Roy-O pitching

Them
Rodriguez, C
Polanco, 2B
Guillen, 1B
Ordonez, DH
Cabrera, 3B
Renteria, SS
Perez, LF
Clevlen, RF
Guzman, CF

Robertson pitching

Polanco singled

Guillen grounded out, Polanco to 2nd

Ordonez popped out

Cabrera, cracks his bat and dribbles it out to short, but Tejada bobbled and is charged with an error.  Polanco to 3rd.

Renteria doubles to the gap.  Polanco scores.  Cabrera to 3rd.

Perez works it full, fouling a few off, then singles to right.  Cabrera scores, but Erstad gets Renteria at the plate.

Roy gets roughed up for three, but only one of them earned.  Not sure how many pitches he had to throw, but I'm sure it was a lot.  Hopefully he can rebound.

Loretta also ahead in the count 3-1, goes full, bounces one to 3rd and Cabrera gets him.

Tejada also chops to 3rd, and also is thrown out by Cabrera.

1-2-3 in our half.  not what you hope for after your guy has a long top half of the inning.

3-0 Tigers

Guzman lines out to Tejada on the next pitch.  Miguel needs the work.

Roy gets Rodriguez on strikes this time around, and it's a quick 1-2-3 inning, which somewhat makes up for his rough start, and probably allows him to go another.

Lance goes down swinging, batting from the right side against the lefty.

Blum falls behind quickly 0-2 on two called strikes, swings and misses at the third.

Erstad also gets behind 0-2 (Robertson and Roy both doing better at getting ahead of hitters in the 2nd inning... too bad Roy's first inning results were worse).  and after fouling a couple off, Erstad also goes down swinging.

i'd be pretty psyched about the results so far if i were a Tigers fan.

Roy breaks Guillen's bat, but it splits the wickets on Tejada, and a DP ball turns into runners on the corners and no outs.  i want to stay positive and believe Tejada's just out to a slow start, but this has been an EMBARASSING first few games on his part.

Ordonez picks up a sac fly that should have ended the inning.  4-0 Tigers, three unearned on Tejada errors.

Cabrera bounced to short and this time Tejada is able to turn the double play.

Damage done, though.  Tejada needs to start jacking some dingers or the naysayers are going to come out of the woodwork.

Renteria bounces one up the middle, but Tejada is apparently better at the difficult plays and gets Renteria out at first.

Perez singles in front of Cruz.

Clevlen picks up their 7th hit already, singling in front of Lee.  Perez to 2nd.

Guzman singles through the gap on the left side and Perez scores without a throw.  Clevlen to 2nd.  5-1 Tigers.

Brocail gets Rodriguez down on strikes.

Polanco launches one over the head of Cruz in center.  it bounces above the yellow line for a ground rule double.  Clevlen scores.  Guzman has to stay at 3rd.  Polanco now 3-3 on the day.

Guillen grounds out to end it, but not before a couple more runs allowed by our future setup man.  How soon before the early part of spring training is over, and we start wavering in our optimism about this pitching staff?

you said it's 5-1 tigers? the score on mlb.tv shows 6-0 tigers...

Tejada grounds to short.  He's now 1 for 13 for the Spring.

Lee draws a walk.

Berkman, batting lefty now, grounds one off the pitcher, beats the throw, and now our two big lumbering sluggers have an infield hit on the day.

Blum follows with a deep double to drive both runners home.  Berkman on his horse, scores from first without a throw.  6-2 now.

Erstad rips one to right.  Blum had to wait for it to drop and holds at 3rd.  Astros bats finally awake.

Cruz now with another RBI opportunity.  He lines one to right, scoring Blum.  Nice job.  6-3 now.

Towles at the plate, subbing in for Ausmus.  He hits a long high fly ball up the left field line.  it's just fair enough and just long enough to be a three-run home run.  Tie ballgame 6-6.  JR now 4-8 with 4 RBI for the Spring.

Matsui misses a bunt attempt, rolls a 1-2 pitch up the middle and is thrown out.

Loretta is the 9th man to bat this inning.  He hits a long fly ball to left, but it's an out up against the wall.

Tejada scores on a Lee RBI single, 7-6 Houston.

Berkman flies out to deep center (at the wall).

Blum lines out to center.

Erstad reaches on an infield hit (should have been an out, but Byrdak took too long getting to the bag to cover), Lee to second. Hit number 10 through 4 2/3.

Cruz strikes out.

7-6 Houston

Perez down on strikes.

Clevlen goes down looking.

Guzman singles up the middle, then steals second.

Skelton grounds out to 1st.

7-6 Houston

Towles leads off with a double to left-center.

Matsui singles up the middle, Towles scores. 8-6 Houston.

Newhan pinch-runs for Matsui.

Loretta singles to right, Newhan scores with a head-first slide. 9-6 Houston.

Manzella pinch-runs for Loretta.

Perez singles up the middle, runners at first and second.

Diaz hits for Lee and pops up to 2nd.

Berkman walks to load the bases, Bourn pinch-runs.

Blum grounds in to a 6-4-3 double play to end the inning.

9-6 Houston

Sizemore singles to left.

(just heard the 'last call' yell, hehe)

Sizemore steals second, as Towles' throw is very high.

Guillen grounds out to Borkowski, Sizemore to 3rd.

Ordonez grounds out to short, Sizemore scores.

Cabrera grounds out to first.

9-7 Houston

Abercrombie steals 3rd, as Ramirez goes down swinging.

Towles doubles to right, Abercrombie scores. 10-7 Houston.

Newhan flies out to center, Towles tags up and takes third.

Manzella singles to left, Towles scores. 11-7 Houston.

Perez grounds out to third.

11-7 Houston

Santiago leads off with a double to left off the wall.

Ramirez hits a huge bomb to left, 11-9 Tigers.

Someone I didn't catch strikes out.

Guzman singles to right.

Skelton singles to center, 1st and 2nd.

Guzman steals 3rd.

Sizemore singles to center, Guzman scores. 11-10 Houston.

Larish grounds out to 2nd.

Geary in to pitch.

Trzesniak pops out to 2nd.

11-10 Houston

Diaz walks.

House hits for Towles and strikes out.

Niekro strikes out, as Diaz steals second.

Abercrombie walks.

Ramirez pops up to 3rd.

11-10 Houston

Santiago hits in to a 4-6-3 double-play.

Ramirez safe at first after a tough play; Manzanella stuttered a bit making the throw, and Ramirez beat it out. Ruled as a hit.

Thomas hits a ground-rule double to left, Ramirez to 3rd.

Guzman pops up to deep short.

Final score: 11-10, Astros win

Really encouraging that we allowed zero walks today, induced a lot of ground ball outs and that the offense was quite alive, getting 17 hits.

Erstad also with a good day, and he was the postgame interview.  He had a couple of hits and an OF assist to end the rough 1st inning.  Loretta drove in a run and Blum drove in two, with a double.  Maybe our bench won't be so bad afterall.

Roy had a pretty forgettable start, but the errors really hurt, making him have to work more in the 1st and 3rd innings than he should have.

Valverde really was the only Astros pitcher with a decent showing.  Borkowski actually wasn't too bad, going two innings with 2 K's and 4 groundball outs, but did yield a couple hits and a run.

Guess this might be the kind of game (11-10) we'll have to get used to.  Hopefully Tejada's defense won't actually be this bad throughout the season.