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Hunter Pence’s Grand Slam Wins The Game For Chris Sampson

By Lisa Gray | May 20th, 2008

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Chris Sampson pitched just great. He kept the ball down, except for one slider that he hung that Aramis sent into the middle window in left center. Chris even struck out 4 guys, including Soriano, TWICE.

He cruised along effortlessly until he gave up a seeingeye single to DeRosa with 2 out in the 7th - then he started rubbing his arm - couldn’t get a pitch over the plate to a pinch hitter just up from the minors. He just suddenly looked tired, and he’d only thrown 83 pitches. I actually thought he’d finish the game. And props to Coop for pulling Sampson when it was obvious he’d lost it and SERIOUS props to Coop for not fooling around with gawdknowswho and just sending Brocail in to shut it DOWN.

Lance got a piddly single, a walk, left 2 guys on base with 2 out. Carlos went ofer, left 2 on. But fortunately, Pence is now seeing the ball VERY well and with bases loaded 1 out, he hit an outside pitch the other way juuuust over the fence - maybe 350′, but it was juuuust far enough.

Bourn made 3 excellent catches, but was given an error because Lee had, for some odd reason, stopped after reaching second when Aramis had singled to center - he should have easily reached third with his speed. But Bourn bobbled the ball after catching it, then Lee decided to go on to third, so Bourn got an error. Amazing - all the terrible plays not made that don’t get an error, all the fly balls misjudged and missed that should have been caught - and then Bourn gets an E for something dumb like that…

Both teams pitched very well, and Dempster had really only the one bad inning.

I was actually a little worried about maybe a beanball war tonight because Cubs pitchers threw at Carlos Lee’s head last night, but nope.

Also, to my surprise, CB Bucknor had an accurate and consistant strike zone - for ONCE, and he only called 2 pitches out of the zone as strikes.

Tomorrow, Shawn Chacon goes for the ML consecutive no-decision starts record. He has 6 of 9 QS, and got slammed all ovah the place in his last start at Texas, giving up 8 runs. Hopefully, he’ll keep the ball DOWN because the Cubs, as we’ve seen, are a patient, good hitting ball club and it seems that Lance has come off his hitting streak - 5 Ks in his last 8 AB, so we can’t go giving up all these hits again.

Sean Gallagher, RHP, age 22, was drafted in the 12th round of the 04 draft by the Cubs. He pitched 14.2 innings last year as a reliever, and this year, he was called up in the beginning of May, started twice and relieved in 2 more games. He gave up 4 ER in 4.1 IP against the Dbax and 1 ER in 6 IP against the Pirates.

At this point, he’s only thrown 14.2 innings - 14 H, 1 HR, 7 BB, 7 R/ER, 10 K.

The guys got to go out there and get Chacon the record, then get the W…

This entry was posted on Tuesday, May 20th, 2008 at 9:53 pm and is filed under Chacon, Astros baseball, Chris Sampson, Hunter Pence. 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.

5 Responses to “Hunter Pence’s Grand Slam Wins The Game For Chris Sampson”

charles cortines says:

May 20th, 2008 at 10:18 pm

and lets not forget once again the great job valverde did in the ninth shutting down the cubbies for his 11th straight save and 13th overall.
but pence did hit a 425 ft double and yesterday had a 415 ft out. i know lisa how impressed you are with the distance of home runs especially those of berkmans, but you now a 440 ft homers doesn!t count for anymore than a 340 ft homer.
Joel B. says:

May 20th, 2008 at 10:52 pm

can’t wait for tomorrow. i’m pumped about the no decision record. i think its the coolest thing ever!

and i’m not being sarcastic. seriously.

it helps point out how w/l are meaningless.
Mark says:

May 21st, 2008 at 2:48 am

I told ya that Sampson would do well against the Cubs.

It’s nice that Pence is hitting while Lee is struggling some and Lance seems to have cooled off a little bit. Bourn is looking better at the plate. That’s what it will take–contributions from different parts of the lineup.

As far as I’m concerned, Blum can just stay at 3rd base. They might look into whether Fat Wigg can be traded for a beer vendor or a couple of pizzas or something. He won’t bring much, but getting rid of him would make this a better team.
Travis says:

May 21st, 2008 at 8:59 am

Did anyone notice how Berkman was overswinging and losing his bat on strike 3? I hope he isnt trying too hard… maybe it was better when Berkman WAS flying under the radar, no PTI and such.
Lisa Gray says:

May 21st, 2008 at 11:36 am

charles,

i guess i am gonna have to write a headline with “valverde ROOLZ!!!” in it. and yep, he has looked great ever since he fixed his mechanics. no question.

and yeh, i do point out how “funny” it is that in this ballpark, if you hit a baseball 435′ to dead center, all it is is out, but if you hit a ball 320′ to left, it’s a homer…

so it’s true that if we had played in wrigley, pence would have 2 more homers and soto would have 1 more…

joel,

agree about the W/L silliness. but i have NO idea how to deal with it because the pitchers themselves place so much value on it. and this decade, we have already seen 3 pitchers lose cy youngs they SHOULD have won to pitchers with more “wins”

mark,

you were right. which makes me happy. he pitched VERY well, still not sure what happened during that one AB seeing as how nobody has mentioned him rubbing his arm like he did.

agree about wiggy. always thought he wasn’t a good ballplayer and i STILL don’t understand why they wanted him and not lamb. blum isn’t exactly league average with the glove, but i’d rather have him than wiggy. no matter what else could be said about mo ensberg, he WAS a good fielder.