2005 SEASON
JULY 15-17: HOUSTON @ ST LOUIS
HOUSTON @ ST. LOUIS (Shabbat Games)
FRIDAY, JULY 15, 2005 (Game 88) – St Louis 4, Houston 3
SATURDAY, JULY 16, 2005 (Game 89) – St Louis 4, Houston 2
Definitely not the way I was hoping it would go, but not a surprise either. The Cards beat the Astros in the first two games of the series in St. Louis, putting Houston back under .500 and 13½ games behind. This is the first loss after seven consecutive series wins. The Cardinals continue last year’s habit of killing the Astros in St. Louis.
The basic problem here is that without beating the Cardinals, it’s going to be really hard for the Astros to get to the World Series. Something’s gotta give. "We can still leave [St. Louis] at .500," Garner said. "That's our benchmark, we don't want to go below it. Now we find ourselves below it after two tough games, but we're going to test our mettle on this trip. We're going to see if we can hang with the guys or not and we're going to have to play at that level if we are going to play championship ball." On the other hand, these were close games… close enough that one good bat would make the difference. Can the Astros make a trade to get that one good bat?
Friday night was a heart-breaker, going to the 13th inning, when the Astros took the lead 3-2 on a 2-out single by Lamb that scored Palmeiro from second. Taveras singled, putting Lamb on third, but Biggio hit into a fielders choice to end the inning. That slim lead might have been translated into a win, had Houston been able to put Lidge on the mound, but he had already pitched in the 11th. Qualls, Gallo, and Wheeler had already been used. That left Springer and Harville. Springer, who had pitched a perfect 12th, gave up a walk, then a strikeout. Then Garner pulled him for Harville, who gave Pujols a nice pitch on a 3-2 count, and Pujols hit it out. The resulting walkoff homer gave the Cards a 4-3 win.
Saturday afternoon’s game was a different kind of heartbreaker. After getting off to a quick lead on Ensberg’s 2-run homer in the first inning, the Astros failed to score again. Meanwhile, Roy Oswalt, who started the game with four nail-biting, but scoreless innings, gave up 4 runs in the 5th inning. Oswalt had been hit on the hand by a pitch when he was up to bat in the top of the inning, but Xrays were negative. He pitched a perfect 6th, and Mike Burns followed with two scoreless innings in relief, but the damage was already done. The Astros failed to score after the first inning, giving Oswalt his first loss after 6 consecutive winning starts.
The Astros wore road greys.
The Astros get another chance for a win tomorrow afternoon, when Clemens pitches vs Chris Carpenter, the starting pitcher of the All Stars game. Hopefully, the Astros won’t use Carpenter as an excuse for not hitting – a common occurrence when Clemens is on the mound. Unfortunately I’m going to miss this game, but it’s for a good cause: Naomi Berman’s wedding.
High points:
- Pettitte pitched really well on Friday night, throwing 7 innings with one ER on 4 hits, 3 BBs and 3 Ks. The run was on a solo homer in the 2nd. He had a close call in the first inning; other than that, he held the Cards to potshots.
- Excellent relief pitching by Wheeler and Lidge on Friday night. Wheeler pitched two scoreless innings with 3 Ks, with a 1.56 ERA. Lidge pitched a 1-2-3 inning, with 2 Ks. Springer also pitched well, with a perfect 12th inning; he then gave up a walk and a strikeout in the 13th before Garner pulled him for Harville. That did not turn out to be a fortuitous decision.
- Hitting was a real mixed bag over the two games. Taveras was 3 for 6 on Friday night, bumping up his batting average to .300. He also stole a bas (#23). But he was 0 for 4 on Saturday.
- Biggio and Berkman were hitless on Friday night. On Saturday, Biggio was 1 for 4 with a double, and Berkman was 2 for 2.
- Ensberg was 2 for 5 with a double on Friday night, and 1 for 4 with a homer (#25) on Saturday. The homer put his RBI count for the year at 67 – a new career high for Ensberg. The 25th home run ties Houston’s team record for homers by a third baseman – held by Ensberg (2003) and Doug Rader (1970).
- Lamb, coming in late in the game on Friday night, was responsible for RBIs in the 9th and 13th innings. He seems to be better in clutch situations than as a starter, with his .218 average.
Disappointments:
- Qualls came in on Friday night and gave up a homer to the first batter he faced, then walked two batters. With two outs, Garner replaced him with Gallo who got the third out.
