AstrosFanInExile

2005 SEASON

SEPTEMBER 19-22: HOUSTON @ PITTSBURGH

MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 19, 2005 (Game 150) –

HOUSTON @ PITTSBURGH

Pittsburgh 7, Houston 0

What a bad game! The Astros did what they seem to always do when Clemens is pitching – get shutout. It was their 17th shutout of the year, and the 9th when Clemens was on the mound. And Clemens had an off day, giving up 6 runs (4 of them earned) in a short outing. He only pitched 5 2/3 innings, giving up 11 hits (including a homer and other extra-base hits), 1 BB, and 5 Ks. It was a unfortunate experience for Clemens, who had never started a game in Pittsburgh before.

This time the Astros didn’t have the excuse that they were facing a Chris Carpenter or Dontrelle Willis. Clemens’ opponent on the mound was Ian Snell, who’d never before won a major league game, and came into tonight’s game with a 12.38 ERA.. And he still managed to hold the Astros to 3 hits. The Astros have now been shut out 5 times this season by the Pirates, the last-place team in the NL Central. This was Pittsburgh’s third shutout against the Astros in a row, and they did it with 4 rookies and 2 second-year guys. What is wrong with this story?

The Astros wore road greys to match their mood.

In other news, Bagwell and Biggio will fly to New Jersey for John McMullen’s funeral before the game on Wednesday. Biggio will be a pallbearer.

High points:

Ensberg is back from his injury. He got one of the Astros’ 3 hits, a single in the 1st inning. Ensberg isn’t without pain, but he’s glad to be back. "This is just going to be pain I'm going to have to deal with," he said. "I'm not going to hurt it more. I'm not putting myself in any kind of danger by playing. Obviously, you'd much rather not feel anything, but in this situation, we're coming down to the end here. I'm happy to play through this, but I expect it to be a battle."

It was Brad Ausmus’ 902nd game as a catcher for the Astros – passing Alan Ashby’s old record.

Disappointments:

I wouldn’t know where to start… As Garner said: "We played crappy. We plain played crappy."

Notes on the Other Good Guys:

The Red Sox lost and the Yankees won. Boston’s lead in the AL East is down to half a game.

Notes on the Other Bad Guys:

Everyone who is anyone had the day off. So the Astros only lost a half game against the other bad guys.

Final123456789RHE

Houston 000000000041

Pittsburgh « 00110401x7 151

W: I. Snell (1-2) L: R. Clemens (12-8)

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

TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 20, 2005 (Game 151) –

HOUSTON @ PITTSBURGH

Houston 7, Pittsburgh 4

Houston finally broke through its fear of scoring against the Pirates. After 28 scoreless innings against Pittsburgh, the Astros put 7 big ones on the score board on a night that all of the other NL Wild Card contenders fell. Up against yet another rookie Pirate pitcher, Andy Pettitte kept his cool and got his 7th win in a row. It wasn’t Pettitte’s most beautiful outing, and it was one of his shortest -- but he got in 100 pitches in 5 1/3 innings, giving up 2 ERs on 7 hits, 2 BBs, and 5 Ks. Qualls, Wheeler, and Lidge combined to finish off the game.

The Astros performed well at the plate and very well in the field to get Pettitte his 17th season win tonight. After yesterday’s game of Keystone Kops, the Astros were sharp today, with two brilliant fielding plays from Bruntlett and one from Berkman. They also played good small ball: In the 4th inning, with the score tied 1-1, Berkman led off with a single, and then Lane walked. Burke put down a sacrifice bunt to advance the runners to 2nd and 3rd. Then Everett dropped a perfect bunt for the squeeze, scoring Berkman. Everett beat out the throw, and subsequently scored with Lane on Ausmus’ 2-RBI double for a 3-run inning.

The infield looked a lot more familiar tonight, with Ensberg and Everett back in the game. Burke was also back in the lineup, playing in left field, after recovering from his dislocated shoulder. Taveras is still out, but may be able to pinch bat, as well as pinch run.

Pirates rookie pitcher Tom Gorzelanny was throwing his first major league start, and he got the loss.

The Astros wore road greys, to match the sky in Houston with Hurricane Rita on the way. The guys are on the road, but many have family in the Houston area, which is due to get hit by the storm by the weekend.

