Tuesday, May 12, 2009

Recap for G33 - Astros @ Rockies

If we chalk it up to nerves, would that make everyone feel better? Because Felipe Paulino did not do so well tonight in his magical return to the rotation. It was downright brutal, and it made Ubaldo Jimenez look like a star, which is so April of the Astros.

Paulino: 4IP, 7H, 7ER, 2K:2BB
Byrdak: 1IP, 1H, 1ER, 1K
Ortiz: 3IP, 4H, 1ER, 4K

Dude. This was bad. The Astros gave up four homers, one to Todd Helton, two to 8-hole hitter Ian Stewart, and one to Brad Hawpe - who went 4x4 with 5 RBI (Stewart also had 5 RBI). The game was maybe in reach until the 5th inning when the following happened:

Tulowitzki: 2-2 (8 pitch) single to left
Helton: 5 pitch walk
Hawpe: 2-1 single to center, scores Tulowitzki
Atkins: 6 pitch walk

Then Byrdak came in and...
Smith: FC, Helton out at home
Ianetta: 6 pitch strikeout
Stewart: 1-0, (3 pitch) grand slam to center

That made it 9-0, and not too many teams are going to come back from that. Especially this one.

Paulino's:
First-pitch strikes: 12
First-pitch balls: 11








PitcherPit/StrStrike%BF/OutsEfficiency%GB/FB/K
Paulino96/5557.3%23/1252.2%5/5/2
Byrdak20/1470%4/375%2/0/1
Ortiz57/3459.6%14/964.3%4/1/0
Total173/10359.5%td>41/2458.5%11/6/7



The Astros were 8x34 tonight, which ain't great, and also didn't walk, either. Multi-hit games came from Bourn (now hitting .295), Pence (now hitting .316), and Blum (now hitting .264). No-hit games came from Matsui (.245), Lee (.322), Tejada (.308), and Smith (pinch-hitting for Tejada and now 0x23). No extra-base hits. They just got worked by Jimenez.

Longest AB of the night: 6 pitches by Lee and Matsui.

Man of the Match:
Hunter Pence went 2x4, scored the only run for the Astros, and is now hitting .316, six points behind team leader Carlos Lee.

Goat of the Game:
Paulino. Maybe Byrdak. Paulino gave up 7ER, but three of those ER came from Byrdak giving up a grand slam. Eh, Paulino. Needed to show that Ortiz deserves to be in the bullpen, and only went 4 innings, leaving Ortiz to pick up three innings himself.