2005 SEASON

JUNE 17-19: HOUSTON @ KANSAS CITY

FRIDAY, JUNE 17, 2005 (Game 65) – Houston @ Kansas City

Houston 7, Kansas City 0

The Astros finally did right by Roger Clemens. By the time Berkman hit his RBI double in the first inning, the Astros had scored enough runs for him to win the game – one. But they scored 2 more in the first, and 4 more for good measure before the night was over.

Clemens was his usual dominant self: He won his 333rd game, pitching 6 innings, without giving up a run, with 4 hits, 3 BBs, and 6 Ks. His ERA is now 1.53. In his 5 road starts this year, he has not given up one run over 32 innings. Nice streak. (Shhh. Don’t jinx it.)

It’s not that Clemens pitches perfect games (he’s never had a no-hitter); he just is a master at getting out of scrapes. In the second inning, the first two batters got on base (a single and a walk). The third batter took the count to 3-2, giving them hope of loading the bases with no outs, before Clemens struck him out. The next batter hit a long fly, but Bruntlett caught it on the warning track. The next batter hit a grounder to Clemens, and the inning ended with no harm to his ERA. In the fifth inning, Clemens threw 29 pitches: He got the first two batters out, then walked the next two, the top of the Royals’ lineup. The next batter battled him for 9 pitches, before being called out looking. Clemens walked off the mound rhythmically pumping his fist: Yes.

The Astros wore road greys. I watched the archived video of this Friday night game on Saturday night.

In other news: Good thing that the Astros didn’t trade Chavez. Quintero ended up with an appendectomy on Saturday, and will be out several weeks to recover. Chavez has been called back up. Oswalt must be very happy about that.

High points:

• The Good Guys won on the road. Okay, the Royals are one of the worst teams in the majors (worse than the Astros), with a .364 win percentage. But they had a 5-game winning streak coming into this game. The Astros turned their 9 hits into 7 runs. The Royals squandered their 9 hits, not scoring at all. Every player on the Astros’ starting lineup got on base: All but Lane and Ausmus got hits, Lane was hit by a pitch, and Ausmus walked twice.
  

• Bruntlett hit his first major league homerun. 
  

• Ensberg hit his 16th homer of the year.
  

• The relievers (Qualls, Franco, Harville) each pitched a blameless inning to keep Clemens’ shutout intact.
  

Disappointments:

• Since it was an AL-hosted interleague game, Clemens didn’t get to bat.
  

• Qualls continues to be a risky bet – he gave up 3 singles in the 7th, loading the bases with one out. It probably gave Clemens a stomach ache, imagining his win going to hell – again – even with a 7-run lead. But miraculously, no one scored.
  

Notes on the Other Good Guys:

• The Rangers clobbered the Nationals, 8-1.
  

Notes on the Other Bad Guys:

• The Cards won, of course, 6-4 over Tampa Bay. (TB is worse than KC.)
  

• But the rest of the NL Central teams didn’t do so well: The Cubs lost to the Yankees, 9-6. The Pirates lost to the Red Sox, 6-5. The Brewers lost to Toronto, 9-5. And the Reds lost to the Braves, 10-5.
  

Final123456789RHE

Houston «       300001300790

Kansas City     000000000090

W: R. Clemens (5-3) L: J. Howell (1-1)

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SATURDAY, JUNE 18, 2005 (Game 66) – Houston @ KC

Houston 6, Kansas City 2

It wasn’t his 2-hit complete-game shutout from last week – but it was almost as good. Roy Oswalt threw a great game tonight, pitching 8 innings, and only giving up 1 run on 7 hits, 1 BB, and 4 Ks. For a while, it looked a whole lot like last week – Oswalt only threw 55 pitches in the first 5 innings. He didn’t give up a run until the 8th inning: With two outs, a runner scored from third on a single. Oswalt was disappointed: "I was hoping maybe tonight to get another (shutout) through nine." Not a shutout, but another great start, giving Oswalt his 8th win. Despite the Astros’ terrible start to this season, Oswalt is still positioned to win 20 games this year.

The Astros were nice enough to give Oswalt some run support tonight – with Taveras the star of the show. After a bad start to this road trip (he was 2-19 coming into tonight’s game), he went 3 for 4 tonight, and scored the Astros’ first 3 runs of the game, in the 1st, 3rd, and 7th innings. He got on base at every at-bat – 3 singles, a walk, and an error. His hit in the 7th was his 28th infield single – leading the majors.

The Astros wore road greys. I saw the last inning live, after Shabbat, but had to wait to see the rest on archive.

High points:

• Oswalt is amazing.
  

• Taveras still makes me not want to miss Beltran. I just wish his name started with “B.”
  

Disappointments:

• Springer gave up a run in the 9th, but it was not really his fault. With two outs, Gotay hit a long fly ball. Taveras was there to make the play – and missed. "I lost it in the sky," Taveras truthfully replied. "I'm glad it happened like that [with a four-run lead], but it's hard when it's the first time you play in a stadium like that. In the 8th, Taveras was safe on a fielding error by Gotay, which allowed Ausmus and Burke to score.
  