High points:

The quiet star of the game offensively was Brad Ausmus – he went 3 for 3, with 2 doubles and a single, pushing 4 RBIs across the plate. The Astros wore road greys.

Everett, up right before Ausmus in the lineup, went 3 for 4. All three were funny little hits: a bloop pop-fly single that fell between the fielders, a bunt that he outran, and an infield single that bounced off the pitcher. But they got him on base and he scored 3 times. He had been worried that he would not play well, with his mind on his baby. His 8-month-old daughter had surgery last week to remove a benign tumor on her spinal cord. Everett went home to Georgia to be with his family for the surgery, which was successful. At least he has his priorities straight: "There's a lot more important things in life than baseball and she's definitely it."

Ensberg went 1 for 4, but that one was the Big One – his 36th homer of the season. A solo number, it was good for his 97th RBI.

•Bagwell came up to pinch hit in the 8th, with one out and runners on 1st and 3rd. He got an RBI single, the last Astros run to score.

•Bruntlett was 0 for 4 tonight, but like a number of other times this season, he made his mark on the game. This time it was great work in center field, playing in place of Willie T, who’s still out injured. Bruntlett made his first outfield assist in the 4th inning, fielding a single and then making a perfect throw to home to catch the Pirates runner. Then in the 5th inning, he made a beautiful diving catch, causing the Astros TV announcer to ask: “How can a guy with so little playing time provide so many highlights?”

Disappointments:

The relief pitching didn’t lose the game for Pettitte, but none of the bullpen pitchers were perfect tonight. Qualls came in to relieve Pettitte with one out in the 6th, and runners on 1st and 2nd. He inducted ground outs to the next two batters, to get out of the inning. Berkman helped on the second one, making a great diving play to grab the ball. But Qualls gave up a run in the 7th on two singles and a walk.

Wheeler got into trouble in the 8th, giving up a leadoff walk and then a single, before knocking out the next 3 batters to get out of the inning.

It wasn’t Brad Lidge’s best inning on the mound either. He came in to pitch the 9th in a non-save situation. I think it might not have gotten his adrenaline sufficiently pumped. He walked the first batter, then gave up a double to put runners on 2nd and 3rd with no outs. He got the next three outs, but a run scored in the process. No harm done, but it wasn’t the laser-sharp pitching we’ve seen from him in his previous two games.

Notes on the Other Good Guys:

The Red Sox won huge, 15-2, over Tampa Bay. But the Yankees won too, boo hoo.

Notes on the Other Bad Guys:

Tonight’s results couldn’t be better for the Astros in the NL Wild Card race. Their win tonight increased their lead over all the contenders:

The Phillies lost to the Braves, 4-1.

The Marlins lost to the F-ing Mets, 3-2, in 12 innings. Finally the Mets do something useful!

The Nats lost to the Giants, 4-3. Barry Bonds, in his 2005 road debut (Back from the Dead and Drugged), got a home run in the 4th inning. (The fans booed him, and one first-row fan held up a large red construction paper asterisk.) Livan Hernandez took a beautiful start through 8 innings, giving up only one run and holding a slim lead. Then, with 2 outs in the 9th, and one out, Bonds came up to the plate. Hernandez walked him on 4 pitches (and the fans booed). Then Jeff Bagwell’s bud, Moises Alou, came to the plate and hit a 3-run homer to put the Giants ahead for good. The Nats are getting far enough behind the Astros that I may put them back in the Other Good Guys column.

NL West leader San Diego is playing like it’s not serious about wanting to get to the playoffs. With only a .500 record, they lost to the Rockies (!) last night, 20-1! The Padre’s manager Bruce Bochy tried to find some redeeming feature of the blowout: "Nobody got hurt.” If the Astros scored 20 runs in a game, I’d think that I’d died and gone to heaven.

In other NL Central games… The Reds beat the Cards, 6-5. The Brewers beat the Cubbies, 5-3.

Final123456789RHE

Houston « 0103100207121

Pittsburgh 0110001014110

W: A. Pettitte (17-9) L: T. Gorzelanny (0-1)

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

WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 21, 2005 (Game 152) –

HOUSTON @ PITTSBURGH

Houston 12, Pittsburgh 8

In his last start, Roy Oswalt pitched into the 8th inning, giving up only 1 run, and didn’t get the win. Tonight, he only lasted six, and gave up 4 runs (3 of them earned), but the guys came through for him in a big way to help him get his 18th win. Oswalt allowed 9 hits and 2 walks, with 6 strikeouts. With 10 games left in the season, he’s due for 2 more starts, so it’s possible for him to get to 20 wins again this season.

