Did you see some of those hits? Its no excuse for Wheeler giving up the two hard hit ones... fatigue/frustration probably got the best of him after allowing a check-swing single, and a 8 hop grounder that Johnson beat out by an eyelash.
I figured either Wheeler or Lidge would be gone by the trade deadline because they seemed like two valuable assets with a lot of teams looking for bullpen help, but now I'm not sure how much value Wheeler is going to have if he keeps pitching poorly and he just cost Lidge a chance to show whether or not he can still close out games.
what happened with wheeler pushing something in the dugout? i only saw the BBTN clip. anyone watch the game?
Sampson went over to calm down Wheeler who was really pissed at himself. But Dan wanted to be alone. As for the game. Disgusting.
Just got back from the game. Absolutely horrible. This was another game that the Astros could not afford to lose. As for the incident in the dugout, I didnt see anything about it, anyone have anymore info?
"There's nothing going on. I love [Astros starter] Chris [Sampson]. It was just frustration on my part. I'm a professional, I should be better than that. I take full responsibility." -- Wheeler on shoving teammate Sampson Sampson, who pitched seven strong innings, tried to console Wheeler when he came back to the dugout. Wheeler turned and shoved Sampson with both hands, then yelled at Sampson to go to the other end of the dugout. The shoving was reminiscent of the scuffle between the Cubs' Carlos Zambrano and Michael Barrett two weeks ago, though this one was over in an instant. Wheeler (0-4) was contrite after the game and told Sampson he wanted to talk to him after the media finished asking Sampson questions. "There's nothing going on," Wheeler said. "I love Chris. It was just frustration on my part. I'm a professional, I should be better than that. I take full responsibility." Sampson said the outburst shouldn't be blown out of proportion. "It's not a big deal," he said. "There's no issues there. I think of Dan like a big brother. It was bad timing on my part. I was trying to pat him on the back and tell him, 'We'll get them next time.' He was in the heat of the moment." http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/recap?gameId=270613118
i knew there was nothing going on, he was just pissed at himself, and i think most of the time teammates know to leave a guy alone in that situation. so i'm definitely worried about wheeler, but like nick said, this inning was pretty flukey.
a hell of a inning to lose, being frustrated after giving up 2 hits that didn't even make it out of the infield is very understandable. in fact, it's a ****ing joke with how our luck has gone lately
Scott is coming around too....... Now if we can just get Phil to stop yanking pitchers because of some mythical rotation, we might be ok. DD
This is now four of the last five series that have involved some sort of late inning bullpen collapse. The club may need some fresher arms back there... such as Estrada.
