And the Beat(ings) go on: Astros lose fifth in a row, 7-0

Towles is 4 for 9 with a homer. Do you think he’ll get the callup this season or do think McTaggart is right in saying that Lou Santangelo has passed him on the depth chart?

Cooper was calm…almost resigned to his situation. He said he was more worried about his players’ injuries than anything. Kaz Matsui left the game as his back tightened up in the cold weather. Cooper said, “that is not good,” and can only hope that it’s temporary. Moehler has a knee injury, and will await examination to see how long he is out. Sampson had his hip muscles tighten up, but stayed in the game. (I suspect that the cold weather took its toll on the Astros.)

Cooper didn’t give Duke much credit, saying that the Astros are doing this to themselves more than anything. Cooper says the hitters haven’t been able to do anything since the season started. He can’t think of anything to say or do. He says you can’t tell veteran hitters much, that you just have to let them work it out by themselves, like they have so many times.

As I said in the other thread, Steve Sparks said that Moehler’s velocity decreased 5 – 6 mph during the course of this game. Sparks pointed to Moehler’s wobbly knee on a replay of the pitch which resulted in the LaRoche HR.

Jason Michaels made some nice plays in center field today and did havce one (flukish) hit today. His .167 average is now the same as Lance Berkman’s (which is a bigger problem on this stretch) (To be precise i don’t see a role for either Jason Michaels or Jason Smith on this team, but it is unfair to fault Jason Michaels for his play today.)

If you want to fault defense -see Miguel Tejada.

On the other hand, Keppinger proved again he was a good addition..

Quintero – nothing at the plate today that I recall (In fact his only bat I remember was a weak dribbler for out three with two men on base, but he did throw a runner out at third.)

I am using my own statistic I call outlier games – currently it is games where the opposition scores 9 or more runs or the offense scores 0 runs. (I may toss in 1-run games as I refine this). There are Negative Outlier Games (the team got the worst end of it ) and positive outlier games (the team got the best end of it). A team loses most negative outlier games. Four of the Astros’s 7 games have been Negative Outlier Games. They have NO Positive Outlier Games. This is not a good trend.

Steve Sparks must be very observant . I did notice anything unusual about Moehler -suddenly he was out of the game.

The Fangraph chart says the game was all but over (Sorry Yogi) by the end of the fourth -that’s the feeling I had too.

The TV Annnouncers (Jim DeShaies probably) noted that the new Pirates pitching coach conclude they had a good staff but only had to adjust minor thigns – he may make a BIG difference.

i’ve not heard how the etam has morale problems, but I can tell they are not playing as a machine.

Morale notwithstanding, Berkman must bat better than .167 and Lee better than .200 for Astros to win.

Why didn’t he pinch hit Pudge for Quintero in the only true threat by the Astros’ offense. Late in the game, the Astros had two on board after the Keppinger double…but with 2 outs. Q came up to bat and hit the ball weakly to 3d base. At the time, I noted in the game thread that it was too bad the Astros had no real PH choices. When I said that, I assumed Cooper was following that odd managerial strategy of holding Pudge back as insurance in case Q was injured. But in the next inning, Cooper led off with Pudge as a PHer. If Cooper intended to PH with Pudge, why didn’t he use him in the more important game situation, namely Q’s at bat?

but good thing we’re all savvy enough baseball fans to understand that 7 games do not a season make, right?

Moehler managed to lower his ERA by over 10 points with his outing today.

but the Astros’ minor league teams pretty much got their asses handed to them today.

Round Rock lost 8-4 to Omaha (Royals). Bogusevic was hitless, but drew a walk, Towles had a double, and Saccomano had a homer (any chance he’ll get called up as a PH? Not likely). Bud Norris allowed two unearned runs, McKeller allowed 3, Lumsden 1, and Sammy Gervacio 2. Not pretty.

Corpus Christi lost 8-4 to NW Arkansas (Royals too). Collin DeLome hit a home run. Brad James allowed only two earned runs (two unearned), but Andy Van Hekken (filler) allowed another 4.

Lancaster got absolutely destroyed by the Inland Empire in a 16-1 loss. On the bright side, Castro had two doubles and Clemens had a hit and two walks. I don’t want to write out the pitching staff’s exploits. It would take too long.

Good news, though: Lexington is now 4-0 after a 2-1 win over the White Sox’ Kannapolis Intimidators. Robert Bono (I hope he makes it to the majors with that name; the U2 pun headlines are endless) went 5 innings, giving up no walks 5 hits, and striking out 3.

hooray!