Astros Drop Opener at Wrigley 2-4

by Timothy De Block on Jul 22, 2011 7:13 PM CDT in Houston Astros News

Just when you think the Astros are going to step up, they take a step backwards and they had plenty of opportunities to win this one.

The Astros loaded the bases twice with no outs in both the top of the 2nd and 3rd innings, but failed to capitalize. In the the 2nd Carlos Lee walked followed by a single from Brett Wallace and then a single by Chris Johnson. Next came Clint Barmes who grounded into a double play with Lee scoring. Humberto Quintero then grounded out to end the inning.

In the 3rd Bud Norris singled followed by a Michael Bourn single and Jose Altuve reaching base via the hit by pitch (welcome to the big leagues). The next three batters (Pence, Lee and Wallace) all flew out without the man at third scoring. The first fly out was a line drive to Alfonso Soriano that caught Norris halfway down the line and unable to tag up and Lee's fly out wasn't deep enough.

The other run scored via a single by Bourn in the top of the 4th that scored Barmes.

Carlos Zambrano then settled in to go 6 innings, walking 1, striking out 3 and 9 hits (all singles) allowing a total of 2 earned runs. The bullpen then came in and shut down the Astros for the remaining 9 outs.

On the Astros side Bud Norris went 6.1 innings striking out 5, walking 0 and allowing 9 hits for a total of 4 earned runs. All 4 runs came in the 5th inning 3 of which were due to some defensive miscues. Alfonso Soriano's lead off the inning with a homerun. After a dropped out in shallow right field by Jose Altuve, that was scored a single off the bat of Darwin Barney, the Astros misplayed a bunt laid down by Zambrano that put two on with no outs. With one out in the inning Barney stole third and scored on a sac fly by Starlin Castro. The next batter Aramis Ramirez homered to put the Cubs ahead for good.

Not a great day for the Astros, but there's always tomorrow. I guess.

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Bud Norris had a decent outing minus the one bad inning. I didn’t realize it until some of the comments that were made through the game thread, but Bud gave up those runs at an improbable time as he is usually very good in innings 4-5. You would figure that the hitter has the advantage the second time through but that hasn’t been the case for Bud this year.

by conroestro on Jul 22, 2011 8:27 PM CDT via mobile reply actions

When the team has multiple bases loaded situations and only gets 1 run, you get the feeling that something like this will happen. Zambrano is normally tough on the Astros and he had pretty good stuff today, but the Astros couldn’t take advantage in those couple of innings when his command wavered.

by clack on Jul 22, 2011 10:05 PM CDT reply actions 1 recs

Once he styled in it was game set and match.

by conroestro on Jul 22, 2011 11:51 PM CDT via mobile up reply actions

Settled not styled

by conroestro on Jul 22, 2011 11:52 PM CDT via mobile up reply actions

I wonder

I have to wonder if a new hitting coach would make a difference? Barnett just doesn’t seem to be able to turn around hitters like I (think) a coach should be able to. CJ and Carlos have recently started to come out of their “slumps” (knock on wood" but they lasted WAY too long and Wallace is falling in his own funk.

I know its the hitters job to hit the ball not the coaches, and if they’ve done it before they know how to do it but during their funks they’ve just looked clueless.

Its just a thought if anybody tends to give their impression.

by Its Gonna Happen on Jul 23, 2011 12:59 AM CDT via mobile reply actions

Those can most likely be explained statistically. But if you’re going to blame him for Lee, Johnson and Wallace are you prepared to give him credit for Bourn, Pence and Barmes who recently has been hitting well.

Follow my ramblings on Twitter .

by Timothy De Block on Jul 23, 2011 8:56 AM CDT via mobile up reply actions

Altuve didn't wait too long to collect his first MLB HBP

Craig Biggio ceiling?

"Hats for bats, keep bats warm."

by El Speverino on Jul 23, 2011 5:05 AM CDT reply actions

Until I read the Chron.com article, I didn’t realize that Altuve’s error on the pop up led to 3 of the 4 Cubs’ runs scoring. That’s not a good second day in the majors. It would be nice if Altuve could make up for it with a big offensive day in this series.

by clack on Jul 23, 2011 7:54 AM CDT reply actions 1 recs

This is what we can expect as he gets experience.

Follow my ramblings on Twitter .

by Timothy De Block on Jul 23, 2011 8:57 AM CDT via mobile up reply actions

I thought the official scoring on that was a hit.

by conroestro on Jul 23, 2011 10:40 AM CDT via mobile up reply actions

that’s true, it was some friendly scoring for the home team hitters. But I think the belief is that it was a ball that should have been caught. The sentence that caught my eye from the chronicle:

Altuve failed to catch a pop-up, ruled a hit, that allowed three of the four runs to score in a 4-2 Cubs win.

by clack on Jul 23, 2011 11:14 AM CDT up reply actions 1 recs

I just saw this tweet from Levine at the chronicle...

Astros are appealing with MLB to get Barney’s Friday popup changed from hit to Altuve error. Would save Norris 3 ER.

by clack on Jul 23, 2011 11:31 AM CDT up reply actions 1 recs

That’s good. That’s the way it should be. I’ve never heard of teams appealing an error before

by conroestro on Jul 23, 2011 11:39 AM CDT via mobile up reply actions

It definitely appeared to be a catchable ball.

by jmike on Jul 23, 2011 2:36 PM CDT up reply actions

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