Houston sends Brian Moehler to the mound for his first start back from the DL.
Stros starting 9:
Matsui
Bourn
Berkman
Lee
Tejada
Pence
Rodriguez
Keppinger
Moe
Hopefully by some miracle Brian Moehler can go deep in this game.
Pittsburgh 7 Houston 0
Moehler left the game early with a knee injury adding injury to insult in his 2 outings this season.
Houston’s bats are completely dormant right now. The Astros haven’t scored a run in 18 innings and only had four hits today. Two of their hits were doubles by Tejada and Keppinger.
Thank the lord Houston has a day off tomorrow. Hopefully it will give them a chance to regroup and literally come out swinging against Ohlendorf on Wednesday in support of Mike Hampton.
Btw, why give your hottest hitter in Michael Bourn a day off? Maybe Coop is going slot him higher in the line up on Wednesday?
Who knows, but lets hope that between now and then Houston finds their bats.
Brian Moehler was pulled after 1 2/3 innings and 7 earned runs. Moehler didn’t get any breaks as the Cubs had at least 3 broken bat singles in the first. Those days will happen. Russ Ortiz came in and immediately gave up a 3 run shot to Ryan Theriot. Although the line wont show it, Russ pitched well with 6 k’s in his first outing since 2007.
The story for tonight, other than Chicago scoring 4 runs in both the 1st and 2nd inning, was the bats for Houston. Jeff Keppinger (J-Kepp!), Lance Berkman, Kazuo Matsui, and Hunter Pence all hit solo shots with Pudge Rodriguez hitting a 2 run shot as well to account for 5 home runs and all Houston runs tonight.
Matsui 1-5, HR, RBI, R
Keppinger 2-5, HR, RBI, R
Berkman 1-4, HR, RBI, R, K
Lee 1-4, 2B (first hit for Lee)
Tejada 1-4, R
Pence 2-4, HR, 2B, R, RBI
Pudge 2-4, HR, 2B, 2 RBI, R
Bourn 1-4, K
Good News: Houston’s offense was looking better with the 5 home runs. Russ Ortiz pitched well though he gave up 3 runs. Carlos Lee got his first hit and Bourn continues to hit. J-Kepp is proving to be a great pick up and seems as though he can do no wrong. Hunter Pence 2 homers in 2 games and is swinging the bat well. Michael Bourn will head to St. Louis with a 3 game hitting streak.
Bad News: Obvious here, Moehler only pitched 1 2/3 inning. He didn’t pitch poorly but the Cubs were putting the ball and play and getting hits. It will be interesting to see how Moehler bounces back.
Pitching Lines:
Brian Moehler 1 2/3 IP, 8 hits, BB, K, HBP, 7 earned.
Russ Ortiz 3 IP, 4 hits, 4 BB, 6 K, 1 HR, 3 earned.
Chris Sampson 1 1/3 IP, 1 hit, 0 earned
Geoff Geary 1 IP, 1 hit, 1 K, 0 earned
Wesley Wright 1 IP, 1 hit, 1 K, 0 earned
Doug Brocail 1 IP, 1 hit, 1 HR, 1 BB, 1 earned.
Ted Lilly gives up 4 bombs and gets the win. (1-0)
Brian Moehler takes the loss. (0-1)
Houston is off tomorrow but will travel to St. Louis to take on the Cardinals Friday with Mike Hampton facing Joel Pineiro.
Today will decide who takes the series between the Cubs and the Stros.
Brian Moehler (0-0) is taking on the lefty Ted Lilly (0-0).
Cecil Cooper is posting his 2nd lineup today, which was to be expected against Lilly the lefty.
Matsui 2B
Keppinger 3B
Berkman 1B
Lee LF
Tejada SS
Pence RF
Pudge C
Bourn CF
I like this line up better. Not because Blum isn’t in it but because Pence is in the 6 hole and Pudge is in the 7 hole. I wouldn’t mind Pudge and Pence swapping spots in the right handed line up.
What am I looking for this game?: Carlos Lee to pick it up. He has yet to record his first hit and has grounded into a double play both games.
