Jayson Stark and Jose De Jesus Ortiz think the story last night was the Springer plunking of Bonds, and while it certainly made for riveting television, as an Astro fan, I think that what you need to focus on is how ragged everything looked.
bwhite looked to Preston not taking the freely-proffered base in the sixth. I myself had issues with Lane's lackadaisical response on Vizcaino's RBI single in the fifth. You may have really been bugged by Taveras botching not one, but two, fly balls.
Or by the timing of Everett's first error.
bwhite says they quit. I don't know about that, but they sure as hell never had any focus on the game. I know that yesterday's game was the 19th in 19 days, I know that there have been distractions, and I know that any team can have an ugly game, but it's inexcusable that a ball team should play so poorly in consecutive games.
As far as Springer's sequence to Bonds, it may please Stark and Ortiz and our friendly little diarist next door to assume that Russ was throwing at Barry, but the fact is, there was no reason to throw at Bonds--he's just not dangerous enough anymore.
Bonds had a good enough series--a couple walks, a double, a couple singles--but our otherwise eminently vulnerable pitchers were able to keep him in the yard. I think we all remember the 89 mph fastball he fouled off on Monday. No offense to Miller, but if Bonds were this monster who forced you to walk him (or hit him) coz of the dire consequences, he would have crushed that pitch.