Roy Oswalt Pitches A Super ACE Game To Beat Giants

At 3 PM in Houston Texas in mid-July, it is HOT and even with ceiling fans, it is still HOT. So when we sat down to watch the game, we noticed that the fans were wearing jackets and long sleeve jerseys and we just might could have felt a leeeetle envious. So I knew I was gonna hear a bit of grumbling from Husband. I reassured him that Randy Johnson wasn't exactly Tim Lincecum these days and Roy has been rounding into his second half form. And besides, if the Astros got shutout AGAIN, it would be the first time, probably EVAH, that any ML team got swept with 3 shutouts and we'd be the leadoff story on BBTN, even beating out Manny and the other 4 pet teams. And I wasn't even a little surprised to see that Cooper benched Bourn in favor of Jason Michaels, even though Bourn is hitting .328 vs lefties. It's his idiotic obsession, what can I say? He's not the kind of guy to do something like bother to check the stat sheets, you know... And you know how I keep pointing out that Coop is an idiot? Well, if Oswalt gives up any fly balls, goodbye ball game because Michaels is NOT fast and NOT good and Pence has to seriously cheat into right center to the extent that ANY ball hit anywheres near the RF line is going to be an EASY triple. (And yes, I know that it so happened that today, Roy was so incredibly good that only one ball went to either right or left and that was a lazy fly ball to mid center that even Biggio could have caught - Michaels didn't even have to move.) Just because you do something incredibly STUPID and don't get caught doesn't mean that what you did wasn't incredibly STUPID in the first place. Where was I? Oh yes. Randy Johnson is most definitely NOT the same guy any more. His FB tops out at 90 and the slider ain't what it used to be. You can't throw a 89 MPH belt high FB down the middle to ML hitters, or they gonna take a trip to SOUVENEIR CITY!!! As it did with Tejada, Pence and Michaels. Randy did something to his pitching shoulder striking out on a wicked curve in the 3rd - he grabbed at it. And of course he did the macho thing and went back out and gave up 2 homers and uncorked a throw so wild to try to get Roy running to first, that Keppinger was able to score all the way from first. But it was 4-0 and it was all Roy needed because he had exquisite command of the FB, in spite of the ump's erratic strike zone. He had the curve working and the slider sliding and the changeup changing. In the 8th, he gave up a homer to Richie Aurilia on a hanging slider and then a single, but struck out the next 2 guys to get out of the inning. Coop, naturally, wouldn't let him finish the game, even though he was at 92 pitches. Don't ask me why. I don't think it was him sliding into second in the 7th, or he wouldn't have come out for the 8th. Oh yeah, did I forget? Who drove in more runs, Berkman, Lee or Tejada? Answer - Roy Oswalt, who drove in 2 with a full count 2 out single. Absolutely NOTHING cooler than pitchers driving in runs. Speaking of driving in runs, the guys weren't real too good at that today, either. Tejada, Lance and Carlos left Keppinger and Roy on first and third in the second. Kaz left Roy on first in the 4th. Carlos GIDP #10 and Pence couldn't drive in Tejada from 3rd. Miggy and Lance couldn't drive in Kaz with 1 out in the 7th. Carlos, by the way, has been seriously slumping for the past 3 days - his June numbers - 27/94 with 4 doubles and 2 homers: .287/.346/.436/.782 with 16 RBI and 4 GIDP. You don't want to hear his July numbers. Pence, as I noted the other day, has been slumping too, although his SLG numbers for June were considerably better than Carlos' even if his RBI numbers weren't - but I can't blame him for that as Coop has been hitting him 6th, and Blum and Lee haven't been getting on much. We're back home tomorrow and it's Hampton vs the Pirates, which makes Hampton VERY happy and the Pirates NOT very happy...