Have no idea how you could play so poorly against such a mediocre opponent with the stakes so high.
Lousy, everyone was lousy:
- Clemens, for 11 hits, 6 runs, 3 doubles, a walk, a homer, and a hit batsman, all crammed into 5-2/3 nausea-inducing innings
- Bruntlett, who finally managed to put the ball in play in the ninth inning, and who left five men on
- Biggio, whose lackadaisical error on Bay's grounder caused two unearned runs
- Ensberg, who actually singled, but also flew out to center on the first pitch Snell threw after he had walked two with none out in the fourth.
- Lane, who popped out to follow Ensberg and to make sure the Astros wouldn't score.
- Vizcaino, ohfer four
- Berkman, who set the tone early with his apathetic defense on Jack Wilson's "triple"
This team played that 0 - 16 stinker in Atlanta in May, and not too terribly long after that, lost 18 - 3 at Texas. So "worst game of the year" would not only be an exaggeration, it would be plain impossible. But I do believe it's the worst game played of the second half, and like the Marlins' collapse Saturday, the team will only be able to put this loss behind them by staring at it and directly dealing with it, figuring out why it happened.
A couple hands up in the locker room tomorrow night when Garner asks "who stunk last night?" would be a start.
Go Astros.