Let's be honest, when a baseball game involved two dismal teams and the one of the starters is a player whom you were convinced hadn't pitched in a Major League Baseball game in three years, you're not expecting great baseball. Vanilla baseball is what we were given tonight, too.
I was shocked to discover that Bruce Chen had actually amassed nearly 63IP last year with the Royals. After the dust has settled, what I am even more shocked by is that the Astros only hit Mr. Chen up for four runs. What I am even more shocked by than the four runs off Bruce Chen is that Jason Michaels drove in three of them. Michaels, who prior to the inclusion of the DH was a below the Mendoza line hitter, can rest easy knowing he's built himself a near .025 cushion. Congrats to Mr. Michaels...Could there be a more AAAA matchup than a Chen/Michaels confrontation?*
The malise of interleague baseball has set in full for me. There is something that becomes meaningless to me about these games and, more than most years, it is irking me that this are actually official games. I especially love the joy of being blessed with a mashup of just two bad baseball teams in the Royals/Astros. Thanks Bud, this is what baseball fans fifty years ago always dreamed of.
My tantrum throwing aside, Roy Oswalt did pitch well tonight. Seven innings, seven strikeouts, one walk, and two runs over one hundred and six pitches. Not the most efficient of dispatches, but certainly nothing to scoff at. If nothing else, at least Roy Oswalt gets to continue to make other GMs think.
*What is sad, is that Chen has a better xFIP than Wandy Rodriguez: 4.46 to 4.49...at least coming into tonight's game, that is.