Shawn Chacon Loses Out On ND Record, Settles For Win #1
I guess it isn’t so bad to lose the record, but get a W. He went 7 IP, 5 H, 1 BB, 5 K, 1 HR, 3 ER, 95 pitches, 66 strikes.
Chacon was, um, shaky (ahem) the first inning. He got the Riot out, walked Fuku, then gave up a long LONG homer to DLee. Down 2-0. He then got Aramis out, then gave up 2 doubles in a row to the LF corner - down 3-0 before getting Edmonds out.
hmmmmmmmm
Would this be a repeat of his icky Rangers game?
Nope.
Second inning, he gets 2 quick outs, then gives up a single to Theriot, who he picks off with a BEW TIFFUL sweep tag by Lance Berkman, who I see has left his bat, but not his glove in Arlington.
3rd, 4th, 5th, 6th inning, he gets 1,2,3 out. 7th, he gives off a leadoff double off the scoreboard, but then gets the next 3 outs, stranding the runner.
Just outSTANDING.
I didn’t know whether or not to hope the Cubs came back to tie the game, but hey, you gotta put team interests over personal records, right?
Astros batters?
- Bourn went 3/5 with a standup triple (that boy can RUN - I thought he was thinkin of goin all the way around) a run scored and his 20th SB. He’s looking a lot better at the plate, not swinging so darn much at bad pitches. Hopefully he’s on his way up.
- Matsui went 1/2 with 2 BB, his 11th SB and a run scored.
- Tejada - 1/4 with a run and an RBI. AND 2 really excellent defensive plays. (And you thought I wouldn’t praise the guy. cmon now…)
- Lance- a sombrero and a HBP, a SB and a run scored with an excellent slide. The boy he sure did leave his bat behind, but he brought his glove - made a great leap on an impossible liner in the 8th. Yeh, White men CAN jump. And he brought his legs - great baserunning and a great slide. And he stole a base standing UP. Maybe it is something about the cubs - he’s like 8 K/11 AB in this Cubs series. He must think he’s at Wrigley or something.
- Carlos Lee - 1/4 with a 3 run homer that went clear over the Crawford Boxes to the opposite corridor. He also was VERY active with the glove too. Gues he got tired of hearing what a dog he is out there. He made a great leaping catch at the scoreboard of Edmonds’ drive to end the 4th and he RAN to get a bunch of popups that Miggy usually gets.
- Geoff Blum - 2/4 and he knocked in Berkman. He didn’t need his glove today, most every ball hit against Chacon was a fly ball and there were a few hit to short.
- Hunter Pence - 0/3 with a walk
- JR Towles - 1/3 with a walk. He’s still swinging at bad pitches, but he’s gotten his average “up” to a buck50. But I gotta say that he sure does look really great behind the plate.
Relievers?
Brocail got 1,2,3 out thanks to 2 excellent plays by Tejada and Berkman’s jump to rob the Riot.
Valverde was nails again - 2 K, 1 BB and a popup.
Tomorrow, it’s Brad Lidge and the Phillies. Have all yall noticed that I keep pointing out all the guys who homer offn hanging sliders? It’s what major league hitters do. Heck, I bet Wandy would homer offn a hanging slider too. So let’s not talk about it as if Pujols did something that other major leaguers don’t do every freaking day of the season. And this year, Brad looks like his old self. He FINALLY gave up a run last week. Yep, he’s got a 0.45 ERA and he’s getting about 10K/9 IP.
It’s not I don’t appreciate Valverde - I do. He’s excellent. It’s the disrespect and contempt for Lidge that makes me, um, irked.
Anyhow, tomorrow it’s Roy Oswalt vs Kyle Kendrick, who has never pitched at the Box.
Cmon Roy - let’s see a ROY game!!!!!
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14 Responses to “Shawn Chacon Loses Out On ND Record, Settles For Win #1”
May 21st, 2008 at 11:36 pm
If you were in charge of the astros this summer, knowing well his slump in Houston, would you have kept Lidge? Remember, if he blew games like the close one tonight, you’d likely earn the scorn of the city if it continued and youd likely be fired for not trading him when he still had value. How confident are (were?) you in Lidge?
May 21st, 2008 at 11:37 pm
I meant last summer. How time flies.
