Back to basics?
Well, the Astros lost to the Cards again tonight. Now for me, the heartbreaking part was not the loss itself (thanks to Burke and Bigg, we came back from a 3-run deficit in the 8th and 9th), but the realization that someone (Lidge, Garner, Munson, or even all 3) experienced one hell of a brain fart. There are two men on in the 12th with 2 outs, and Lidge has just made Pujols fly out to center field. I'm thinking, "Sweet, now he should be in a good place, and we can move on from all the times Pujols has killed us in late innings. Go Brad!" The batter is Miles (.256 BA), who got a hit off a Lidge slider last night in the 9th to tie the game.
Lidge has 2 strikes on Miles (both fastballs); we know he can't catch up with Lidge's fastball. Again, there are 2 men on, first and second, and Munson is catching (not Ausmus, who's Lidge's regular catcher). I actually said out loud, "Do NOT throw a slider with men on base. Just throw a fastball and strike him out." And I have know idea who was behind this ingenious call, but Lidge throws a slider in the dirt that gets away from Munson, and both runners advance. Nice, so now they have 2 runners in scoring position. Apparently Lidge is now somewhat rattled. And what does Miles do? He hits the next pitch into left field, and 2 runs score. We couldn't do anything at the bottom of the inning and consequently lost the game.
Oh, and this was all following the 2-out pinch-hit gem (a double) that Oswalt hit to left field, subsequently missing first base (b/c of his excitement??) and then getting thrown out. Hmmm, let's talk about that for a second. I'm pretty sure that even pitchers who are completely out of their element (pinch-hitting) should know how to run the bases. This is something that any kindergartener learns in his/her first t-ball game. What happened there??? And Cruz was standing there pointing at the bag and waving at Oswalt to come back to tag the base; surely that helped our cause.
The Cardinals did not beat us tonight. We lost the game due to our inability to think straight (or something). Those are the worst losses ever...and I feel like we (the Astros) do this way too often for for a Major League team. Maybe we need to go back to basics...know the capabilities of yourself and your teammates, and for God's sake, learn how to run the bases!
Lidge has 2 strikes on Miles (both fastballs); we know he can't catch up with Lidge's fastball. Again, there are 2 men on, first and second, and Munson is catching (not Ausmus, who's Lidge's regular catcher). I actually said out loud, "Do NOT throw a slider with men on base. Just throw a fastball and strike him out." And I have know idea who was behind this ingenious call, but Lidge throws a slider in the dirt that gets away from Munson, and both runners advance. Nice, so now they have 2 runners in scoring position. Apparently Lidge is now somewhat rattled. And what does Miles do? He hits the next pitch into left field, and 2 runs score. We couldn't do anything at the bottom of the inning and consequently lost the game.
Oh, and this was all following the 2-out pinch-hit gem (a double) that Oswalt hit to left field, subsequently missing first base (b/c of his excitement??) and then getting thrown out. Hmmm, let's talk about that for a second. I'm pretty sure that even pitchers who are completely out of their element (pinch-hitting) should know how to run the bases. This is something that any kindergartener learns in his/her first t-ball game. What happened there??? And Cruz was standing there pointing at the bag and waving at Oswalt to come back to tag the base; surely that helped our cause.
The Cardinals did not beat us tonight. We lost the game due to our inability to think straight (or something). Those are the worst losses ever...and I feel like we (the Astros) do this way too often for for a Major League team. Maybe we need to go back to basics...know the capabilities of yourself and your teammates, and for God's sake, learn how to run the bases!
posted by paige at 9:27 PM
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