Let’s go Moehler! Let’s go Stros!
Game time: 7:05 central.
The Houston Astros lost 7-4 to the Atlanta Braves today making today their tenth loss in a row putting their Grapefruit League record at 1-10-1.
Cecil Cooper isnt’t happy and who can blame him?
From Alyson’s Footnotes: “The lineup looked largely like the one projected for Opening day: Matsui, Bourn, Berkman, Lee, Pence, Boone…with one of the projected starting pitchers, Brian Moehler, on the mound. And still, the Astros just weren’t very good.
“This was veterans today,” Cooper said. “We didn’t hit, and we didn’t execute our pitches. I don’t have any answers about why this is happening, unless someone put the hex on us.”
Cooper concluded with, “this is bordering on ridiculous.”"
What can you be excited about if you are an Astros fan right now? Bullpen performance: Today Valverde, Brocail, and Byrdak all pitched a scoreless frame. Woohoo…
Because of the clubs recent performance, Lance Berkman is going to be making a road trip for the next game tomorrow. Maybe he’ll go 4-4 with 8 RBI and he’ll pitch 4 scoreless innings.
It’s only Spring Training and 10 wins in a row wouldn’t count either but you can understand the frustration of Cecil Cooper.
Blah, so much for a even two game series against the Cubs up in Milwaukee. First off the crowd is 99% cubs fans, so the Astros were already at a disadvantage, and then add in the fact that the team is so tired, it is no wonder why they struggled in both of the games.
In the two games, the Astros only had one hit. Yeah, they were no hit my Carlos Zambrano on Sunday night, but I figured they would have a good shot on Monday. However, Ted Lilly gave up one hit in seven innings of action as the Astros struggled once again at the plate. One hit simply won’t get it done against the Cubs.
Brian Moehler took the loss as he was charged with six hits and five runs. Moehler gave up two home runs as well in the game. Chris Sampson also gave up a home run in the game and was charged with one run. Just another bad day for the Astros pitchers.
Now the Astros find themselves 2.5 games behind the Brewers and Phillies in the wild card race. The Astros need to have a good series against the Florida Marlins before they play a weekend series against the Pirates.
Stay positive Astros fans, the teams needs some confidence and we have to give them some help.
The Houston Astros got the best of the Pittsburgh Pirates once again as they beat them on Wednesday night. This time it was by the score of 7-4 as the Astros won for the third straight time in the four game series. The Astros continue to play some aswesome baseball as they try everything they can do to get into the playoffs.
Brian Moehler picked up the win for the Astros after tossing the first six innings of the game. Moehler gave up five hits and two runs as he improved his record to 11-6. Wesley Wright had some trouble in the game as he allowed two runs to score as well. Jose Valverde notched the save which was hit 42nd of the year.
Miguel Tejada had the big hit for the Astros when he hit a grand slam in the sixth inning. Tejada led the Cubs with four rbi. Hunter Pence finished with a two-run home run and two rbi in the game while Darin Erstad also added one rbi.
Astros will try to go for the sweep on Thursday. I think they will get it! Astros Blog
Wow what a butt kicking the Houston Astros received from the New York Mets on Monday night. The Astros and Mets opened up a series in New York and it was the Mets kicking the Astros butt by the score of 9-1. Two homeruns from Carlos Delgado fueld the big game for the Mets as the Astros pitchers just didn’t have it going for them.
Three different Astros pitchers combined to give the nine runs. Starting pitcher Brian Moehler was tagged for six hits and four runs in 5 1/3 innings. Moehler gave up the first home run to Delgado who hit a three run shot off of Moehler. Relief pitcher Wesley Wright pitched the next 1 2/3 innings and gave up two hits and three runs including the second three run home run to Delgado. Doug Brocail finished up the terrible pitching night for the team by giving up two more hits and runs in the eighth inning.
There isn’t a whole lot to blog about for the offense as they only scored one run in the game. In the top of the ninth inning, Ty Wigginton grounded out to first base and David Newhan scored.
