Did Cruz Jr. look overmatched or what, i am so glad that we did not go after him this year in desperation for a bat. BTW, did anyone see Cruz's Sr.'s reaction to the strikeout? Interesting.
Both the Mets and the Phillies lost today. If the Astros win tonight, it will be a 3-way tie (in the loss columnn) between the Marlins, Phillies and Astros.
This could be Oswalt's worst start to a game in his career. He's clearly not right. Even his last win in SD was one timely hit by the Padres from being a disaster. Now, he's letting the light-hitting Dodgers get some really solid shots off him. 2-0, runners at 2nd and 3rd with NOBODY out. He has to minimize this as much as possible. EDIT: now he's on the verge of walking Jose Cruz Jr. with the bases loaded.... WTF is up with him?
The last time Roy was "himself" was when he threw the complete game against the Phillies (where Lamb won with the walkoff HR). That was July 26th, a full month ago. Then came the "dead arm" start against the Mets, the San Fran debacle, the Pirates game (where he blew a 5-1 lead), the loss to Zambrano, and last week's Padres game (where he only gave up 2 ER, but as I said already, he never had good control and was almost lucky to give up that few in just 6 innings pitched). Overall, his mechanics look way off... almost as if he's compensating for an injury (or, he could just have bad mechanics right now that SOMEBODY has to fix). Somebody page Burt Hooton from Corpus... he's the only guy that's really coached Roy to major success, and steered him right when things went wrong.
we finally got an out!, man this is painful to watch. This is going to be tough to come back from this considering our offense.
Seriously... Roy just needs to watch tape of his mechanics now vs. what he was doing in April and June. He almost looks like a different pitcher with the way his legs are landing, and his arm slot. With his delivery, mechanics are EVERYTHING... and he's never really had problems like this before unless he was injured. I guess we've been spoiled by him being so good ever since he first came up here, but we need him to be his vintage self now more than ever.
Well, knowing how this offense is going to react, i'm giving up early tonight..I don't know what's going on, lately nothing goes our ways. I love the Stros but this so hard to watch
This game is over. Astros hitters are letting Edwin " I got a 8 ERA in AAA" Jackson look like Pedro Martinez.
Well so much for that inning, man there are times that this team just drives me crazy, but i guess that is part of the bargain. Cant just root for them when they are doing well. i still believe in them, it is just that nights like this really test you. Oh well, it is only the bottom of the second and stranger things have happened. Plus, you just never know with this Astros team, they just seem to surprise you when you least expect. That being said, I hope we can get into the Dodger bullpen, and well, you just never know...
Its actually a pretty cool phenomenon how a team does vitrtually nothing soon after they have a gigantic inning (no matter who is pitching). The best that can come out of a game like this (where its likely over thanks to that bad first inning) is that this is a game where Roy can just focus on getting his mechanics right for the rest of the season. He doesn't really have to worry about every single batter, like he would if it was a close game within reach. Him and Brad should just work on all his pitches, make sure he follows thru and lands in his usual spot with his legs (something he's doing now, but wasn't doing at the beginning of the game), and gain some sort of confidence back. EDIT: screw that... this was just Roy's worst start EVER.
At least Chris Burke is continuing to improve. He likely will continue his inconsistency throughout the rest of this year, but at least we know that he has some ability to hit and drive the ball with POWER at the MLB level. He obviously will have to continue to work hard on his game, but lately on his good games, he's looked really good. He has extra base power and speed... contrast that with Willy who rarely gets that XBH that would make him a far more effective player. Ensberg started his MLB career off pretty slow too... Burke still has time to prove himself.