- The Astros put a lot of guys on base on Friday night, but left a lot of them there at the end of the inning. Bases loaded in the 5th – but only one run got across.
- Why did Jason Marquis hit Roy Oswalt with a pitch on Saturday?
- Virtually all of the AP photos from these games feature the Cardinals. None worth clipping for this journal.
Notes on the Other Good Guys:
- Washington lost to the Brewers, 4-3 in the 10th on Friday night, but beat them 5-3 on Saturday. The Nats are still in first place in the NL East, but their lead over Atlanta is only 1½ games. They need to get in the habit of losing before Houston comes to town.
- Raphael Palmeiro got his 3000th hit Friday.
Notes on the Other Bad Guys:
- At this point, watching the Wild Card race, the whole NL East is one big Bad Guy – all the teams are ahead of the Astros.
- Atlanta beat the Mets both Friday and Saturday.
- Florida beat the Phillies Friday night and lost Saturday.
- In the NL Central Chicago has pulled ahead of Houston by beating Pittsburg on Friday, then losing on Saturday.
- Cincinnati split a pair with Colorado.
- The Yankees lost to the Red Sox Friday night, 17-1, in a game that was started by their new ace – Tim Redding, acquired in a trade with the Padres last week. Redding pitched the first inning and the first three batters of the second (loading the bases), giving up six runs on 4 hits and 4 walks.
July 15
Final 13th 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 R
HE
HEHouston 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 1 3120
120St. Louis « 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 2 4 8 0
8 0W: B. Thompson (1-0) L: C. Harville (0-1)
July 16
Final123456789RHE
123456789RHEHouston 200000000261
200000000261St. Louis « 00004000x491
0004000x491W: J. Marquis (9-6) L: R. Oswalt (12-8) S: J. Isringhausen (26)
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SUNDAY, JULY 17, 2005 (Game 90) - HOUSTON @ ST. LOUIS
St Louis 3, Houston 0
Well, I really wanted to see a sweep in this series – just not the direction that this one went: The Cardinals swept Houston, beating Roger Clemens in a shutout in less than 2 hours. Credit where credit is due: Chris Carpenter pitched brilliantly for the Cards, facing only 28 batters in 9 innings, with no runs on 3 hits, no BBs, and 9 Ks. (It’s exactly the game I wanted to Oswalt pitch!) The loss puts Houston 14½ games out in the NL Central. Not a fortuitous start to the second half of the season, unfortunately.
Clemens pitched very well, except in the second inning, when the Cards scored their 3 runs. Only one of the runs was earned; the other two were scored on a dumb throwing error by Mike Lamb. (Now that’s a player I wouldn’t mind seeing the Astros trade!) Clemens pitched 7 innings, only 85 pitches, giving up 5 hits, 2 BBs, and a very unusually low 1 K, knocking another hundredth point off of his ERA – now 1.47 – on his 4th loss of the season.
Well, on to Pittsburgh, and then a date with me at RFK on Thursday night.
The Astros wore Sunday road reds.
High points:
- I unexpectedly got to watch this game. I had thought that it was much later in the afternoon, and that I’d miss it while attending Naomi Berman’s wedding. But it turned out to be early and fast. Finished in time for me to get all dressed up and still make it in time for the appetizers.
- Harville pitched a scoreless 8th. I guess Garner didn’t want him to be spooked by his loss on Friday night, so he put him right up against Pujols again. And this time he came through fine.
Disappointments:
- No offense. Yeah, Carpenter was awesome. But the Astros only scored 5 runs in the 3 games of this series.
- It was bad enough to have to get the St. Louis Fox station. But to make it worse, all of the AP pictures that were put on the web after the game only featured the Cards. This was a series that didn’t deserve any pictures though.
Notes on the Other Good Guys:
- Washington lost to Milwaukee, 5-3, in a continuing slump. Just hold that thought, Nats, until Houston passes through this week!
Notes on the Other Bad Guys:
- In the Wild Card Race: Atlanta lost to the F-Mets, 8-1. The Marlins lost to the Phillies, 8-4. Amazingly, all 8 runs were earned by Dontrelle, bumping his ERA up to 2.83.
- In other NL Central games, the Reds beat the Rockies, 9-4. The Cubs trounced the Pirates, 8-2.
Final123456789RHEHouston 000000000031St. Louis « 03000000x350W: C. Carpenter (14-4) L: R. Clemens (7-4) 
