Houston lost the 3rd and final game of the series against the Arizona Diamondbacks on Wednesday 7-8. The loss brings the Astros record to 13-16 and has them in the middle of the NL central pack.
This loss wasn’t an ordinary loss though according to Manager Cecil Cooper who was very upset after Houston’s 16th loss of the season. He was extremely displeased with the way the bullpen handled the lead which the offense worked hard to get. You see, there cant be many more things frustrating in baseball then what happened in this game. In the bottom of the 6th inning, Houston leading by 2 runs, Arizona brought in a pinch hitter to fill in for one of their relievers. The pinch hitter called to the plate was a pitcher himself that goes by the name Micah Owings. Now many teams would considered this an easy out, which is why I think Cooper is so upset with the play that followed. Houston pitcher Dave Borkowski gave up a game tying 2 run home run to Owings evening the score at 7 runs a piece. Later in that inning Chris Young doubled on a fly ball to center scoring Jose Cruz Jr. making the score 8-7, which ended up being the final.
Cooper had plenty to say after the game, “We can’t get the stinking pitcher out, we’re in trouble,” he said. “My goodness. Two-run lead and we can’t even get out of the stinking inning. That’s unacceptable, and it won’t happen again, I can promise you that. You get these guys down, you’ve got them, 4-0, 6-2, and we let them back in the game. It won’t happen again. It definitely won’t happen again.” I hope not Coop, because the way Houston started the game, getting Randy Johnson pulled before he could get through 5 innings, it looked like we had a sure win.
Now that we’ve gotten through that I can throw you some actual statistics. Carlos Lee had the most impressive game for Houston going 1-for-4 with a 3 run shot in the 1st inning of The Big Unit. The homer is Lee’s 6th of the season and the RBI give him 16. Lance Berkman added to his RBI adding 2 more in this game hitting 1-of-4 with the 2 RBI and a run scored. He now has a team leading 25 RBI and his batting average is at .297. Miguel Tejada continued his hot streak going 2-for-4 with a run scored and he now has his batting average at a impressive .345.
Shawn Chacon took the mound for the Astros and pitched a solid game. He worked 5 innings giving up 7 hits, 5 runs, 1 walk and 7 K’s. His ERA is now at 3.32 but he received his 6th straight no-decision after the lead was given up by the 2 run homer from Owings. Dave Borkowski was given the loss and a blown save for giving up the lead pitching just 1/3rd inning allowing 3 hits, 2 runs and the homer. The blown save is his 1st of the year and his record now stands at 0-2. Randy Johnson got the start for the D-Backs and was tagged for 6 runs in 4 innings. He also gave up 9 hits in that time including the 3 run homer to Carlos Lee.
An interesting game considering how it played out. I am actually glad to see that Cooper got heated with the effort his pitching staff put forth. Hopefully they will get the message loud and clear and improve on the lackluster game.
