Tommy, I knew it was you. You broke my heart.
It's not as if I expected the Astros to win this game, hell, I'm surprised we managed to hold it together and lose by just one run. What I'm most surprised about is the fact that it was one of our supposed strengths, our defense, that felled us tonight. Obviously, Tommy Manzella is the man of the hour in this regard. His two fielding blemishes were the headliners in this, our eighth consecutive loss.
Error #1 was the biggie, booting a first inning Colby Rasmus grounder allowed the second and ultimately decisive run to score for the Cardinals. This was just a half inning after the Astros did what they had failed to do all season thus far: be the first team to score in a game that they played. We may have drawn first blood, but we were the team that once again limped to the clubhouse to do some soul searching.
Brett Myers overcame wildness in the first inning to pitch one heck of a game. I mean, he retired the Cardinals with relative ease from the second to the sixth innings. In the seventh with runners on second and third and but one out, Myers struck out pinch hitter Nick Stavinoha and lead off hitter Skip Schumaker to escape. The Astros would load the bases with two outs in the top of the eighth, but Kaz Matsui failed to collect a hit to bring in any runs.
It's not as if the Astros aren't capable of winning games. Obviously, they will not finish the season undefeated. What's more, it's also likely that they will run off an extended winning streak at some point this season. The thing that really eats at me, is that whatever it is: the law of averages, the Gods of baseball, luck, whatever, the Astros have started this season this poorly after an off season where everyone in the media just took this organization to task from top to bottom. Rarely does a team receive this much bad press and then actually surpass it, but these are your 2010 Astros. With every loss you really have to wonder, just what forces of nature allow for performances and results like this to occur. Cite eight games worth of stats if you must, but it almost feels like it goes beyond statistics, past anything that can be quantified.