Astros Take Frustration Out On Rockies Win 9-6

by Timothy De Block on Sep 22, 2011 11:06 PM CDT in Houston Astros News

It only took until the 22nd of September to secure the number one pick in the 2012 draft, maybe now we'll see some competitive baseball. Tonight was a good start with a 9-6 victory over the 70-86 Colorado Rockies. The Astros still have a shot at 60 wins if they can win the rest of their games. One slip up and that goal dies.

Henry Sosa had a good game going 6.1 innings while allowing only 3 earned runs. Alex White, the Colorado Rockies starter, on the other hand did not have a good night going 4.2 innings with 5 earned runs. He did have 6 strikeouts and no walks though.

The offense after getting shutout by Bronson Arroyo took their frustration out on the Rockies pitchers with 10 hits and 3 walks. Matt Downs had the key hit in the 7th with a bases clearing double that put the Astros up 8-3. It was needed as Fernando Rodriguez would give up 3 runs in the top of the 8th inning. The Astros tacked on one more in the bottom of the inning on a sacrifice fly by Jordan Schafer that scored Clint Barmes.

Mark "The Shark" Melancon shut the door in the 9th to seal the Astros 54th win of the season. I look forward to the Astros finishing this season strong.

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I will be really interested in the final series of the season against the cards if there still in wild card contention. I would love nothing more than to prevent them from making the playoffs. Here’s to meaningful games in September!!

by Astro Dave88 on Sep 23, 2011 12:02 AM CDT via mobile reply actions

That was truly some epic fail in the 9th inning last night vs the Mets...

Thank you Jason Motte, Mark Rzepczynski, and Fernando Salas :)

"Nothing says romance like a face full of QWERTY." - The first-ever edition of Ask BLAS

by mike_o on Sep 23, 2011 1:56 AM CDT up reply actions

6-2 lead coming into ninth

ouch Cardinals

by AstroB on Sep 23, 2011 5:08 AM CDT up reply actions

At Cardinals fan sites, it appears that they are banking on sweeping the Astros. There whole season will come down to sweeping the Astros. I’m like you…I would love to see the Astros sink the Cards’ season.

I keep coming back to the Astros’ 2006 season ending series vs. the Braves, where the Cardinals’ and Braves’ players were twittering to each other during the game about how best to beat the Astros. The Astros could have made the playoffs if they had swept the Braves, but they lost out, and the Cards went to the World Series. Turnabout is fair play…except that helping the Braves win a playoff spot keeps this from being a perfect opportunity.

by clack on Sep 23, 2011 9:28 AM CDT up reply actions 1 recs

Totally agree, I will be really interested to see how mills approaches the lineup in this series, I wonder if he will just play everybody like he has been or if he will play a consistent line up. I really hope this team comes out and plays a good series

by Astro Dave88 on Sep 23, 2011 10:13 AM CDT via mobile up reply actions

that should have been “texting” and not twittering, by the way…

by clack on Sep 23, 2011 11:42 AM CDT up reply actions 1 recs

Just saw the midnight showing of Moneyball

It was a good movie that really showed the other side of baseball. I have an entirely new respect for the business side of baseball. Definately worth the money to go see it.

by Its Gonna Happen on Sep 23, 2011 2:31 AM CDT via mobile reply actions

good to hear.

I’ll be seeing it sunday.

by lawson3 on Sep 23, 2011 12:44 PM CDT via mobile up reply actions

I know this is a lost season, but is anybody else glad to see that Mark Melancon reached the 20 save mark this season. I still don’t think that he is the best closer option long term, but he at least proved himself very capable, and would be good for the job while the Astros continue to attempt to return from the dark side of the moon.

by conroestro on Sep 23, 2011 11:11 AM CDT via mobile reply actions

I don’t think Melancon has classic closer stuff. But there is a possibility that he could mature into a very good closer. Or maybe not. It depends on how he develops next year. Maybe we were spoiled by closers like Wagner and Lidge, who struck fear in the heart of opposing hitters. Melancon doesn’t scare the other team, and maybe he never will. But one can hope that he matures into a closer similar to Joe Nathan.

by clack on Sep 23, 2011 11:49 AM CDT up reply actions 1 recs

I would take that.

by conroestro on Sep 23, 2011 12:22 PM CDT via mobile up reply actions

I mentioned Nathan, just because he is an example of an obviously successful closer who mixed a 93 mph FB with an array of breaking pitches. Melancon uses the spike curveball as his main out pitch, which is somewhat unusual among closers. Axford and Heath Bell seem to be the other closers who rely as much on the curveball as Melancon. It’s noteable that Melancon has the highest velocity (92.1) cutter among ML relievers. He also throws it almost as much as the curve. The greatest reliever of all time, Mariano Rivera is just below Melancon in cutter velocity (91.5), and Rivera is unique because he throws the cutter over 80% of the time. I wonder if Melancon learned anything about throwing the cutter from Rivera?

by clack on Sep 23, 2011 1:17 PM CDT up reply actions 1 recs

Very interesting about Melancon and his cutter. I remember several people saying when he got traded that the Yankees viewed him as a future closer, which I thought was odd at the time because Melancon didn’t have the typical closers stuff, and the Yankees are the Yankees and would only accept the best in that role. I wonder if they saw a version of Mariano when looking at Melancon and his cutter.

I remember the article coming out a little while ago where Mariano talked about Melancon and his makeup. He said he would ask questions, maybe he taught him something as well.

by conroestro on Sep 23, 2011 1:37 PM CDT via mobile up reply actions

Or the Astros were just trying to hype their acquisition of a reliever for the second best first baseman in Astros history.

Follow my ramblings on Twitter .

by Timothy De Block on Sep 23, 2011 1:38 PM CDT up reply actions

His knee screwed us out of getting better players in return.

"Nothing says romance like a face full of QWERTY." - The first-ever edition of Ask BLAS

by mike_o on Sep 23, 2011 4:24 PM CDT up reply actions

My guess is that the Yankees attempt to develop pitchers based on the skills which have been successful on their major league club. The Yankees seemed to view Melancon as a late inning reliever from the beginning. So, I wouldn’t be surprised if they taught him the cutter because they like Rivera’s success with it.. As I noticed looking through the %cutter leader list, it seems like quite a few Yankees or ex-Yankees relievers on it. Besides Melancon and Rivera, Aceves, Ayala, and Farnsworth are among the relievers also on the list. Andy Pettitte’s is a starter who threw a lot of cutters.

by clack on Sep 23, 2011 2:14 PM CDT up reply actions 1 recs

I was hoping that Andy could have taught Wandy his cutter while he was on the team. I think Wandy would have benefitted from that.

One pitcher that I wish could develop the cutter is JA Happ. With his height if he had that pitch moving in on righties with a slight downward break coming from his plane I think he could be alot more successful. Since he likes throwing high fastballs he would have his four seam fastball that he could work up in the zone and a cutter that he could work down in the zone.

by conroestro on Sep 23, 2011 2:25 PM CDT via mobile up reply actions

Pettitte did work with Wandy on the cutter. I recall that the Astros talked about that in Pettitte’s last season with the Astros. And fangraphs shows Wandy throwing a few cutters in 2005 and 2006, but it ends after that. I don’t know the reason. Maybe Wandy didn’t take to it well, or maybe Pettitte leaving the Astros ended Wandy’s development of the pitch.

by clack on Sep 23, 2011 7:08 PM CDT up reply actions 1 recs

I think Melancon has a pretty good groundball rate as well. Good for a closer because it means he limits the home runs.

by jmike on Sep 24, 2011 9:12 AM CDT up reply actions

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