“In a big way” – as in 4 runs in the first inning (including Berkman’s 3 run homer), followed by 4 runs in the second (including Lamb’s 3 run homer), and 4 more runs scattered over the remaining innings. Kip Wells  was the unfortunate victim of the scoring barrage in the first 2 innings – which is all he lasted before being sent to the doghouse.

Oswalt gave up 4 runs in the first 6 innings. Over the course of the evening, the Astros relievers gave away a few more runs – well, 5 of them actually. The Pirates chip, chip, chipped away at the Astros lead, scoring one or two runs in the 3, 4, 5, 7, 8, and 9th innings. With 12 runs on the board, the Astros could afford to be magnanimous tonight. But with the truism “Nice Guys Finish Last” ringing in their ears, they finally decided to get kind of offensive the in the past couple of games.

With 15 hits (not to mention 3 walks, a hit batsman, and 3 Pirate errors), nearly everyone had a good night at the plate. The run-making star was Berkman, who went 2 for 4, with 5 RBI. But he had lots of company: Five of the Astros starters had multi-hit games. Taveras, Lamb, and Lane each got 3 hits. Ensberg got 2 hits and 2 walks.

The Astros wore road greys, in honor of Houston’s weather forecast. Hurricane Rita is on her way towards Houston, now a Category 5 monster with 170+ MPH winds. They are battening down the hatches at Minute Maid Park, so hopefully the roof won’t fly off during the storm. But the playing field is 27 feet below street level, and could turn into a swamp before the Astros get back home next week for the final series against the Cubs.

High points:

Good News: Willie T is back! His injured finger appears to be healed as he batted 3 for 6, with a stolen base (#34) for good measure. He looks more and more like the Rookie of the Year to me, leading the major leagues in infield hits and bunt singles, and leading all rookies in a lot of categories.

The Astros got the fun started early. Willie T led off with a single. Biggio followed with a ground ball, which would have been an out, but the throw hit Bidge in the helmet and went astray. Taveras took the opportunity to run the bases, scoring the first run. Biggio moved to 2nd. Ensberg walked. Then Berkman came up to the plate, and whacked a homer over the fence to make the score 4-0 – before the first out had been scored.

Berkman’s home run was #20 for the year, for the 6th year in a row that he has hit 20 or more long balls. Only 2 other Astros players have this distinction: Bagwell and Glenn Davis.

Mike Lamb continues to be a totally different hitter. He went 3 for 5 tonight, with a 3-run home run in the 2nd inning, a double, and a single, 3 RBIs and 2 runs. His batting average is up to .235 – more than 25 points higher than it was a month ago. And a lot of his hits have been for extra bases, with RBIs. He’s now up to 50 RBIs, not bad for a guy who’s not an everyday player and whose batting average sat under .210 for most of the season.

Jason Lane also went 3 for 5, with a homer (#24) and two singles. He also moved from LF to RF in the 8th inning, positioning him to make a brilliant diving catch in right for the inning’s first out.

Bidge went 0 for 1, but still managed to score twice.

Bagwell pinch hit in the 7th inning, with 2 out and no one on base. He hit what appeared to be an easy ground out, but the throw to first was bad, and Bagwell ended up on second base (where he was stranded).

Disappointments:

Luckily Houston had a big lead, because the relievers had a long haul, and they leaked runs right and left. Springer, Gallo, Wheeler, and Astacio combined to finish off the 3 innings after Oswalt left the game. All but Gallo (who only pitched to one batter, striking him out) gave up at least one run.

Notes on the Other Good Guys:

The Red Sox lost and the Yankees won to take the AL East lead. WAH!

The Indians beat the White Sox to creep even closer in the AL Central race. How can the White Sox lose such a huge division lead?

Notes on the Other Bad Guys:

The Phillies knocked down the Braves, 10-6. They went into the 10th inning tied 6-6, but the Phillies hit a grand slam to take a big 4-run lead.

The Marlins lost to the Wonderful Mets, 5-4, when the NYers broke a 4-4 tie in the bottom of the 9th. Finally the Mets are showing themselves to have some use!

