The 2 Pitches That JR Towles Doesn't Catch Cost The Astros

Yeah, unfortunately, it's true. Well, that and the hitters not hitting with MOB and Coop pulling his usual assinine leftylefty thingy and it backfiring as usual. Lance Berkman hit a 400' homer righty in his first game back after missing a few with back pain (it's going around, hunh.) Lance always said he had a better righty swing and when he hits a homer hitting righty, it always seems to be a better swing and travel faster and farther. Of course, I might could be prejudiced after watching the HR derby back in 04. Man that seems like a lifetime ago. We were all complaining about Jimy The Silent - trouble is, we didn't know what bad really is. And bad is Cooper. sigh Norris pitched very well again, for the most part. Especially because Cowboy Joe West was the HP ump and with that guy, you never know what is going to be called a strike from pitch to pitch. At least he's inconsistant from pitcher to pitcher, too. Anyway, for some reason Felipe Lopez freaks out Norris - he walked him all 3 times and struggled through a 10 pitch AB with him first go-round. He then got Hart to GIDP, which was nice. He did fine until walking Lopez the second time around - and that was after striking out the previous 2 batters. That wouldn't have been so bad, but he bounced a slider in the dirt which JR didn't block properly - it bounced away and JR spent long enough looking in the wrong place that Lopez ended up on third and Hart drove him in with a single thru the 5.5 hole. He gave up a "double" to Prince leading off the next inning - it was a popup that Clank must have thought was gonna be foul and kind of loped over in the general direction of the LF line, so naturally it dropped in easily. I'm too tired to get upset over him refusing to hustle under almost any circumstance. But Norris then struck out McGehee (more on him later) and Cameron and got Hardy to GO. He walked Lopez AGAIN in the 5th, then hit Hart on an 0-2 pitch, then struck out Braun with a FB down the middle. All in all, a very good performance - 5 IP, 8 K, 3 H, 3 BB, 1 ER. So then Cooper, naturally, decides to get cute. It's the 5th, the score is tied 1-1, and he wants to do the lefty righty thingy with every batter. He sends Byrdak in for ONE batter, then sends Gervacio in for 2 batters. What, Byrdak canb't get any rightys out? Next inning, he sends in Fulchino who gives up a single to Hardy, then a sac-bunt, then Towles screws up with ANOTHER Passed Ball (sorry, but that first one should have been a PB too. I'm just as tough on Towles as on Pudge or Q.) Hardy goes to 3rd. Counsell grounds out to second, but then Lopez singles in the tying run. Peachy. (Wonder why he was so bad with the Nats?) Next inning, Coop gets a little too cute with his obsession. Has Fulchino pitch to Braun, who pops out. But then, he HAS to bring in Wesley to pitch to Prince. Prince is hitting .285 off lefty pitchers, has 12 homers and a .947 OPS against. In other words, this isn't a guy who really has much of any significant splits, so doesn't it make sense to keep the better pitcher pitching to him??? And not bring in a guy who has trouble when he comes in with MOB??? So naturally Prince doubles. Wesley is out, Hawkins is in, and he promptly gives up the tying run. Game over - we can't come back even against a crappy pitcher like David Weathers. Chris Johnson played third, didn't have any balls hit to him, walked once, Kd once and flew out to the wall in left once. Towles flew out to deep center to the wall, reached on error (and wasting Edwin Maysonet and his .300 BA to sac bunt - waste a precious out - Towles over, is INCREDIBLY stupid), and had a great 12 pitch AB in which he got thrown out on a great play by the 3B, McGehee. And speaking of McGehee, he was a Cub last year. He went 4/24 with 1 double, no walks and a GIDP. The Cubs fans HATED him, said he was no good, stinks, etcetcetc, couldn't WAIT to get him offn the team, laughed at the Brewers who picked him up on waivers. Like with Felipe Lopez, one man's trash is another man's treasure, and McGehee really SHOULD be in the running for the ROY this year, except he was bounced all over the place before finally being installed as regular 3B in place of Craig Counsell - and he's hitting .304/.370/.521/.881 - which is pretty darn good. So what I mean is, I'd prefer not to give up on a rook who does lousy in not real too many ABs. VERY few guys come up and hit like Pujols, you know. Not even The Sainted Biggio (who hit .211 in 131 PA.) We already know what the old guys CAN'T do - as we saw in their PH ABs vs Hoffman. Let the youngsters play, no matter HOW bad they seem.