May 22nd, 2008 at 12:41 am
I don’t have anything against Lidge. He seems to be a pretty good guy, but–for whatever the reason–he wasn’t getting it done anymore in Houston. I don’t think he’d be gettting it done if he were still with the Astros. He needed a change of scenery, and I’m glad to see that he has been doing well. With any luck, the Phillies won’t have any leads for him to protect during this series.
I was at the game up in Arlington that Chacon pitched. He had plenty of help giving up runs–5 errors I think it was, and 2 on Wiggy. I was really worried tonight when he gave up 3 in the 1st inning, but he sure turned it around.
It’s nice to see the Astros bounce back and take 2 out of 3 from the Cubs after watching them not play very well against the Rangers.
May 22nd, 2008 at 12:48 am
“I gotta say that he (Towles) sure does look really great behind the plate.”
Do you mean he is destined like Brad for a career as an underwear model when he retires? Game reports don’t mention him much and thats pretty much all the coverage I get as an expat Astros fan.
May 22nd, 2008 at 5:05 am
Lisa
very good report., and i want to say that i think i was most impressed with the all around outstanding play of lance berkman. he may be in a mini slump with the bat but he contributed in so many ways last nite to help the stros win the game . i never have quite seen big puma play with so much intensity and agressiveness as he has shown this year. the play he made robbing the hitter of at least a potential double with that outstanding leap was i think one of the greatest defensive plays by a first baseman i have ever seen.just totally AWESOME!. His tremendous hustle and alert baserunning was just exceptional. he truly is our leader. the rest of the guys did really well, also in the way they picked each other up and followed lance!s lead. with the leadership of lance and miguel this team has really come together. and what a gamer chacon is. there just isn!t any quit in this man. big victory and great team effort. if the pitching can just hold up fairly well who knows.
May 22nd, 2008 at 5:43 am
eric,
if it was last summer, i would have traded lidge to the red sox while his value was still high for the simple reason that he had like ZERO margin of error here in houston. very unfair, but hey, there are a lot of people who really REALLY think that a closer can never blow a save or give up a homer.
mark,
i agree that lidge needed to be traded. and actually it was in HIS best interest. but i get really pissed at all the jerks who are STILL screaming about pujols like no other relievers hang sliders and no other ML hitters hit em. but to me lidge is da MAN for the way he acted with all the harrassment and how he constantly tried to fix whatever had gone wrong the last few months of 05.
dave,
i personally am not intrested in seeing towles without his clothes. but brad ausmus is simply to hot what barry lamar is to baseball players - in a category of his very own. he just is. now brad he could do more for boxer briefs than any model alive - you know, walk out in a suit to “underneath your clothes” then show how the underwear makes the man, you know what i’m sayin…
towles, in my opinion, is an excellent defensive catcher - soft hands, blocks balls very well, throws well, calls a good game, and the pitchers appear to like throwing to him (unlike, say quintero). like bourn, he needs to relax a little at the plate.
charles,
it is games like last night makes me think that lance really is the MVP this year - he has taken every bit of his game up more than a notch.
- grinning
not hearing real too many people calling him “fat” this year, are we? even though he is the exact same size he was last year…
May 22nd, 2008 at 8:44 am
lisa
you are so right on your analysis of j r towles, and i think he will eventually start to hit. at every level he went too he was a very slow starter at the plate. your patienace and confidence in bourn and towles were very warranted. so many of us were getting ready to pull the plug including myself although i never expected bourn to hit anything like pujoles. i think if bourn could hit just about .240 or .250 this year and keep drawing those walks he and kaz are going to continue to set the table for miggy , lance, and carlos and also terrorize the opposition.
May 22nd, 2008 at 9:35 am
I cant say that I know anything about Towles, Ausmus and Boxers… I will leave that analysis up to you!
Berkman will be fine, he is just coming down to earth like a greek demi-god decending from the heavens… I bet he bats 340+ 130 RBIs and 40 HRs. If he keeps that up, the rest of the lineup continues to take up any left over slack, and Valverde wins the close ones for us then we just might win this division.