The Nats lost to the Giants, 5-1. Barry Bonds got another home run in his first at bat of the game.

The Cards beat the Reds, ho hum.

Final123456789RHE

Houston « 440001102 12 151

Pittsburgh 0012102118 153

W: R. Oswalt (18-12) L: K. Wells (7-17)

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

THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 22, 2005 (Game 153) –

HOUSTON @ PITTSBURGH

Houston 2, Pittsburgh 1

Brandon Backe may have had his mind on his family back home today, as Galveston turns into a deserted island with Hurricane Rita just a day away from landfall. But he was totally on target for his second consecutive start, earning his 10th win of the season. Backe pitched 7 innings in a lunch-time game, giving up only 1 run (a solo homer) on 2 hits, no walks, 1 HBP, and 6 strikeouts. That sums up to a bunch of 1-2-3 innings. Added to the 6 2/3 innings of shutout ball he pitched in previous last game, he’s looking more and more like the kind of pitcher you want to see on the mound in the playoffs. That’s a big relief to Phil Garner, who wants to take a 4-man rotation to the post-season, and not kill off his Big Three on short rest.

After yesterday’s hitting blowout, today was quite restrained. The Astros only scored 2 runs on 5 hits, in a nicely pitched start by the Pirates’ baby ace Zach Duke. The meaningful offense was really the one-two punch of Taveras and Berkman today, with Burke acting as a sacrificial lamb between them. In both the 1st and 3rd innings, Willie T got himself on base, Burke bunted him up, and Berkman knocked him in. That pattern, which was unfortunately limited to those 2 innings, was the key to all (2) of Houston’s runs today.

The Astros wore their Sunday best road reds today, as they won the series from the Pirates on their 8th win in their last 9 games. The Astros are now 15 games over .500 for the first time this season. It’s the flip side of when they were 15-30 on May 24th – they are 30 games over .500 since then. Just to keep things in perspective: Since that day, the worst in the Astros season, the Astros’ record has been 69-39. The Cards record in that same time period is 68-42.

High points:

Another great contribution by Lance Berkman – on base all 4 times at bat on 2 hits and 2 walks, with both RBIs for the game. His batting average is back up to .298, so he has a good chance of ending the season over .300.

Willie T is back, hooray! He got on base twice in today’s game, on a walk in the 1st inning and a double in the 2nd, and scored both times thanks to Berkman.

Aside from Craig Wilson’s solo homer in the 5th, the only time the Pirates had a runner in scoring position was in the 8th, when Qualls came in and gave up a pair of 2-out singles. Garner quickly brought in The Man: Lidge dispatched the next batter to end the inning, and then closed the 9th with 2 Ks for his 38th save.

Garner made a good guess that, despite the hitting spree last night, the Astros might find the runs hard to score against Duke today. So he played small ball in the first few innings, with Burke sacrificing Taveras over in both the 1st and 3rd innings, going for the early runs. Both times the plan succeeded in scoring Willie T, and it turned out that these were the only runs the Astros scored.

Disappointments:

This game started at lunchtime, while I was at work. I kept an eye on it on Sportsline’s GameCenter, but couldn’t watch it until afterwards. On second thought, I would have been a nervous wreck. It’s a lot easier to watch a close game like this when you already know that it has a happy ending.

Notes on the Other Good Guys:

The Red Sox had the day off. The Yankees, however, did not, and they squeaked by the Orioles to increase their lead over Boston to a full game. WAH.

Notes on the (Other) Bad Guys:

Unlike the major leaguers, who are too cool to watch the scoreboard, I am an unabashed scoreboard junkie. Here’s today’s scoop:

The Phillies beat the Braves, 4-0. It was tied until 0-0 until the 9th inning, when the Phillies grabbed 4 runs. The Braves are screwing up at the end of the season; they’ve lost 7 of their past 10 games, and only lead Philadelphia by 4 games. Now here’s an ugly scenario for the Wild Card: Philadelphia continues to win, Atlanta loses a few, the Phillies take the NL East, and Atlanta comes out ahead of the Astros in the Wild Card race. Isn’t that just what Alyson predicted at mid-season? Now, another version goes like this: The Braves lose a bunch, the Phillies take the NL East, and the Astros take the Wild Card. Then the Astros play Philadelphia instead of Atlanta in the first round of the playoffs. I like that: The Astros haven’t lost a game to the Phillies in 2 years.

