Mets (58-50) at Astros (50-57)

Minute Maid Park

Friday, August 1, 7:05pm CDT.  FSN & FSN-HD
Saturday, August 2, 6:05pm CDT.  FSN & FSN-HD
Sunday, August 3, 1:05pm CDT.  my20 & my20-HD (yeah, I don’t believe it either)

Hate the Mets, Hate the Mets,
Step right up and berate the Mets.
Don’t bring the kiddies, don’t bring your wife,
MetFan may force you to run for your life.
Because the Mets are really suckin’ on balls,
Watchin’ our home runs over the walls.
East side, West side, everybody’s coming down,
To HATE the M-E-T-S Mets, of New York town. (more…)

Wade trades another “useless” minor leaguer to the Yankees for a reliever.

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The Good Guys dropped the final game with the Redlegs 9-5, but still won their third series in four tries since the All-Star break, playing .500 ball during the brief stretch. As I’m stuck taking care of a sick family, that’s going to be it for now, but I’ll get back later for a posterity post-cap, no doubt full of wit, whimsy, and tales of projectile vomiting. Something to look forward to.

The big news down on the farm today was that Lexington’s Matt Cusick was traded to the Yankees for LaTroy Hawkins and some cash. Cusick, earlier in the day had driven in two runs for the Legends as they won a late morning affair over the Hagerstown Suns.

“We like Matt. He’s swinging the bat very well at Lexington,” Astros General Manager Ed Wade said. “We consider him a prospect, and obviously, the Yankees consider him a prospect also.”

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Salem won the continuation of the suspended game and the seven inning version of the regularly scheduled game to stretch their win streak to a season high 5 games. In game one, the Av’s scored in every inning but the 1st. Douglas Arguello got the win in the night cap, bringing his record for the year to 8-4 with a league best ERA of 2.84. (more…)

Wade “Instead of (Tejada) being there answering questions [from reporters] leading up to the deadline — ‘Do you think you’re going to go someplace? What do you think your status is?’ — and him giving diplomatic responses, I went in the weight room and I said, ‘I haven’t talked to any clubs about you, I’m not trading you, you’re a Houston Astro and I’m glad to have you,’” Wade said. “He said, ‘OK.’”
Link

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Astros 6, Reds 2

W: Moehler (6-4) | L: Arroyo (9-8) | S: Wright (1)

HR: Lee (24), Tejada (11)

AP recap/boxscore via Yahoo!

Alyson’s game wrap

On a night when the Astros namesake celebrated their 50th anniversary, Brain Moehler came withing an out of a complete game with a masterful pitching performance against the commie Reds, winning 6-2 as he was in command the entire game before fading in the ninth and needing help from rookie Wesley Wright to finish. He was supported in victory by a Carlos Lee grand orbit blast, a Hunter Pence run-scoring triple and a solo rocket shot from Miguel Tejada. (more…)

Round Rock got a solid start from Ron Chiavacci on Friday night in route to a 5-3 win.

“I’ve been sitting in the stands the last three games seeing what these guys like, so it was easy to have a game plan,” Chiavacci said. “(Catcher J.R. House) and I were on the same page, especially the last five innings. I don’t remember waiving him off very often.”

Saturday, the Express went down 6-3. Sunday, Jack Cassell continued his dominance of the PCL leading the Express to a 6-2 win. Monday, the Express broke out the bats and beat Sacrameno 9-3.
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Ortiz “I placed calls to several scouts, and the rumor is that the Red Sox have talked to the Astros, perhaps about Miguel Tejada.” therefore, “According to a person familiar with the talks, the Red Sox would like Tejada…” and Justice “The Red Sox have slight interest in Tejada. They’ve got a scout tracking the Astros this week,…”

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Reds at Astros, 7/28/08
Astros 5, Dickities 4
W: Oswalt (8-8) L: Cueto (7-10) S: Valverde (27)
HR: Dunn (30), Blum (9)

The Daily Footer
Boxscore

(I was) walkin’ the tightrope steppin’ on my friends
Walkin’ the tightrope (it) was a shame and a sin
Walkin’ the tightrope between wrong and right
Walkin’ the tightrope both day and night

Yes, Roy returned to his all-too-familiar tightrope act Monday night against his old friends from Cincinnati. Spotted to a 3-run lead in the bottom of the first, Roy proceeded to load the bases in the top of the second with nobody out. Longtime Astros observers (such as the fine readers of this esteemed site) knew what was coming; let’s be honest, at this point, Astros fans in a persistent vegetative state knew what was coming.

Ah, but as the saying goes, hitting is timing, but pitching is distrupting timing. And thus Oswalt threw all of us off balance with three straight strikeouts to escape trouble and keep the 3-0 lead.

