MVN - Most Valuable Network

Shawn Chacon Sets ML Record With His 9th Straight ND

 It had to happen.

You see, Roy Oswalt could pitch a nono and ESPN wouldn’t mention it until the end of the show and then it would be a - oh, by the way this guy pitches OK - and back to Joba’s latest hairstyle. Lance Berkman could hit 4 grannies and we’d all be hearing about Jayson Werth and his 8 ribs and we’d get a - oh yeah, and Berkman hit 4 homers - more on Manny’s cute Mannyness after the break…

What a badly played baseball game - execrable pitching and fielding, 2 baserunning blunders and ELEVEN unearned runs between both teams due to 5 errors. YECCCCH!!!

What is so amazing is that Chacon gave up EIGHT runs in 3.1 IP. EIGHT runs and he STILL gets a ND. Now it IS true that he was tagged with 3 UER, but after Matsui bobbled a ball, allowing Young to reach, Chacon had a lot of trouble finding the plate unless he threw the ball down the middle, and he was actually pretty lucky to escape with just 2 singles and a double. Second inning, he got 3 GB outs and a walk, but again, he had a LOT of trouble finding the plate. Third inning, Josh Hamilton sends a meatball 420′ - which means it was a serious meatball. Then he had a couple groundouts, a walk and a flyout to deep center that Bourn mde a great catch on. And at the end of the inning, he’d thrown 51 pitches, 27 balls. Which is scary.

And sure enough, 4th inning was B A D.

Saltalamacchia, hitting below the Mendoza line, hits a hanging midplate breaker 440′ into the upper deck. Vasquez walks on 5 pitches, and the strike was an act of kindness by the HP ump. Kinsler walks on 5 pitches - and again, the strike was a gift. Young flies out to the warning track in deep right.

Cooper then - foolishly, leaves Chacon in to face the AL (current) MVP Josh Hamilton, who he should know only too well from last year with the Reds and sure enough, he hits THAT ball 461′ into the upper deck in right center - the 3rd longest ball ever hit there.

NOW Cooper decides he has to pull Chacon. Like that old country song goes - waaaaaaaaal, it’s a little too late to do the right thing now…..

This was the Chacon I remembered from August 2006 when he gave up 7 ER in 1.2 IP - AND a homer to Roy Oswalt, a homer to Aubrey Huff and Biggio, 2 walks and a couple of doubles and a single…

Fielding matters. It does. Matsui has now made 8 errors, and at least another 8 plays that were not called errors which allowed a runner to reach base on what SHOULD have been an out. I haven’t been impressed with him and I think that he just is getting so much praise because he’s incredibly better than a doddering Biggio was last year. Of course, Loretta was/is better than Biggio was last year.

Miggy made an error on what should have been an easy GIDP, getting none out (but hey, no one scored) and he allowed an infield single to short because he made a bad throw to Erstad. True, none of those runs scored, but it mattered because he made the pitchers work harder and throw to more batters.

Wiggy made an error - Hamilton was given an IF single by the overly generous home scorer, but it should have been a very easy 5-3, but Wiggy threw it into the bullpen. He played a grounder poorly, allowing Bradley to reach. He bobbled ANOTHER ball, but got lucky because the runner wasn’t running hard, assuming an out.

Towles missed a popup he should have caught, and that failed out led to 3 more runs.

Even Michael Bourn got into the act, bobbling a ball, allowing runners to advance, although they didn’t end up scoring.

But I do have to give props to Hunter Pence for making an absolutely AMAZING catch against the RF wall to end the 6th with bases loaded.

Wesley Wright took the loss - he came in in the 6th with 1 out, no on after Borkowski had pitched 2 scoreless innings, to face Hamilton. And the bases were promptly loaded on an E5, an IBB and an E6, just like that. He then had to pitch to 2 more guys, because Towles couldn’t get to a grounder right in front of the plate in time to make a 2-3 DP. And Pence saved him from 3 runs, yeah, all unearned, but runs just the same, by that Web Gem catch. In the 7th, he got the first 2 guys out, but then got tired, walked the next guy, then gave up the game losing hit. And Kinsler was DEFINITELY out - and that should have ended the inning with NO runs scored. Period.

And it got worse. Yeah. Worse.

Oscar Villareal had the night from he!! - 3 homers, a triple, 2 singles and a ROE - 6 runs, although only 2 were earned. Dewey came out after the third homer, with the score 15-8, and I guess he told him - it’s your inning, dude. I ain’t pulling you until you hit a hundred pitches, so you’d best get your own self out of this one. Here and I thought that maybe Dewey had straightened him out - guess not.

Lance went 2/4 somehow, with an IF single and a piddly bloop single to right and 2 FB outs to the wall. And those were the only well hit balls by Astros all night long - they basically singled and ROE and FC’d and doubled down the lines their way to 8 runs. The Rangers hit 6 homers - 3 off Chacon and 3 off Villareal.

uck - reminds me of the Ezequiel Astacio start there back in 05. YECCCCCCH.

Without QUESTION this was the worst played game I have seen the Astros play this year - well, except for the game yesterday with Loretta at short (shudder). I hate this lineup. Pence is not a leadoff guy, he’s a hacker. And you concentrate 3 bad hitters in the 7,8,9 hole. And I hate Lance as DH - Carlos Lee should ALWAYS be the DH, with Lance at first where he belongs and Erstad in left. Like I said before, if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it - and messing with the lineup, in my opinion, was not smart.

Tomorrow night is Roy Oswalt vs Vicente Padilla

Roy this year is 4-3 in 9 GS: 57 IP - 63 H, 12 HR, 15 BB, 48 K: 5.05 ERA, 1.37 WHIP and a .284 BAA

At Arlington: 2-3 in 6 GS - 42 IP - 43 H, 5 HR, 10 BB, 35 K: 3.21 ERA, 1.26 WHIP and a .270 BAA

Vicente Padilla, age 30, RHP, who we have faced when he was with the Phils and the Rangers, is doing unusually well this year. He’s 5-2 in 9 GS - 55.2 IP - 60H, 7 HR, 19 BB, 35 K: 3.23 ERA, 1.42 WHIP, .283 BAA. Actually, this tells me he’s stranding a lot of baserunners…

In Arlington, he’s 13-9 in 30 GS with 1 CG SO: 177 IP - 186 H, 12 HR, 64 BB, 135K: 4.12 ERA, 1.41 WHIP and a .267 BAA

————

Couple more items:

1 - Geary had to go on the DL (pulled groin muscle - let’s hope it diesn’t take him as long as Wandy to come back. Fernando Nieve has been called up to take his spot in the bullpen. Nieve, by the way, is definitely going to be a bullpen guy for the rest of the year - he just doesn’t have the stamina to go more than a couple innings, at least at this point.

2 - Wandy should be making a rehab start this weekend.

3 - For those of all yall yearning for Quintero to replace Towles, we’re talking about a guy hitting .197/.225/.295/.517 at TRIPLE A!!!! And he has FIVE errors. AND the pitchers don’t want to throw to him. So let’s let Towles work it out for a while, OK???????

This entry was posted on Friday, May 16th, 2008 at 10:16 pm and is filed under Wesley Wright, Chacon, Oscar Villarreal, Astros baseball. 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.