That's what I was thinking. This is the type of game that can start a long losing streak. Luckily, we have Oswalt and Clemens coming up in the next two games. We should at least win one of those, and winning 1 out of 3 in St Louis is fine.
Ouch. I'm having flashbacks of the NLCS...why give Pujols anything at all to hit, even with a guy on base. You just don't give him that opportunity. It killed us last fall and again tonight.
Blame Garner. He brought in Harville when he should have stayed with Springer. Its like the 5th game this year he has costed the Astros.
I like Garner, but I have to agree with your post. This loss is on Garner. When he brought in Harville with Pujols up I knew this was gonna end badly.
Why is Harville still with the Astros? He gots good stuff but no command. He is out of options but its not likely anyone is going claim him. Send him to the minors at let him learn to pitch there.
Springer, Harville, they're the same to me. I see Springer as Miceli reincarnate, I didn't want his laser straight fastball going up against Pujols. With the way Albert swung at a couple of Harville's pitches, it looked like it was gonna work out. Springer has pitched more than one inning only twice this season. Garner had good reason to yank him at the first sign of trouble. There are a couple Garner moves I'm a bit more critical of. 1. Pettitte- Pettitte had only thrown 88 pitches through 7. I felt like he deserved at least the chance to get himself the win, but there may have been underlying arm concerns here. 2. Lidge- I didn't like using Lidge when we used him. I realize if we didn't use him then, we may have never gotten a chance to use him. But Lidge absolutely mowed through his inning, and always has owned the Cards. Pitching him when we did didn't even give him a chance to close out the ballgame or at least pitch 2 effective innings. I guess on the plus side he's definitely available tomorrow.
BOOOOOOOOOOoooooooooooooooooooooo! Man...This loss hurts! I was at Penisons all night in sugarland. The longer I was there the more money I wasted. Damn the extra innings. DAMN YOU PUJOLS! I really thought we were going to win when we got the 3-2 lead.
it was totally the NLCS all over again. I was even at Champs alone again at the same table.. and the Yanks/Red Sox were on the other screens, too. I'm glad we didn't pitch lidge 2...it was tempting, but this isn't the playoffs. Regular season, make sure he's available for the rest of the series. geez..how about harville for millar. i'd do that one..
I'm just not going to even mention this series in my home. My St. Louis native wife will remain oblivious to the series and I can at least avoid her calling out "scoreboard STL" again. You know, if your going to just serve one up to Pujols in extra innnings for at least the third time in my memory bank; why not just hit him in the leg and put in on first with a good thigh bruise.
I'm not too disappointed by the Pujols blast. It was predictable considering who was pitching and the situation. What bothers me (and yes, I know I'm making it sound too simple) is Springer's walk to Eckstein. It baffles me that major league pitchers can have so much trouble throwing over the middle of the plate. To a guy like Edmonds or Pujols I can understand it. But this is David Eckstein - someone with almost no power at all - so even if he hits the ball, it's likely going to be a single at best, which is the same result as a walk! At least give yourself a chance and make him hit the ball... that's what's so frustrating. I guarantee Harville doesn't throw that 3-2 fastball if first base is open. I still can't understand the decision to pinch-hit for Lidge either. This has been a problem for some time... go back to the bottom of the 8th in NLDS Game 4 last October when we took Lidge out for Palmeiro. If we're talking about a dynamic pinch-hitter, maybe. But Eric Bruntlett will get on base likely 23-25 percent of the time. Lidge, like most pitchers, will reach about 10 percent of the time. In both situations, however, the result is the same - the batter is likely to get out! The chance to use someone like Eric Bruntlett at the plate isn't close to worth the dropoff from Lidge to Springer/Harville in the ensuing inning(s). Let Lidge hit and essentially concede the out, because you're probably going to get out anyway. (And even though Springer held the Cards' scoreless the next inning, the move still irks me. Maybe Springer doesn't allow the leadoff walk to Eckstein if he isn't feeling a little fatigue from already having pitched an inning. Maybe Lidge gets another very fast inning and feels good enough to go out there for a third. Whatever the case, I don't like pinch-hitting for Lidge in these situations at all, except maybe if we're talking Palmeiro, who is red hot... even then, I'm not sure.)
Face it as long as Jason Lane bats in the 5th spot, we can count on him having at least 2 men LOB every game.
I was fine with the Lidge move.... Garner brought him in to face some pretty good hitters (Walker, Rolen), and with him just coming back from injury, you don't want to start off the second half with him having to pitch multiple innings. That's an absolute no-no. The worst thing you could do is go all-out, trying to win that game (ie - pitch Pettite more, pitch Lidge more), and have them come up lame to finish the season (there still is plenty of baseball left). I too think the biggest blunder was Springer's walk to Eckstein. It changed the whole complexion of that inning. He had almost walked the PITCHER (Reyes) just the inning before that. As for Harville... eh... I thought he had a chance (when he made Albert look silly on a couple of pitches), but he threw a fat one to the best hitter in the game... you can't do that. In the end, we did get beat by their best (and you never really want to let that happen). I'm all for chucking guys like Springer and Harville too (neither of them are EVER going to get it)... but in a game like last night, both of them were going to have to pitch eventually.
Good point Nick--in the long extras games, you'll need your crappier guys in the pen to step up, no matter who they are. Every team has some question marks (see: Ray King against righties...and a lefty last night), so you just gotta get some big performances. But I think when you know you have one of those said question marks in the game due to the length of the game or whatever reason, you've gotta walk Pujols in that situation. It's tough cause it's putting the winning run on base, so it definitely defies some conventional logic.. but still gotta do it i think. I've been one of the bigger Lane supporters (to give him time to get back to what he was doing early on)--but last night, he could have been the biggest key to a number of rallies that never happened. I still say he should be starting unless we acquire another bat...but come on man, give us something more.
That was a tough loss to stomach for sure. Honestly, the first thing I thought of when the Astros failed to score another run in the 13th was that we were going to lose it in the bottom of the 13th to a walk-off HR. I just didn't know if it was going to be Edmonds, Pujols, or Rolen who did it to us. The first thought that popped into my head was that (and I'll get flamed for this) Beltran would've brought that ball back. I know it's wishful thinking, but any Gold Glove calibur CF (Beltran, Hunter, Jones, Edmonds) brings that ball back by timing his leap better. From now on, if it were up to me, I'm pitching to Pujols like Dierker pitched to Bonds a few years back. I'd almost take my chances with Harville pitching to Rolen b/c his bat speed just isn't there yet. There's no way Pujols should've seen a strike in that situation. Maybe a slider in the dirt and hope he chases or that power sinker down and in and hope he swings over the top of it. Well, this puts a definite downer to my trip down to Austin this weekend. Hopefully Roy and the Rocket can salvage a series win for the 'Stros!
Lane sucked last night... but the guys we depend on (Biggio/Berkman) both blew key opportunities in the late late innings to give us more runs. It was a team effort. Orlando Palmeiro is playing his guts out though... he was so adamantly pissed off after Willy couldn't catch Pujols' ball (he was probably just pissed at the situation, not at Willy directly). The dude's a gamer, and he single-handedly almost delivered us to victory last night.
