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| Chris Sampson |
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It was just like last time, except it was this time. Chris Sampson pitched his ass off vs. the Cubs, didn't give up shit, got the victory. Just like last time, I could only sneak a peak here and there, because the game had the inconvenient characteristic of being a weekday matinee, unfortunately played while I'm being paid to sell people junk.
So once again, I miss Chris Sampson live, at the top of his game.
The boxscore tells a pretty nice story, though, and it confirms what so many of us believed this spring when it almost seemed like there was a grass roots campaign among Astrofans to get Chris into the rotation
Well, they got him into the rotation, and this is what he did.
Pretty nifty. I bet most teams'll take five scoreless from their number five starter.
At some point, I'd like to curl up with the archived MLB.TV video and check out the flies he drew and the grounders. The box might suggest that the ratio is skewed in the direction of fly balls a little more than I might like, but then again, I haven't seen the tape yet.
For now, let's just take a moment to contemplate what Sampson's numbers vs. the Cubs look like as I write.
| W | L | GS | IP | H | R | ER | BB | K | XBH | ERA | WHIP |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2 | 0 | 2 | 12 | 6 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 3 | 1 | 0.00 | 0.667 |
Mark Portugal built his Astros career around dominating the Giants, Wade Miller made the Brewers his toy while he was here, and Royboy's done alright vs. the Reds.
You hope that Chris Sampson pitches this well every time out, but if not, maybe he can keep it going against the Cubs. Personal runs like the one he's started, while more than a little inexplicable, can in fact keep a pitcher profitably employed for quite some time.