Late Inning Comebacks Are In Vogue, Astros Win 8-2

Put me in the camp that likes his stuff, especially his fastball, and to a lesser extent, the changeup. It has a lot of similarities to the fastballs of some of the best left-handed starters in the game today—that same low 90s deception Wandy utilizes, as well as guys like Cliff Lee, Cole Hamels, and so forth. Happ’s secondary stuff isn’t as good as any of those pitchers, but I think he can still be an effective middle rotation starter if his command is there.

What stressed me out was the feeling that he was walking a tightrope the entire game. His command would really come and go and it felt like he was struggling to find the release point on his fastball. I’m a little bit impressed that he still got good results despite clearly being off his game and it speaks to the amount of deception on his fastball, but I hope this (and that other start where he got blown up) is not indicative of how his control will be moving forward.

Maybe this is what Phillies fans saw which made them so leery of him?

Yankees pinch hit for Lance Berkman in the eighth inning today. We discussed it in the main game thread. The reason he was removed was that he stepped on the heel the Kansas City pitcher’s shoe on the back end of a double play in he fifth inning. Berkman took a tumble. Reportedly his foot swelled a little. He’s considered day-to-day. Here’s a video of the play:

 http://mlb.mlb.com/news/article.jsp?ymd=20100815&content_id=13496014&vkey=news_mlb&fext=.jsp&c_id=mlb

Feliz hit that pinch homer against the cubs.

but feliz has been playing pretty well too in the last month or 2

Really happy to see Melancon get a chance to show what he can do out there. Even happier to see him do so well. I got the chance to meet him and his wife at the Astros Wives Dinner, I can’t say enough about how lovely they were, and what a class act he was. Wish him nothing but the best going forward.

In the game thread for this game, someone asked whether Norris threw a lot of change ups in the previous night’s game when he had the dominating performance. My immediate thought was “no,” but I didn’t want to say that without finding out for sure. It turns out that Norris threw only 9 change ups, his fewest of the season. However, the fact that he had such a dominating game without using change ups doesn’t mean that he doesn’t need to use change ups. (Hopefully, Bud doesn’t take it that way, either.) Two factors to consider about that game: (1) His hard stuff was exceptional, and when it is exceptional he can rely on it more; and (2) he was facing a young Pirates lineup which doesn’t have much plate discipline, but he will need the change up more when he faces a more disciplined batting order. So, Norris should continue to work on adding the change up more into his repertoire.