MVN - Most Valuable Network

Berkman Barrys The Giants For Another Comeback Win

The Astros were down 6-0 after the third against the Giant’s ace Tim Lincecome. 4 of the 8 position players’ BA were just barely above or below the Mendoza line. Tejada sat out. And yet, the Astros had yet ANOTHER come from behind victory. The guys hit, the bullpen held and the Stros won on Lance’s shot over the wall into Barry’s own personal waterway (no kayaks out there at all in spite of the temp being over 90. Guess no one figured that the Giants pitchers would actually like, you know, throw Lance a pitch to hit.)

The great thing about an afternoon game is that you get to watch it with your kids, even though they have gotten to the point where they don’t WANT to sit and watch the whole thing unless they think it will get them out of having to go to B-E-D.

Chris Sampson not only had to pitch with less offense behind him, but he also had to pitch with MUCH worse defense. I never thought I’d actually call Miggy a good defender, but compared to Loretta, he’s Adam Everett. First inning, right off, he costs Sampson 2 runs. With 1 out, man on first and third, he can’t make the play on a ball hit right to him on a hop - it trickles into center, run scores, no outs made. Da Bull scowls, crosses his arms and says - HEY, he’s supposed to catch that ball. Um, yeah.

So Chris has to pitch to 2 more guys, using 9 more pitches and 1 more run scores. He gets 1 ER because you can’t assume the DP, no matter how easy. He gets 1,2,3 in the second, but then again in the 3rd, he doesn’t get enough defensive help. With one on, no out, Matsui bobbles a grounder and it isn’t called an error AND both runners are safe, when it should have been 1 out, man on second. The next hitter hits a double and it should have been man on second, one run. The next hitter hits a grounder to left that neither Loreta not Blum gets near. No Adam Everett here, so it’s a run in, but it should be men on first and third. The next hitter hits a ball to deep center and Michael Bourn of ALL people, misreads the ball, doesn’t catch it - it goes off his glove and it goes for a 2 run double, when it SHOULD have gone for a sac fly.

Sampson gets stuck with 4 runs, when it should have been 2. He’s behind 6-0.

The Astros stun Lincecome by getting 3 runs in the top of the 4th in spite of Lee swinging at a pitch that bounced in front of the plate for strike 3.

Sampson gets screwed again in the bottom of the 4th - He gets 2 out, then Lance gets to a tough hit behind the bag but then drops it and can’t get the throw to first in time. Then Winn hits a ball down the line that Lance just misses and it is men on second and third, 2 out. And then Loretta makes ANOTHER error on a ball hit right to him by throwing the ball very high and outside - should have been out #3, but instead is run #7.

And there he was, behind 7-3 after 4, when he really should have been leading 3-2.

Defense matters. Of course, you COULD say that Sampson should have kept the ball down on those long fly balls, and I wouldn’t exactly disagree, but you HAVE to have good defense for a ground ball pitcher, and Sampson just didn’t get what he needed. Sampson, however managed to get sinkers to sink and cruised through the 5th and 6th inning. Actually, I thought that he’d last 7, but he had to come out for a PH.

In came Dave Borkowski - I thought that Coop had thrown in the towel, but Bork gave up a single, then a lineout that Berkman made a GREAT play on to double off the runner. I guess it turned Astros luck around, because Bochy left in Tyler Walker for the 8th, after he’d gotten Pence to ground out after a steady diet of sliders.

Lance meekly grounded out, then Carlos hit a towering homer way over the cars in left and there we were 7-4 with 1 out. Then, it got to be luck time. Blum struck out on a ball in the dirt, which got away from the catcher and Blum beat the throw to first. Loretta singles. Then Coop pinch hits Erstad for the slumping, pressing Towles, and he hits the second pitch onto the RF walkway 10′ to the left of the foul line for a 3 run homer.

Game tied.

Ausmus, sent in to pinch hit, walks. Then Bochy pulls Walker, sends in a tough young lefty to face Bourn, gets him out, gives up a single to Kaz, then gets Pence to groundout - the boy had a bad day with RISP, 2 out - left 2 MOB twice.

Next inning, first pitch, Lance sends a nice, fat juicy changeup mid plate, mid thigh over the right field wall into Barry’s Bay. Yeah, it IS Barry’s Bay - only 16 of the 46 spalshdown homers have NOT been hit by Barry. Chulk gives up a few more singles, but gets pinch hitter Tejada out and Ausmus out to end the inning.

I’m not sure I understand the good sense of throwing Lance a nice fat change instead of pitching carefully and maybe walking him, but hey, what can I say?

Geary came on, got an out, gave up a single and a walk and then left with groin pain. Tim Byrdak came in and got the other 2 outs without giving up a run.

I gotta hand it to Smith-Wade for picking up both Wesley Wright and Tim Byrdak. Dirt cheap AND good.

And last but not least, I gotta give it up for Valverde. Since he adjusted his mechanics after the debacle in Philly, he’s had 14 straight appearances with no ER given up and he has lowered his ERA from 12.27 to 4.15. Over 14.1 IP, he has 10 saves, 1 BS and 2 W. He has given up 6 H, 3 BB, 16 K. And he looks totally ace in every way.

Serious props to Dewey Robinson for finding the flaw and helping Valverde correct it and serious props for Valverde understanding the problem AND for being able to correct it so quickly and completely.

This entry was posted on Thursday, May 15th, 2008 at 7:00 pm and is filed under Valverde, Astros baseball, Tim Byrdak, Chris Sampson, Mark Loretta. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.