MVN - Most Valuable Network

Thank You Carlos Lee For Making Sure Astros Are Not Shutout

Dave Borkowski and J.R Towles returned to the Astros for this game.

Bork pitched very well - he said that Burt Hooten had fixed him right up, corrected his motion. Interesting. He pitched 2 innings, striking out 2, giving up a pop single that Tejada didn’t get, and a single to right.

Towles got one of the Astros 6 hits - so that is good, but he was responsible for one of the Dodger’s runs, by making a throwing error which allowed a runner to advance from first to third - and the runner scored on a squeeze. I know, I like that particular play, what can I say. He also had a passed ball, but it didn’t lead to a run. He just might could have been a little nervous. But at least he’d caught Runelvys before, so at least he didn’t have that to worry about.

And speaking of Runelvys, well, he gave up 2 walks, 4 K and 6 hits and all but one were really smashed - a 430′ triple to the Hill, 3 doubles, a homer to the upper decks of right and a single. He lasted 5 innings and threw 79 pitches, giving up 4R/3 ER in 5 innings. Coop pinch hit for him in the bottom of the 5th.

It was a good idea - Newhan singled, then Towles singled and with only 1 out, Coop pinch hit Erstad.  Unfortunately, Newhan got his fool self picked off second, so when Erstad doubled, he wasn’t there to score. And then Bourn didn’t drive in Towles and Erstad.

sigh

At least Carlos hit a bomb almost to the tracks just to the right of the warning track with 2 outs in the 9th so the Astros didn’t get shut out.

Tomorrow afternoon, Backe faces Chad Billingsley, age 23, RHP - first round pick by the Dodgers in 2003. He was called up in 06, threw 90 innings of 3.80 ERA ball, albeit with a 1.67 ERA and a .272 BAA.

In 07, he improved, throwing 147 innings of 3.31 ERA ball and lowered his WHIP to 1.33 and BA to .241. This year, he’s 7-7 in 16 GS and 2 in relief over 96 IP - 3.31 EA, 1.34 WHIP, .234 BAA.

But the Astros have actually done well against him - he’s 1-2 in 3 GS over 19 IP - 2 HR, 7 BB, 17 K - 4.74 ERA, .243 BAA.

Let’s hope good Brandon shows up.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, July 2nd, 2008 at 10:05 pm and is filed under Carlos Lee. 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.