In Houston's defense to the 7-1 loss to the Mariners, King Felix might be the best pitcher in baseball on the worst team! Not like they blew one to a bum...They did get the W last night!
In Houston's defense to the 7-1 loss to the Mariners, King Felix might be the best pitcher in baseball on the worst team! Not like they blew one to a bum...They did get the W last night!
True dat, badndn! And today the Astros won the series with a 10-3 win that wasn't even that close. Lucas Harrell got his second win of the season to even his record to 2-2 and Chris Carter blasted a 440 ft homer in the 2nd inning to begin the scoring for the Astros and the game. 3-run homers by Ronny Cedeno in the fourth and another 3-run shot by Brandon Laird in the 6th. Harrell was awesome pitching 7 very strong innings and Rhiner Cruz pitched a scoreless 8th. With a 10-1 Bo Porter sent Paul Clemens to the hill in the 9th and he struggled a bit. He gave up 3 hits, including a solo home run by 1st baseman Justin Smoak, and 2 earned runs. Too bad Houston can't play Seattle more often. The Astros have now won their second series of the season, both against the Mariners. Now it's on to a seven game series on the east coast vs the Red Sox and the Yankees.
Phillip Humber sucked again. Boston score 7 and that's how many runs Humber gave up including 4 in the first. Can't keep giving other teams a huge lead right out of the box. That sucks.
That's two games in a row he has been off. I think we might see a move coming pretty soon with Humbe beeing either released or designated for assignment. Get ready we might get to see Cosart pretty soon! But to give the guy his fair due, he was very good in his first several starts and was given absolutly no run support.
I asked a ref if he could give me a technical foul for thinking bad things about him. He said, of course not. I said, well, I think you stink. And he gave me a technical. You can't trust 'em.
Jim Valvano
Well Eric Bedard, being the team player he is, joined his fellow starting pitchers by giving up 5 earned runs tonight to start the game. He did it a little differently though giving up 1 run in the first three innings before giving up 3 more in the fourth when he took a walk to the showers with he couldn't retire a batter. The Astros are in the bottom of the 8th looking at a 6-3 deficit. Light hitting Red Sox catcher David Ross has 4-4 night going with 2 home runs with no walks or K's. Both dingers were solo shots but for a guy hitting .241 that ain't a bad night. Rhiner Cruz is stinking up the 8th giving up 3 singles in a row putting him in a based loaded no out jam. I'm going to bed.
What is the friggin deal with these starting pitchers? This is a very disturbing trend. What trend you ask? The recent trend for the starters to give up somewhere between 4 and 8 runs early (like first inning) and put their team in a hole. The last couple of games the offense has staked the starters to early leads which was not appreciated at all considering their performance. Brad Peacock was the latest man to surrender 5 earned runs to the Red Sox in 3+ inning of work. That after being staked to a 2-0 lead in the top of the first. Oh well, hopefully they can take today's game to salvage some self respect.
We have 3 number five starters and two number three starters. That's what friggin wrong. At least this means that we will see some call ups here pretty soon.
I asked a ref if he could give me a technical foul for thinking bad things about him. He said, of course not. I said, well, I think you stink. And he gave me a technical. You can't trust 'em.
Jim Valvano
Okay. Finally we got a quality start in yesterday's finale vs the Red Sox. Quality? Starter Bud Norris gave up 5 runs. Yeah, he did but if you watched or listened to the game you know that only 3 of those runs were earned. After an error by SS Marwin Gonzalez kept an inning going Norris settled down and made the best of a bad situation. That was in the fourth. In the fifth Norris lost his mojo a little bit and gave up a pair of earned runs. 3 runs in six innings of work ain't bad. I'll take it especially considering the way the other starters except Lucas Harrell have been giving up runs early in games. All could have been forgiven if the top of the sixth had gone just a little different. The Astros had a bases loaded one out situation after 3 consecutive singles but Fernando Martinez struck out and Matt Dominguez hit into a fielders choice to end the inning. Fernandez just missed an RBI double by a few feet before going down swinging. Houston is still struggling to get that hit in the clutch that means the difference in many games. So, now Houston is 0-fer in Fenway and on a 9 game road losing streak. Hopefully, they can take one or two from the Yankees. I'd say they are due.
