Whoo-hoo!! Game Thread!

Bruntlett starting and hitting second,
Ensberg hitting third,
Lamb at cleanup,
Lane hitting sixth,
Chavez catching Astacio. . .

No Biggio, but that's not too surprising for a Sunday game.

On the face these look like desperate measures . . .

Astacio didn't do a bad job of working around the double, and yes, Skip Caray, Zeke has something more than just a fastball.
But 1-2-3 in the top of the inning portends more trouble, methinks.

Astounding how quick that inning went, even with the hit by Lamb.  A team nedding baserunners shouldn't be swinging so much at the first pitch.  $1000 fine if you don't take 2 pitches in your at bat!
Thinking about Bagwell, he kinda looked like he wanted to pinch-hit last night, but if we don't see him tomorrow in Florida, he needs to be placed on the DL . . .

I'll agree with the Carays on the ball hit by Jordan--it should've been caught.

I HATE Langerhans . . .

AS Hampton cruises through, I'm left to consider how much fun it is to watch Ezequiel Astacio flail away at the plate. . . .he has perhaps the worst swing I've seen since the heyday of Frank Viola with the Mets. . . .

FIVE straight two out hits'll kill you every time.
We gotta take out a contract on this Langerhans guy . . .I HATE LANGERHANS!!

When Eddie Perez takes you deep, maybe it's time to make your exit, but I guess Garner wants to make at least the attempt to keep the bullpen fresh for the Clemens-Burnett matchup tomorrow, which is likely to be close. . . so Zeke takes one for the team.

Hampton has still faced the minimum.
Astacio settles down, and eases the embarassment some.
I am struck by the differences in the two teams since the last time they met.  When the Braves and the Astros split a two-game series April 18 and 19th, both temas were struggling to score runs, and had been wasting good pitching.  Three weeks later, the Braves have moved forward, and the Astros, if anything, have regressed.
I'm not sure what that says, though. . .

Wasn't sure Astacio would get through five, but he did, with those three long fly balls.
Now if the Astros can only score nine in the top of the sixth, he'd qualify for the win!
Games like this make me wish I was listening to the feed out of Houston, rather than Atlanta.  I can't argue with the Carays' criticisms of the Astros' sloppy play, it's just the snideness with which they get pronounced that gets me. . . .

As that sixth inning rally needed to extricate Astacio  failed to materialize, and ex Astro farmhand Aaron Miles has now gone yard with the bases juiced against Florida to lift the Rockies to an 8 - 1 lead, it appears that Houston will be all by their lonesome with their lonesome road victory, as the Rockies will chalk up their elusive second win away from home.

Garner had talked earlier this year about not wanting to use Backe as a pinch-hitter in "normal" situations, but he has clearly come to question that decision as well.  And I say, great.  McKeon's used Dontrelle Willis several times as a pinch-hitter, and let's face it:  a losing team needs to maximize the playing time for their most interesting players.  That way at least things don't get boring.

We obviously need to go a little further:  $2500 fines for anyone who doesn't take two pitches, in a game in which the starter has 71 pitches through 6 plus, and hasn't given up a baserunner in over five innings.

I need to check into historical precedents:  at what point does the Astros' futility--at least on the road-- begin to sink to what could reasonably be termed historically bad levels?

I'm not gonna give Lamb too much grief--his bat is one of the better ones on the club--but I am starting to feel a little sorry for him.

13 - 0 through seven.  This is grim.

Looked it up just now.  Assuming the Astros don't break through in the ninth, they will have scored 45 runs over their 15 road games.  Not sure how well or poorly that compares with other teams' anemic road efforts over the years, but you'd have to go back to the year of the pitcher, 1968, to find an Astro team that was even close to being as poor as that in the season overall.  

A case can probably be made that today's loss is the most humiliating in team history.  On June 3, 1987, the Cubs racked up 22 runs against Bob Knepper, Dave Meads and Julio Solano.  And of course on May 6, 1998, Kerry Wood faced the minimum and struck out 20, giving up no runs no walks and one hit in beating Houston 2 - 0.  

But the AStros scored 7 to the Cubs' 22 on a day in Chicago where the wind was obviously blowing out, and they only allowed 2 runs in Woods' game.

For combined offensive and pitching futility, today's game probably wears the crown. as the worst game in team history.  

Hampton faced 1 over the minimum, walked one, allowed two hits and threw less than 100 pitches.  

All for my second game thread!  Makes me feel kind of special. :-)

If George Steinbrenner owned this team, heads would roll.  But since he doesn't--and no viable options exist, not really--the team just has to pick up and play again tomorrow.