2005 SEASON
JUNE 20-22: COLORADO @ HOUSTON
MONDAY, JUNE 20, 2005 (Game 68) – Colorado @ Houston
Houston 7, Colorado 0
The Astros finally met their match: A team that is just as bad on the road as they are. Worse, actually: Coming into this game, the Rockies were 5-28 on the road (the Astros are a much better 9-27), having lost every road series this season. Colorado was 3-12 (now 3-13) in Minute Maid Park, the worst team record in this stadium. So that was the good news.
The better news was that the Astros pitching was uniformly wonderful. Pettitte was beautiful tonight: He pitched 7 innings, gave up no runs on 5 hits, 1 BB, and 8 Ks (tied for his season high strikeouts). With 11 quality starts this season, he finally won his 4th game. All in all, he should be a happy man – nah, not the game. He has a new baby boy, his fourth child, born yesterday. (It’s his 4th kid, 3rd son.) The relief pitchers (Franco and Qualls) were excellent in the 8th and 9th innings.
The Astros wore home stripes as they won their 5th consecutive home game.
In other news, Quintero got out of the hospital after his appendectomy, and came home yesterday with the team. Chavez, back up from AAA, has a chance to redeem himself a bit, since Quintero can’t play for several weeks. It’s not clear yet who he’ll be catching, but I won’t be surprised to see him matched up with Wandy tomorrow night.
High points:
- Very fine relief pitching from two pitchers who often allow runs to score: Franco and Qualls. Franco pitched a perfect 8th – two strike outs and a fly ball. Qualls, not to be outdone, struck out the side in the 9th. All together, the Astros pitchers struck out 13.
- Lots of good hitting tonight, starting with the 3 runs scored in the first inning. Biggio singled, Berkman walked, Ensberg was hit by a pitch, and then Lane managed to put the ball in the outfield right out of reach of anyone, a 2-RBI double. Nothing like giving your starting pitcher a little breathing room!
- The Astros scored one additional run in each of the 5th through 8th innings.
- Berkman’s solo homer in the 6th was his first right-handed HR this season.
- Ensberg was 0 for 2, but got on base 3 times: HBP (1st inning), FC (3rd), BB (5th).
- Some great fielding on both sides. In the first inning, Jason Lane was out at home on a great throw, after he tumbled over the kneeling catcher (well, he shouldn’t have been in the base path anyway). Biggio made a couple of great fielding plays.
- Biggio stole third base in the 5th – his 7th steal this season (and I think most of them are third base).
- Garner shuffled the lineup again tonight. With Burke not performing well in the number 2 spot, Garner bumped him down to 7th, and moved everyone else up. That put Bidge in the number 2 spot, Berkman 3rd, and Ensberg cleanup. Lane 5th and Everett 6th.
- It was great to see Bagwell back in the dugout, even if he can’t play yet.
- Matt Anderson, the Rockies 8th inning relief pitcher, is a crazy dude – his 9.39 ERA must have been earned with wild pitching like he demonstrated tonight. Throwing to (in the general direction of) Burke, the first pitch was 4 feet to the left of the plate. The second nearly beaned him. The third was a called strike. The 4th nailed him. One on. He walked Ausmus on 4 significantly inaccurate pitches. Palmeiro got on with an infield single. Bases loaded, no outs. After Taveras and Biggio popped outs, it looked like he might get out of trouble. But he walked Berkman on 4 terrible pitches, to force in the 7th Houston run. After almost hitting Ensberg with his first pitch, he finally got the 3rd out without killing anyone.
- Finally! A Houston TV broadcast. Fox Sports Network/Houston has added some weird graphics and sound, showing who’s coming up in the next inning.
Disappointments:
- Taveras was 0 for 5. But he did get on base in the 5th on a fielders choice, then advanced to second on a wild pitch, to third base on the throwing error, and scored on Biggio’s hit.
Notes on the Other Good Guys:
- The Nationals beat Pittsburgh, 7-4. Livan Hernandez got the win (#10). The Nats are 3 games up in the NL East.
Notes on the Other Bad Guys:
- The Cards won, as always, this time over sucker Cincinnati, 6-1.
- The Cubs beat the Brewers, 5-4.
Final123456789RHEColorado 000000000051Houston 30001111x7 100W: A. Pettitte (4-7) L: J. Kennedy (3-7) ==============================================================================
TUESDAY, JUNE 21, 2005 (Game 69) – Colorado @ Houston
Houston 6, Colorado 5
This has got to be the wackiest game I’ve seen all season – seesaw scoring on crazy plays, embarrassing mistakes, a comedy of errors – literally. But by the time that Brad Lidge came to the mound in the 9th, I was so nervous that I spent most of the inning pacing from room to room, loading the dishwasher, brushing my teeth – anything to keep from seeing yet another wild reversal of fate. But cut to the chase: The Good Guys came out on top, for their sixth consecutive home win.