Holy crap on a cracker! The Astros wheeled into the Bronx and opened up a can of whoop ass on the Bombers! Defeating the Yankees 9-1 after being swept by the Red Sox in four games this past weekend is just the tonic Houston needed. It also snaps a 9 game road losing streak. Lucas Harrell pitched 6-1/3 strong innings scattering 8 hits and walk with 4 K's to hold the Yankees to a single run. The win runs Harrell's overall record to 3-2 and probably takes some of the pressure off what has been a very disappointing start to the season. Carlos Corporan lead the offense with a career best night going 4-5 with 4 RBI's including a home run. Brandon Barnes had a big night at the plate too getting 3 hits and 3 RBI's on the night both being career highs. The Astros beat veteran and former Astro Andy Pettitte whose record falls to 3-2. Harrell breaks the string of poor beginnings to games suffered lately by Astros starters. Harrell did benefit from 3 double plays in the first four innings to maintain the 3-0 lead the Astros built in the first inning. Harrell may be a No 2 (Yes, Big T, I am paying attention) but he's been the Astros best pitcher the past two seasons and his youth is all the better for a rebuilding club. The Next matchup tomorrow night features the Astros Phillip Humber and the Yankees Hiroki Kiroda. Can the good guys make it two in row? Hope so.
He's a number three at best. Pettite in the old days was a number two starter.
On another note, it seems to be either feast or famine with this team. Either they lose by 6 or win by eight lol. It was a fun night even though I only caught a couple seconds of the game. The bad news however is that the Astros were on their way to loosing 117 games before tonight. That my friends is terrible!
I asked a ref if he could give me a technical foul for thinking bad things about him. He said, of course not. I said, well, I think you stink. And he gave me a technical. You can't trust 'em.
Jim Valvano
..and did anyone really expect this season to be any different?
Big T, I think you under value Harrell. His is a good pitcher with a lot of upside and he's the best on the staff IMO. We'll just have to agree to disagree. Right now this team is still getting to know each other. This team just doesn't feel like the one that took the field the past two years. Just like last year at this time Houston was a .500 ball club but the first month season wasn't an indication of last year's team, I believe Houston will play better over the long haul. So, yes BigNasty92, I do expect more from this year's Astros.
If they were in the NLC then yes I would expect a little more. However with them being in the ALW then no this is exactly what I expected.
I asked a ref if he could give me a technical foul for thinking bad things about him. He said, of course not. I said, well, I think you stink. And he gave me a technical. You can't trust 'em.
Jim Valvano
According to the game recap Phillip Humber did a decent job starting against the Yankees last night. He did give up 4 runs in his six innings of work but considering how bad he looked in his last two starts it is definitely an improvement. The Astros offense is still looking for their mojo when it comes to getting a clutch hit or two on a consistant basis but I think they'll improve. Brad Peacock appears to have completely lost any mojo he had. Demoted to the bullpen after he really stunk up the join in his last start he came on in the the eighth inning and gave up 3 earned runs on 3 hits including a solo home run by the Yankees Lyle Overbay. Peacock may be going back to AAA because the Astros have announced that pitchers Jordan Lyles and Dallas Kuechel will be called up. No word was given in regard to the roster moves the Astros would make to make room for them but I sure wouldn't be surprised if Peacock was headed to OKC.
The Astros tried to overcome the deficit dug for them by starter Eric Bedard but when you only score one inning, even though it was 4 runs, you aren't going to win many games. Our starting pitching is a liability we can't seem to overcome. Astros lose the finale and the series with the Yankees. Last night the final score was 5-4.
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