What a matchup: Dontrelle vs. Pedro. And what a choice! I want to cheer for Dontrelle, and I hate the Mets, but with the Marlins still in the Wild Card race, what to do? So I cheered just a little for the Mets. Here’s a very unusual sight: A major league pitcher batting 7th in the lineup. But hey – Dontrelle’s batting around .250, which is better than the Marlins’ 2nd and 3rd basemen and shortstop. Bottom Line: The Marlins beat the Mets, 2-1, win number 22 for Dontrelle. Dontrelle or Chris for the Cy Young? Sure is close…

The Nats beat the Giants, 2-0. No homer for Bonds because he didn’t play. Cordero got his 47th save.

•The Cubs beat the Brewers, 3-0. The Astros are on their way to Chicago; hopefully the Cubs have seen their last win this week.

The Cards lost to the Reds, 6-2, when Julian Tavares (remember him from the playoffs? the one with the nasty temper?) came in to a tied game in the 9th and gave up a bunch of runs. Couldn’t happen to a better guy.

Final123456789RHE

Houston « 101000000250

Pittsburgh 000010000150

W: B. Backe (10-8) L: Z. Duke (6-2) S: B. Lidge (38)

In Yet Other News…

The Washington Post had a front-page story last week on the current custom of major league teams with chaplains and religious chapel services before games. This kind of activity is, of course, sponsored by an evangelical Christian organization, Baseball Chapel, with a clear mission: To turn on people to Jesus. The Post article discussed the team chaplain for the Nats, a guy who works for the FBI in his day job, and does the pastor thing with the team in his spare time.

My knee-jerk reaction to this is that for young guys with too much money, who spend half their time on the road with a bunch of other young guys with too much money and too little guidance, a little religion isn’t a bad thing. It’s better, say, than drunken orgies, dangerous drugs, and general debauchery. And if it helps to build an optimistic outlook and makes them feel good about themselves and about the team, that’s nice. (G-d doesn’t have a favorite team – but if he did it would be the Astros.

On the other hand – and what caused negative fallout from the article – not every guy on the team is a Christian. When the positive aspects of providing moral guidance and spiritual enrichment are overshot by the negative aspects of flat-out proselytizing, it’s not so nice. In the case reported in the Post article, one of the Nats’ team members, Ryan Church, had gone to the chaplain for advice about his ex-girlfriend, who is Jewish, and was distressed to find out that she is destined for hell. Church was quoted as saying "I said, like, Jewish people, they don't believe in Jesus. Does that mean they're doomed? Jon nodded, like, that's what it meant. My ex-girlfriend! I was like, man, if they only knew. Other religions don't know any better. It's up to us to spread the word."

With the team chaplain telling the guys that those who don’t embrace Jesus are going down in flames, it’s a setup for divisiveness among the players. And in the rare case of the Jewish player, it may be a setup for anti-Semitism. Many of the Latin American players come from places where anti-Semitism from the Church isn’t unheard of. But, of course, they are Catholic, and the evangelicals probably suspect they are going to hell too.

The complaint to the Post came from Rabbi Shmuel Herzfeld, who said that is seems that "the locker room of the Nationals is being used to preach hatred.” The end result was that the Ryan Church apologized for making anti-Jewish remarks in the Post, and the Washington team is rethinking its relationship with its chaplain. But he was defended by other Christian religious leaders, who basically couldn’t fault a guy for doing his job. Rev. Richard Land, head of the Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission of the Southern Baptist Convention explained: "The worst this chaplain could be convicted of is ascribing to orthodox Christian historic faith, which is what I would think you would want from a Christian chaplain."

I had heard some time back that the Astros have a team chaplain, and of course, assumed that he was a fundamentalist Christian. (Hey, it’s Texas.) I see some of the players wearing crosses with their uniforms – Ensberg kisses his in the dugout after he hits a home run. And Berkman does his low-key comedy routine on TCU television shows. But I wonder: As crazy as I am about the Astros, would I feel the same way if I heard that the B’s were a hive of evangelical fervor, or that they treat other players badly if they aren’t born-again Christians? Or if Brad Ausmus was actually a Jew for Jesus? Or if I heard Ryan Church’s remarks coming from one of the Astros’ rookies? I think I’d be pretty bummed out. Maybe not entirely surprised (hey, it’s Texas!), but bummed out.