The usual stuff first: Wandy Rodriguez got off to a good start, pitching five scoreless innings with only 59 pitches. A much better start than the game I saw in Baltimore last week. And the Astros were nice and scored 4 runs for him, starting with a run in the first inning, 2 more in the fourth, and another in the fifth.
But after five innings, things went sour for Wandy: The Rockies tied it up in the 6th and went ahead on his watch in the 7th. Garner took him out with two outs in the 7th, just one batter away from getting the win (since the Astros scored in the bottom of the inning). Qualls came in, took out the last batter on 4 pitches, and got the win.
The unfortunate Rockies starter, Jamey Wright, got the loss; his career record against Houston is now 0-11 (kind of the reverse of Oswalt and the Reds).
Now for the more unusual stuff: Jason Lane was at the center of a lot of the craziness tonight, both good and bad. The good stuff happened to Lane in the 4th inning, when he came up to bat with one out, Berkman on second, and Ensberg on first. I gave him his instructions: “Just do what you did last night – a nice 2-RBI double.” (Garner probably told him the same thing.) But he hit a grounder into what should have been a double-play. Instead it was a double error – a bad throw to second, followed by a wild throw home, with no one backing up the plate. Two runs scored, and Lane made it to third.
The bad stuff happened to Lane in the 6th. With one out and Rockies runners on second and third, the batter hit a sac fly to right to score the runner on third. But Lane was daydreaming in right field. After he caught the fly, he tossed it into the stands. Whoops. FSN Colorado showed endless reruns of the priceless look on Lane’s face as he figured out why the runner from second went on to score. He put his hands on his head, mouth in a big “oh” (The Scream). Every time the camera wandered his way for the rest of the inning, Lane looked pretty much like he was about to cry. That play cut the Astros lead to 4-2, and it was about to get worse: Wandy gave up a single to the next batter, and then a homer to the following one, to tie the game at 4-4.
It’s not clear that Lane’s gaffe really had an effect on the outcome; the runner who scored on his error would have scored on the next play anyway. (It was marked as an earned run.) On the other hand, the events might have rattled Wandy, leading him to give up hits to the next batters. Wandy says no: "It didn't affect me at all. I just concentrated on the next batter.” (Apparently he didn’t concentrate hard enough.) There will be a lot of good quotes in tomorrow’s paper, and Lane will no doubt hear much juicier quotes in the locker room that won’t make the press. Not to mention a spanking from Garner. I wonder how long it will be before he throws a ball into the stands again?
Unfortunately for Lane, he was the first guy up in the next inning. Some people in the crowd booed, many others cheered. Then he popped out on a first-pitch foul, and the booing took over. (Nasty fans. I never boo my own team.)
High points:
- Great relief pitching tonight saved the Astros precarious one-run lead. Qualls got his one batter in the 7th to get the win. Wheeler pitched a perfect eighth. And Lidge pitched the 9th quite Lidgefully: He walked the first batter on 4 pitches, just to make me really nervous. Then bang, bang, bang: He knocked out the next three on a grounder and two strikeouts. The last batter was just standing there looking when Lidge’s final strike blew by. Save #17. Lidge now has 49 Ks in 32 innings of work – 13.8 K/9 innings.
- Berkman continues to nudge up his batting average. Tonight he was 2 for 3, with a walk, a run, and 2 RBI, bumping his batting average up to .259. Last night he was 2 for 3 with 2 walks – ending up on base in 4 of his 5 at-bats. It’s not just getting hits; he’s starting to hit more extra-base hits, including last night’s homer, and tonight’s two doubles.
- Taveras was 2 for 4 on two infield singles, both resulting in his scoring runs. Both times his incredible speed was a factor. In the fifth inning, with 2 outs, Taveras got to first on a bunt single, then advanced to second on a passed ball. (It was a pitch-out, trying to catch him stealing, which backfired. Evidently the threat of stealing can be just as good as the real thing.) Taveras then scored easily from second on Biggio’s soft single to center. In the seventh, Taveras got safely to first on an infield hit that for anyone else would have been a ground out. He later scored on Berkman’s double.
- Biggio got a double in the first inning, and went on to score the first run on Ensberg’s RBI single. It was career double #584, putting him at #13 on the career records. He was hit by a pitch in the 7th inning -- #264 career, only 3 away from the record.
Disappointments:
- Chavez is back from Triple A, due to Quintero’s misfortune. But he didn’t do anything offensively to help his case tonight. He was 0 for 3, dropping his batting average under .200.
Notes on the Other Good Guys:
- The Nationals lost to the Pirates, 11-4.
