As always, no PBP in the thread. If you need that try one of the game cast sites. Keep discussion to this series. If it is not about this series it goes somewhere else. 7-22 Bud Norris, RHP (5-6, 3.59) vs. Carlos Zambrano, RHP (6-5, 4.78) 1:20 on My20 7-23 Wandy Rodriguez, LHP (6-6, 3.67) vs. Randy Wells, RHP (1-3, 6.71) 12:05 on FSH 7-24 Jordan Lyles, RHP (0-5, 4.55) vs. Matt Garza, RHP (4-7, 3.80) 1:20 on FSH
Two poor bunt attempts before that but worked his way out of it before getting hit. We are on the verge of having the bases loaded with no outs and a 3-0 count on the guy at the plate in 2 consecutive innings and scoring a total of 1 run.
I'm glad we aren't fighting for the playoffs because that was a tremendous amount of fail right there. Zambrano is struggling and we more than let him off the hook.
I don't know if I've ever witnessed that before. I'm probably just forgetting but bases loaded, no outs, 3-0 count, 2 innings in a row... 1 total run.
It seems like Altuve would be at an unusually high risk to get beaned in the head not only cuz of his height but also how close he has to stand to the plate. But I suppose that would've been even more of a risk in the minors where pitchers have less command and I don't know that it's ever happened to him.
I got to see Altuve's second at-bat on the MLB.com live look-in. Does Zambrano grin like that all the time, or was he giggling at Altuve?
I didn't see it but probably the latter. I expect there'll be a lot of that happening until people get used to him. And if he becomes an impact hitter at this level, that'll most definitely shut people up.
Man, Michael Bourn is a phenomenal baseball player. 1.) If he and Pence are both traded, Bourn should bring back more. 2.) He's seemed almost automatic with 2 out and RISP this year, so I looked it up: .326/.431/.395. Solid.
It was an unfortunate play that you noted. In the same inning Norris and Wallace made poor decisions on Zambrano's bunt and Norris gave up two home runs.