May 22nd, 2008 at 10:34 am
charles,
this is the first year in a very VERY long time that the astros have actually decided to leave struggling young players in to learn to adjust to being every day ML players. yeah we have left struggling VETERANS in too long, but not young guys. i think it had to do with the - we have to win with the rapidly fading baggy/bidge - mind set.
i am NOT surprised that bourn has had his struggles. i keep reminding everyone that last year, he was a PH/DR and he did NOT hit leadoff. and it is more than obvious that no one ever seriously worked with this kid on bunting. not sure why, but hey, there you are. your average NL pitcher is a better bunter.
but on the other hand, bourn, i think, is a better HITTER than willy taveras, and unlike milo, i think it is foolish to try to turn bourn into a willy clone. much smarter to use brett butler as a role model, even for the simple reason that the opposition can’t KNOW if you are gonna bunt or not.
travis,
- grinning
for some reason, 90-95% of the male population has less than zero interest in the sight of brad ausmus in undies and 90-95% of the female population does.
i’m not real too worried about berkman. last year, i was wondering if he needed lasix or something because he looked to me like he was not reading the ball out of the pitcher’s hand and swinging too early or too late.
and he himself is a pretty level headed guy - and he’ right, sometimes balls find holes and sometimes they don’t. and sometimes the first baseman makes an incredible leaping catch on a sure hit.
youneverknow
but you gotta take the good with the bad. it’s a LONG season. it’s the game of life…
May 22nd, 2008 at 10:35 am
I think Lance is just demonstrating to Towles that even the leading MVP candidate can look clueless at the plate — and that even when that is happening, you play hard on defense, you do what you can on the bases, and the rest of the team will pick you up until you find your groove again.
It’s amazing how humbling the game is — Lance couldn’t do anything wrong for four weeks, and now he can’t catch up to fastballs right down the middle.
It’s great to see the rest of the team pick him up, and I’m sure he’ll go on another tear later in the season.
May 22nd, 2008 at 12:00 pm
steve,
guess this is showing a lil something to all the people who were screaming that lance isn’t a REAL leader, he a clown, goof-off, etc.
not sure why people think that being a “leader” means being a tyrant jerk who pushes the other guys around and yells at him like a drill seargent, which is what the media seems to want “leaders” to be…
and you know, i never read about those supposedly “good guys” baggy and bidge talking like that to all the young guys who were brought up and struggled.
lance is a stand up guy. period. he stands up for and helps his teammates. seems the fans like that when it is a player they don’t hate (towles) but they complain bitterly when it is a guy they hate (burke) - yeah, remember all the people complaining that berkman had no business standiong up for burke last year?
no “leader” just stands up for the popular ones. he stands up for EVERYONE.
and am i the only one who notices that every time valverde slams the door that lance is the first one over to go tell him bueno???
May 22nd, 2008 at 12:43 pm
by the way -
i wrote this 3 years ago about jeff kent - who, for some bizarre reason, the media guys LUUUUVVVV
“Of course I know yall read about the, um, difficulty between Jeff Kent and Milton Bradley. It don’t seem likely to me that Kent singled out Milton because of his race - Kent strikes me as an equal opportunity jerk. Milton made a good point that a “leader” needs to lead on and off the field and Kent’s refusal to speak to other players in the clubhouse, except to yell at them, is pretty well documented both in Houston and San Francisco. He said, at least once to a reporter, that he wasn’t a baseball fan and had no friends who were baseball players. Makes a guy hard to get along with. Makes it REAL hard for a young guy to approach a veteran who sits alone in the corner with earphones on reading motocross magazines and ask him for help. Of course, setting a good example by working hard is good, but sometimes, the younger guys benefit from the older ones helping them with their swing, or giving pointers about the other team, or field, or umpires and just yelling at someone after the fact don’t do real too much good.”
i would bet that ANY young player would rather play with lance than kent
May 22nd, 2008 at 1:53 pm
I think any player young OR old would rather play with The Big Puma than Kent. (god bless him for that walk off home run in the 04 playoffs though)
May 23rd, 2008 at 9:43 am
lisa
i really agee with you on what you are saying about bourn, he really is an exceptional talent and i am truly glad that the astros didn!t give up on him to soon and farm him out like i was first suggesting.
he is starting to hit now and they really need to work with him on bunting for a base hit. you can see that he really wants to learn how by the way he offers so many times but hardly ever seem to pull the trigger, thou you do need the right kind of pitch to actually lay it down well. but he can learn and when he does look out.
.
while on the same subject it would be nice for pence also to learn to bunt for a base hit occassionaly especially cause the third baseman has to play so deep to respect his power and it would be hard for him to throw hunter out on a nice bunt towards third. just a thought.
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