Houston Astros at Washington Nationals, 12:35 PM CDT

Stays 1-0, going to the 3d.

FSN broadcasters have Jason Castro in the booth. Nice to hear from the Astros’ 1st round choice, who is in transit to the rookie league team (Tri Cities).

Astros do not score the first. Erstad and Matusi singled to start the game in good form; then Berkman hit into a double ptay and Carlos Lee struck out.

Astros scored one in the second in a familiar scenario: Tejada flies to cetner , Wigfgonont Homers, Pence struck out , Towles flied to right.

Pirates threaten in the second but leave the bases loaded without scoring.

One interesting play in the second. With Pirate runnerse on first and second, Erstad makes a diving try for a ball. The runner on second thought Erstad caught the ball and ran back to second. The runner on first thought it was shorthopped and raced to second. With two men on second base Matsui is tagging every body. The ump (Probably wrong) called it a short hop.

Lead off double and Erstad and Matsui both get outs. Both got hits in the 1st.

Berkman weak single up the middle drving in Backe.

Carsso Lee drives Berkman in

Wigggy should be batting in front of him.

Astros lefthander Polin Trinidad faced two of the top 25 prospects on Baseball America’s midseason prospect list, and didn’t have problems with either of them.

After striking out Giants outfielder Nate Schierholtz on three pitches (swinging at a 79 mph curve for strike three), Trinidad engaged in a six-pitch battle with Brewers Indians outfielder Matt LaPorta. Trinidad attacked LaPorta with a high-80s fastball and a low-80s changeup, finally getting LaPorta to ground out to the left side of the infield, though a misplay led to LaPorta getting on first base.

http://www.baseballamerica.com/blog/prospects/?p=1327

on the All Star team. Maybe they were trying to keep all the Cubs’ fans happy. But Marmol, who was lights out early in the year, has been blowing up in recent games. He gained about 2 full runs on his ERA over the last couple of weeks.

He may set a record for men left on base without allowing a run.

it seems. I guess he’s been driving it that way. It looked like he might have a shot at catching it, otherwise, Wigginton might have had a chance to score.

Maybe we can get a run out of this 2 men on 3rd and 2nd with no outs thing.

He’s becomes a valuable part of the Astros offense.

Towles is batting. Wonder how much he’s paying attention.

with Backe

After having men on 3rd and 2nd with no outs.

Sure it was the bottom of the order… but you’d think maybe somone would get a sac fly or a grounder that could score a man from third. Nope.

Hasn’t had one in awhile and people are getting ahead of him.

Deep fly ball to center field…................. :/

FLy ball to right. RF’er steals a hit from Tejada.
What bad luck for the guy.

I hope I haven’t spoke too soon.

this has been a disappointing game for Towles at the plate. I wonder if he gets sent back to Round Rock when Quintero comes off the DL?

I was kinda hopeful that Towles sojourn in triple A would pay some dividends, but now I think he needs to go back down when Quintero comes up.

Maybe he really does need more seasoning, considering he started at A ball last year.

hot pick by wiggy at 3b, to start a 5-4-3 DP

to start a double play.

hard to believe this is a shutout. still, it’s nice to see backe have good results, even if the input might not justify it.

just in time to see Ludwick falling down in LF trying to catch a double. Pirates take the lead 6-5 in the 6th.

Duplicating Wigginton’s catch but only getting one out.

I’ve always thought of Belliard as a defensive player. He has been on a roll offensively in this series, though.

and then Lee gets tagged out on base paths. I guess Lee figured 2 runs would be enough, because he just stood in middle of base path and let the 2d baseman come to him.

5-0 Astros

carlos doesn’t even bother to get into a rundown.

last couple innings.

Never thought he’d catch up with that thing.

had to go a long way and got a great jump.

Still Batting

it’s the nationals, but still

for the Brewers

a steady game

Good way to end the break.