• Two games in a row – having to listen to the Kansas City TV broadcast It's hard, but we won." It was payback for Gotay:.
  

Notes on the Other Good Guys:

• Texas beat Washington again, 7-4. The Rangers (who used to be the Senators before 1971) are really spoiling the Nationals’ fun, after their great homestand.
  

Notes on the Other Bad Guys:

• The Cards won, of course, 5-2 over Tampa Bay. The Cubs lost to the Yankees, 8-1, thanks in part to Derek Jeter’s first grand slam. The Pirates shut out the Red Sox, 2-0. The Brewers beat Toronto, 5-2. Milwaukee’s only 1.5 games ahead of Houston now. And the Reds lost to the Braves, 6-1 – their 6th loss in a row. Houston is now 3 games ahead of Cincinnati, giving a nice buffer above the NL Central cellar.
  

• In other news… Florida lost to the LA Angels, 2-1, in 11. But Dontrelle didn’t get the loss; he pitched 7 scoreless innings, to lower his ERA to 1.92.
  

Final123456789RHE

Houston «       1010001306      100

Kansas City     000000011293

W: R. Oswalt (8-7) L: D. Carrasco (2-2)

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SUNDAY, JUNE 19, 2005 (Game 67) – Houston @ Kansas City

Kansas City 7, Houston 1

Who in the world is Runelvys Hernandez?

Must be some great pitcher, to limit the Astros to one hit in the first 7 innings of Sunday’s game! Or not. Coming into this game, he had a 4-7 record and an ERA in the high 4’s. It’s one thing when they lose to Maddux. Or Martinez. Or Dontrelle. But Runelvys?

Okay, the guy had a good day on the mound. But he also got lucky: The Good Guys forgot the old saying, “Nice guys finish last,” and they tried to be inoffensive. (Groan.) Houston reverted to earlier season form, losing to the Royals with an almost total lack of offense: Two hits. Four walks. All told, one run – lucky it wasn’t another shutout.

Backe had another non-“quality” start, pitching 6 innings, giving up 5 runs on 5 hits, 5 BBs, and 2 Ks. But it wasn’t a really terrible start, as the numbers would suggest. He gave up 2 runs in the second inning, due to his own misfielding of a ground ball to the mound. With runners on first and second and 1 out, he rushed the throw to Everett at second, and it went wide. Viz handled the throw instead and got the runner out, but it should have been a double play, ending the inning. Unfortunate -- because Backe is generally quite a good fielder. Then a wild pitch and a single allowed two runs to score. After that inning, though, he was solid, retiring 11 batters in a row. Until the 6th, that is, when he gave up a 3-run homer.

In other news, I missed seeing this game because I was at Studio Theater with Hatte, watching “Take Me Out,” a play by Richard Greenberg. Very entertaining play – between the baseball theme, the gay theme, and all the naked guys in the locker room scenes. More on that later…

High points:

• Alas, not much to like about this game. Houston’s single run scored in the 5th, when Ensberg walked, then stole second. Ausmus lined to left field – Houston’s first hit of the game – and Ensberg scored. Taveras got the other hit, a single in the 8th.
  

Disappointments:

• Even the scoreless 8th inning that Lidge pitched wasn’t much of a thrill. He got the first two batters out, chic-chak. Then he gave up 2 singles and a walk to load the bases, before Ausmus picked off the runner on first to end the inning.
  

Notes on the Other Good Guys:

• The Nats beat the Rangers, 8-2. More late-game heroics, with 5 runs scored in the 8th. (I wish the Astros could learn this trick.)
  

Notes on the Other Bad Guys:

• The Cards won, of course, 8-5 over Tampa Bay. The Cubs lost to the Yankees again, 6-3. The Red Sox shut out the Pirates (a switch on yesterday’s shutout), 8-0. The Brewers beat Toronto, 5-2, same as yesterday. And the Reds finally broke their losing streak, beating the Braves, 11-8.
  

Final123456789RHE

Houston          0000100001 20

Kansas City «   02000320x7      111

W: R. Hernandez (5-7) L: B. Backe (6-5)

Quote of the Day

Royals skipper Buddy Bell: "Oswalt tonight was the best pitcher I've seen all year. The best by a bunch. I'm talking command and stuff."

Fashion Statement

The Astros wore Sunday road reds. Ensberg and Everett really got into the red theme -- they wore special red contact lenses designed to help hitters see the ball better while reducing glare. "You didn't squint as much," Ensberg said. "It's the first game, and I'm sure I'll get more used to them." In other fashion news, the players wore blue prostate cancer ribbons on their jerseys. Some players also wore blue wrist bands and even temporary tattoos. It was part of the Prostate Cancer Foundation's "Keep Dad in the Game" campaign.

Quote of the Day

Phil Garner on this road trip: "Winning the series is good, but this was a two-game swing for us… Win today, you come home at .500. Instead, we're two games under on the road trip. That means you've got to win four ballgames somewhere else to catch up.”