Houston, We Have a Win!

Ugh, sorry about that title. What awful dreck. I'm guessing the person who writes titles for the MLB.com game recaps uses that one at least once a year. And I guess since we'll be facing Houston at least 6 times next year, I'll be using it once a year now too.

We won tonight and I'm stoked about it! Four in a row, Hamilton is back, in first by 1.5 games, Ubaldo had his best road outing of the year, Perez struck out the side on 13 pitches and the game included my favorite play - an out at the plate for the Indians (also an out at the plate for the Astros, which was quite a nice out but not one for me to be happy about)! And the Astros wore their most-groovy retro uniforms which I totally heart.

But I am also a little sad about this game. Why? WHYYYYYY?! Well because the Astros aren't that good, and they're sort of easy to roll over, pitching-wise. And their pitching isn't that good. Yet we had to scramble for TWO runs, and had TWO outs at the plate, and only got 4 hits. All of this against a right-hander. Yes, we were down one man - two men - with pitchers and Damon in the lineup. But we've done more with less.

Anyway, it's fun to be in first and it's mega-fun to win but I have trepidations  about it. That's all I say on that front.

UBALDO! That lanky motherfucker is finally doing well consistently, at home and on the road. Today he went 6 2/3 and struck out 8. Jeebus! He still walked 4, but 2 of them were in the first inning. Raise your hand if you nodded along with Tom Hamilton when he pronounced Jiminez to be toast in the first. Yeah, me too. Joke's on all of us!

Smith finished off that 1/3 of the 7th and then Pestano and Perez finished it off. Yeah they did! Vinnie had a rough inning with 3 "that coulda been big trouble!" outs. Perez cut through his batters in the 9th like butter. Just 13 pitches, 11 for strikes, 3 strikeouts. BALLGAME! 23 saves for that dude. Tee hee!

What up, Choo?! Hitting a triple! Jim Rosenhaus claims that he walked in to the park with Choo, who pointed out the short left field wall and said it was nice. Then Choo proceeded to ricochet one off said wall on his first at-bat. I suppose if anyone is going to be able to do that, it'll be Choo. But Rosie is one heck of a story teller, too!

Asdrubal! He tried to hit one out the park after Choo's big triple, but he only ended up getting the game-winning RBI (4 pitches in to the game). Later on he got a single (albeit a gift "single") then came around to score the insurance run!

Kipnis has been having a rough go of it. He's so streaky, guys...he got 5 hits in 2 games then he's gone 0 for 11 with just 1 walk. I want to love and get excited about him every day! EVERY DAY, KIPNIS!! I guess a young guy can't do that. He's no Brantley...or Kotchman.

I do love and get excited about Asdrubal every day, even though he had his 8th damn error today. WTF Asdrubal? Although I did like this bit of play, that showed just how nifty our infield is. Kipnis-Kotchman-Cabrera-Santana (4-3-6-2). Out at the plate!

Brantley got a hit. 5 games, y'all! :)

Damon is still on our team and he got a hit today.

No one else got a hit but everyone else played. Well, Cunningham, Lopez and Hannahan. No Shelley! Bah.

So really the news of the game was good pitching, and good defense. I just need to see some good batting now, too. Can't be squeaking by such shitty teams and expect to take care of the rest of the Majors.

But I'll go to bed happy, and we get to try again to heat up in Houston tomorrow. At 4:05 our time - see you there!

Radio Chatter:
"Just when you think you're about to turn the corner you take a look and it seems like the corner may go on forever."
- Tom Hamilton on Jiminez's walks

"That's where the handcuffs come in."
- Tom Hamilton taking his marriage joke a little too far

"They look like they're playing catch on a screened-in porch."
- Tom Hamilton on the Astros' bullpen layout

"They're going to be mincemeat for the Rangers for a few years."
- Tom Hamilton doesn't think the Astros are suited for either league

"His picture in the media guide...he needs to hire a lawyer."
- Tom Hamilton is appalled by Astros' pitcher Wesley Wright's photo

"Vinnie Pestano is going to the dugout saying 'Wow, I got rocked!' and it's 3-up 3-down!"
- Tom Hamilton on the close calls of the 8th

"I'm sorry but Major League Baseball has to do something to protect these pitchers."
- Tom Hamilton doesn't like it when guys don't get charged with errors

"They're doing the wave here and...is there any way that we can get participating in the wave as a federal offense?"
- Tom Hamilton has a lot of things to get off his chest since Omaha