in each of the 4-6th innings. With Houston’s great relief pitching, that was enough to hold out for a win, to sweep this home series. WOO!

High points:

• Luke (Scott) Skywalker had another good game. His triple in the 4th inning, with Lane on 1st and 2 outs, scored the first Astros run of the game. And he had another outfield assist, throwing out Sean Casey’s attempt to turn an RBI single into a double.
  

• Taveras was 1 for 4, but the 1 was a good one – a double in the 5th inning that would have been a single for anyone less speedy, which scored Ausmus from 2nd base for the Astros 2nd run.
  

• Berkman got a home run in the 6th to score the 3rd and final run of the game. It was his 14th of the season.
  

• More great relief pitching tonight: Gallo relieved Oswalt with 2 outs in the 6th, doing his lefty specialist trick; he needed only one pitch to end the inning. He pitched to another lefty in the 7th (a BB). Then Qualls, Wheeler, and Lidge did their 7-8-9 trick, nearly perfectly. Lidge did not bother trying to make the game more interesting in the 9th; he took down the Reds 1-2-3 with 9 pitches – all of them strikes. He ended the game with a classic Lidge move, a strikeout on 3 pitches.
  

• Reds catcher Javier  Valentin had  a rough game tonight. Jason Lane plowed right through him to get to home plate in the 4th, when he scored on Scott’s triple. And he almost fell head-first into the Astros dugout on an unsuccessful attempt to catch a foul ball.
  

Disappointments:

• Hah!
  

Notes on the Other Good Guys:

• Boston won again and the Yankees lost, HAHAHA. (I won’t be laughing when the Astros are facing the Red Sox in the World Series.)
  

Notes on the Other Bad Guys:

• The Nats lost to the Braves, in another one-run game – 8-7 in 10 innings..
  

• The Phillies beat the Mets again, 3-1. With Philadelphia ahead of the Astros in the NL Wild Card race, that’s not good news, but at least they are knocking down those pesky Mets. It sure puts the pressure on the Astros to take care of the Phillies next week!
  

In Other News…

• September. Just one month left. I don’t know how I’ll get through it without going nuts. (But I don’t know how I’ll get through the long winter months until Spring Training either.) Completing a series sweep was the perfect start to the month. Next up: The Cards. Saturday’s game should be one of the best pitching matchups of the year: Clemens vs. Carpenter. The two best contenders for the NL Cy Young. If the Astros let Carpenter get his 20th win this weekend at Clemens’ expense, it would be criminal.
  

• The Astrodome is filling up with refugees from New Orleans’ Superdome. Meanwhile, New Orleans is totally falling apart – dead bodies in the street, flooding everywhere, looters, chaos.
  

Final123456789RHE

Cincinnati       010000000160

Houston «       00011100x350

W: R. Oswalt (16-11) L: A. Harang (9-12) S: B. Lidge (32)

Quote of the Day

Wandy Rodriguez, on his 9th win (through an interpreter): "I'm not surprised with what I've done. This is what I had in mind, to be able to pitch this way. My biggest concern has been learning to speak English. Beyond that, just keeping confidence has been the big thing.”

Quotes of the Day

On the Astrodome as a Hurricane Shelter

Biggio:  "I think it's a great thing. You've got a building just sitting there and nobody's using it, and you've got 25,000 people without a home. I applaud our city for welcoming as many people as we can get away from there and helping them out… You're talking about people who lost everything, people who have nowhere to go. Our community is really stepping up and doing a great job.”

Bagwell: "Obviously, it's a tragedy, what's happened. But thank God we have a place we can house these people for a while until they can sort out their lives."

Fashion Statement

The Astros wore home stripes. Cincinnati wore their ugly road vests. Taveras, shown in a brief filmed interview, appears to have braces?

Quote of the Day

Luke Scott, on his improvement after the Astros sent him down to Triple A: "When things started happening for me was after I finally just sat down. I wore my hands out in the cage, I tried every stance, I made every adjustment I could possibly make. I finally just sat down and said a prayer that I've done all I can do. I prayed to God and left it in His hands. About two weeks later, I was in Iowa and I started getting hits. Then the next day I got a few more hits. I just starting going well."

Quotes of the Day

Brad Ausmus on Oswalt’s record against the Reds: "When you have a record like that against a particular team, there has to be some luck involved as well," Ausmus said. "Roy is one of the best pitchers in the league. If anyone would have a chance to go undefeated against a particular team, it would be him."

Quotes of the Day

Oswalt on changes to his throw: "I've been changing my mechanics around in the last three or four starts, and I finally found something. It feels a little bit weird when I first break the ball from my glove, but I'm hiding the ball a lot longer. It's a lot better as far as getting strikeouts. I had to build my arm strength up for a different way of throwing."

If tonight’s results are any indication, the approach worked on the Reds.

Fashion Statement

The Astros wore home stripes. Except for one Astro, that is -- Jeff Bagwell. It may be a Double A minor league Hooks uniform this week, complete with vest. But no one else has got a stance like that – it’s definitely Jeff B. Wearing a dorky outfit didn’t keep him from getting his first hits since his surgery tonight: He went 2 for 4, singling twice, walking once, scored a run, and got an RBI. He also grounded out and struck out swinging. All in a night’s work. Hopefully, it’s moving him towards a return to a more flattering uniform.