This only delayed the inevitable.

You see, Roy at this point will go Oswalt Inning ™ at some point. It is, as they say, a matter of when, not if. And Roy made it all the way to top 3, when 2 singles and a walk loaded the bags for Dunn, who then deposited a bomb just to the left of Tal’s Flagpole to make it a 4-3 game. (ed note: Why isn’t there any trade interest in a guy with 30 HR?)

Fortunately, Geoff Blum either really, really wants out of Houston, or he really, really wants a starting job, as he continued destroying the ball in the manner of his Sunday game. Following a first inning SF, Blum blasted a Cueto hanger into the first few rows in RF to make it a 5-4 game.

There it would stay, thanks especially to some strong work from a bullpen that seemed to say “Reliever?? Seriously, Ed? HOW ABOUT A FREAKING BAT!!!” Byrdak, Geary, Wright, and Valverde combined for 4 innings of shutout, 1-baserunner ball, and this one went into the books for the good guys.

Limey’s recipies, and the horror that is today’s Milo Hamilton, in the GameZone.
Trade deadline chatter in the TalkZone.

Cincinnati (50-56) at Houston (48-56)

MMPUS(FKAEFUSFKAAFUSFKABUS)

• Monday, July 28           7:05 p.m.   FSN-HD (maybe or maybe not in Austin)
• Tuesday, July 29          7:05 p.m.   FSN-HD
• Wednesday, July 30     7:05 p.m.   FSN-HD 

Reds’ Phenom Jay Bruce is from Beaumont, his ticket requests, 65 for Monday, 63 for Tuesday, 53 for Wednesday. Link

Quarreling with the announcers?

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“Don’t give up. Don’t ever give up!”

Powerful words. Words to live by. Maybe not so much words to run your professional baseball team by, Drayton.

3 UP:

1. Brewers - so the Astros took 2 of 3… the real key here was going into St. Louis and sweeping a 4 game set. There’s just no better way to break the spirits of the BFiB, and that is something I will always support, especially where the Brew Crew is involved; after all, has a player ever been so aesthetically matched to his city as Prince Fielder in Milwaukee? (Oh, right… John Rocker in Atlanta.)
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The Randy Wolf Drive To The Pennant started today. And, at first, it looked pretty much like the Astros Drive Into A Ditch we’ve been watching so far.

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Astros 3, Brewers 1
W: Wandy Rodriguez, L: Manny Parra, S: Jose Valverde

Astros Recap
Yahoo Recap
Box Score

Hold onto that feeling. (more…)

Round Rock got two homers each from Val Majewski and Ray Sadler in their 16-1 shellacking of Fresno.

“We picked some good pitches and got some swings on his fastball in the zone,” said Majewski, who has been with the Express for a week after a promotion from Double-A Corpus Christi. “I just want to get some good swings and do what I can to keep myself in the lineup.”

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Miller Park 

Friday, July 25, 7:05 p.m. CDT – FSN-HD

Saturday, July 26, 6:05 p.m. CDT – FSN-HD

Sunday, July 27, 1:05 p.m. CDT – my20

2 of 3 from the fucking Cubs.  0 of 3 from the Pirates.  4 straight losses.  But, fear not my friends, starting Sunday the season is saved even though the Brewers just completed a 4 game sweep of the 3rds and have won 8 in a row including all 7 games after the ASB.  Be. Leive.

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In todays’ local paper there are no articles about the Astros. 

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Oswalt threw his first bullpen Wed. since he went on the DL. He threw for 10 minutes 40-50 pitches, fastballs and changeups.

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Wednesday, July 23, 2008

Astros 7
Pirates 8

W: Osoria (4-3) | L: Geary (2-2) | S: Marte (5)

Footer Oliphant Recap
AP Recap / Box via Yahoo!
Game Zone

On a day when the Astros increased their playoff hopes with an infectious blend of delusional optimism and poorly-timed e-mail blasts, they also managed to pack up their shit and move into the Central basement, where they are free to remove their pants and holler up to the rest of the division to send down some fucking meatloaf.

The two teams’ starters combined for a robust 5.1 total innings and 11 runs, while the bullpens were just OK enough to keep the differential at 1 run in favor of the Pirates for the eventual sweep. It was a constant back and forth on offense, with the visiting nine jumping out for 4 in the first, and the Good Guys answering back with 3 in the bottom half. They traded runs in the second and third, the Astros tied it up with 1 in the fourth, the Pyroots pulled away again with 2 in the seventh, and Houston answered with 1 in the bottom, but that was it. I’d document the whole thing, but I think this does a better job:

See-saw affair with an unpleasant but predictable ending