Notes on the Other Bad Guys:
- Cincinnati fired its manager today, then turned around and trounced the Cards, 11-4. Too bad they can’t fire the boss every day!
- The Cubs beat the Brewers, 4-2. The Milwaukee losses put Houston closer to overtaking them in the NL Central, but the Cubs are higher on the totem pole.
Final123456789RHEColorado 000004100582Houston 10021020x692W: C. Qualls (2-3) L: J. Wright (4-7) S: B. Lidge (17) ==============================================================================
WEDNESDAY, JUNE 22, 2005 (Game 70) – Colorado @ Houston
Houston 6, Colorado 2
Mr. Invincible pitched his usual game: Seven innings, one ER, on 5 hits, 2 BBs, and 4 Ks. But Clemens got what he deserved for a change: A win. The Astros put some runs on the board for him – all 6 Astros runs scored before his reliever took the mound. And the relievers did what good little relievers and physicians are supposed to do: First do no harm.
Clemens single ER was in the second inning: After giving up two singles and a walk, Clemens had the bases loaded with no outs. With most pitchers, this would be the beginning of the end. But it was Classic Clemens: he got the double play (scoring one runner), and then got the next guy on a fly ball. Total damage: 1 run.
The other run scored in the 3rd inning, on a combination of fielding gaffes that are very uncharacteristic of Houston. (Perhaps the Rockies’ penchant for fielding errors is contagious?) The lead batter singled, then got to second on Ensberg’s throwing error. The second batter sacrificed the runner to third. The third batter grounded out. Two outs, runner on third, not a problem for Clemens, right? But it was a problem for Biggio: His fielding error allowed the runner to score. (That’s okay – Bidge made up for it, painfully. See the High Points.)
Ensberg got a home run, a 3-RBI blast in the 3rd to put Houston ahead, and they stayed that way for the rest of the game.
Today’s win sweeps this home series. It was the 7th consecutive win in Minute Maid Park for the Astros. They have won 10 of their last 15 games, and are now 8 under .500. With 17 games to go before the All Star break, it is very possible for Houston to get back up above .500 by mid-season. After a homestand against the Rangers this weekend, they will resume battle with the Rockies out in Denver next week, then they will play a series in Cincinnati. Last year, the Astros were at .500 at the All Star break, and they didn’t exactly go gangbusters immediately afterwards – they didn’t get hot until the last 46 games of the season. So, despite the terrible start to this season, it’s not over yet. Granted this sweep was against the worst NL team, but it’s a move in the right direction.
High points:
- •Biggio got on base 3 times in his 4 at-bats: He was hit by pitches in his first two times at bat, and hit and RBI double in the 7th inning. The two HBPs leave him just one behind Don Baylor’s career record.
- Ensberg continues to be hot – home run #17, with 45 RBIs. If he keeps it up, he’s on pace to hit about 40 HRs and over 100 RBIs this season.
- Excellent work from the relievers again today: Franco pitched a perfect 8th. After giving up a leadoff single in the 9th, Springer put out the next 3.
- The Rockies’ propensity for wild pitches and fielding errors helped the Astros again today: In the 7th inning, Everett flied out, Burke singled, and Ausmus doubled. Palmeiro walked to load the bases with one out. Taveras is up: Rockies pitcher Jennings throws a wild pitch, allowing Burke to score from 3rd base. The catcher makes a bad throw, the ball gets loose, and Ausmus scores too. Two runs on one bad pitch. Palmeiro ends up on third. Taveras grounded out, but Biggio hit a double on the next pitch, scoring Palmeiro. Biggio moved up to 3rd on another wild pitch, but Berkman struck out to end the inning. But it was another 3-run inning.
- The Rockies are now 3-15 in Minute Maid Park. They haven’t won a series against the Astros at home since 1995 – in the Astrodome.
Disappointments:
- Willie Tee didn’t get on base today. If he doesn’t get on, he doesn’t get to steal.
Notes on the Other Good Guys:
- The Nationals beat the Pirates, 5-4, in another come-from-behind win.
Notes on the Other Bad Guys:
- Oh yes! Cincinnati beat the Cards again, 7-6. The two St. Louis losses gave Houston a chance to pick up a couple of games on them. Okay, the Astros are still 13½ games out, but little by little… the Astros are now within a game of NL Central 3rd place.
- The Brewers beat Chicago, 9-4.
- When I last checked on the Yankees game last night, it was the end of the 7th, and the Yanks were safely losing to Tampa Bay (!), 11-7. When I got up this morning, I saw the final in the Washington Post: NYY 20, TB 11. The Yankees scored 13 runs in the 8th inning, with 16 at-bats. Damn Yankees! The Devil Rays beat them, 5-3, today.
Final123456789RHEColorado 011000000261Houston « 00300030x662W: R. Clemens (6-3) L: J. Jennings (4-8) 
