Astros Salvage Series Win Against Nationals 3-2.
by Timothy De Block on Jul 20, 2011 7:08 PM CDT
in Houston Astros News
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Due to some miscommunication you get two recaps, enjoy.
At 33-65 it looks like the season may finally be picking up. Not only have we seen one of the first trade chips moved but we also got a nice surprise with the unexpected call-up of Jose Altuve. Could this be the beginning of something beautiful? Time will tell, but it's all hands on deck in the front office and the excitement may only beginning.
Jose Altuve's debut at the plate began with three flyouts but ended with a single in the bottom of the ninth inning to right field for his first Major League hit (love the Joe Mauer commercial). He was pulled after the inning was over for a double switch which saw Angel Sanchez take over at second base.
As for the rest of the team, Brett Myers pitched another good game. He went 7 innings scattered 8 hits, struck out 4 and walked 2 allowing only 2 runs both earned on a (surprise, surprise) homerun by former teammate Jayson Werth. The bullpen came in and ended up pitching 4 innings of shutout 1 hit ball.
Offensively 9 Astros had hits with Michael Bourn, Clint Barmes and Humberto Quintero each collecting 2 hits. The three runs were charged to Carlos Lee, Humberto Quintero and Jason Michaels who had the game winner. The offensive star of the game though goes to Hunter Pence who had 1 run scored, 1 hit and 3 walks. It's only the second time this season an Astro has walked three times, the only other time was Brett Wallace who collected three against the Pirates on the 16th of June.
It was a good game all around by this team and a nice win but I want to take a moment to address something very serious...
Fans don't let managers sacrifice bunt their best hitters.
Now I didn't see the sacrilege bunt (thank goodness) but apparently after back to back walks by Pence and Lee, Wallace laid down a bunt to move the runners over. This is absolutely unacceptable if it was on Wallace's accord he's got to have more confidence in himself for me to jump back on his bandwagon. If it was the managers call /facepalm...how could you? We are on the same team right? Anyways after the bunt Tyler Clippard walked Chris Johnson and then induced a pop up and strike out of Barmes and Quintero respectively.
Still the Astros won and that's all that matters.
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A winning streak!
Nice to see Myers start to pitch better. Hopefully he can have a solid second half.
Good for Altuve to get his first hit out of the way. I couldn’t watch the game, but hopefully he is the Astros second baseman for the next 10 years.
The worst decision
of the game was the decision to hold Quintero up at third in the 11th inning, before Michaels hit his walk-off. He could have easily scored, as he was already halfway to home when he was called back, and the chance that noone else would hit was pretty high. The crowd was relatively okay with Wallace bunting, but holding Quintero up at third… good thing we had the walk-off or I’m not sure Dave Clark and Brad Mills would have made it out of the stadium this evening.
Not so sure he would have easily scored. Q was running, and on top of that he looked either winded or slightly injured when he finally got back to 3rd. The throw was on the money but Clark didn’t know that would be the case. Its one of those iffy decisions that ended up working out for the Astros. If it doesn’t then i’m sure Mills is answering questions about it in the post game.
by conroestro on Jul 20, 2011 11:19 PM CDT via mobile up reply actions
Jim DeShaies said Quintero woudl have been dead meat at home had he run.
It was a perfect throw from center to the catcher.
Astros fan for life
by Joe in Birmingham on Jul 20, 2011 11:39 PM CDT up reply actions
Ah bunts
The strategy in Korean baseball lags behind MLB. I went to one game and saw the following:
The number 2 hitter got on base for the home team which trailed in the game 3 to 1 in the 7th.
The manager, sensing it was his time to ‘manage,’ promptly had has second best hitter try and sac bunt the runner over. Needless to say the poor slugger had no idea how to bunt but put forth a valiant effort. Alas, he struck out on foul bunt attempts.
Now, the manager really needed to work hard. His fool proof plan had failed. Now he had 1 out a man on first and his best hitter at the plate. His hitter lead the team in batting average and homers. But the situation needed correcting because you see this hitter batted from the left side of the plate and the pitcher threw left handed. Yes, that’s right…time for a pinch hitter! It was like Mr Burns taking out Daryle Strawberry in the Simpsons. The pinch hitter, batting around .123 on the season, but doing it from the right side of the plate promptly dribbled out to second. But hurray! He moved the runner over. But…the next guy popped out to right.
That was the most brilliant managing I have ever seen. A man on, no outs, and the heart of the order coming up, and the manager gave away one out, took his best player out of a game in which they were trailing, and finally succeeded in getting the runner to second with 2 outs.
Given the way that Wallace has been hitting, I thought the sac bunt was a good call. Brett Wallace is not the best hitter on the team. Instead of criticism, I would compliment Wallace on his ability to get down a sac bunt. Hitters who have been No. 3 or 4 hitters in their minor league careers sometimes don’t learn that skill. Wallace has a .222 OBP and a .067 ISO in July with a 31% K rate for the month.
by clack on Jul 21, 2011 9:07 AM CDT reply actions 1 recs
That is just turrable, but you’re right. Brett knowing how to bunt MLB pitching properly could come up very big in the future. Nice tool to have.
by SteveBartman_MVP on Jul 21, 2011 9:48 AM CDT via mobile up reply actions
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Current Series
3 game series vs Dodgers @ Dodger Stadium
| Fri 05/25 |
WP: Lucas Harrell (4 - 3)
SV: Brett Myers LP: Clayton Kershaw (4 - 2) |
3 - 1 win |
| Sat 05/26 |
WP: Kenley Jansen (4 - 0)
LP: Wesley Wright (0 - 1) |
3 - 6 loss |
|
Houston Astros
Sunday, May 27, 2012, 3:10 PM CDT Partly cloudy. Winds blowing out to right field at 10-15 m.p.h. Game time temperature around 75. |
||
NL Central Standings
| W | L | PCT | GB | STRK | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Cincinnati
|
26 | 20 | .565 | 0 | Won 1 |
|
St. Louis
|
25 | 22 | .531 | 1.5 | Lost 3 |
|
Houston
|
22 | 24 | .478 | 4 | Lost 1 |
|
Pittsburgh
|
22 | 24 | .478 | 4 | Won 2 |
|
Milwaukee
|
19 | 27 | .413 | 7 | Lost 1 |
|
Chicago
|
15 | 31 | .326 | 11 | Lost 11 |
(updated 5.27.2012 at 1:03 AM CDT)
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