Edwin Maysonet answered the earlier post on the concern about his offense by hitting two jacks and a triple (5 RBI) against Roy Halladay and the Blue Jays, as the Astros won 9-7 after trailing 5-1. Lou Santangelo also went 2x4 with a homer.
The Astros collected 12 hits and did not, repeat did not commit an error.
Capellan threw five innings and gave up his first earned run of the Spring. Problem was, he also gave up four more earned runs after that first one on seven hits and a walk. Neal Musser threw one inning and gave up a walk. Alberto Arias threw two innings and struck out three, while Tim Byrdak let things get interesting in one inning giving up four hits and two earned runs with a strikeout.
"There were a few pitches that I left up in the zone and they took advantage," he said. "I feel good. Anybody can miss on a certain day. It was just that one bad inning. In the other innings I felt good and I was throwing the pitches where they called them."
Cecil Cooper, who still considers Capellan a strong candidate for the fifth spot, praised the righthander for rebounding well from the five-run inning with a scoreless frame in the fifth.
Excellent point. Capellan has thrown 17.2 innings this Spring, and has been scoreless for 16.2 of those. Even Coop says today doesn't really influence him one way or the other:
"You see what happened in the next inning," Cooper said. "He went right back out, and boom, boom, boom."
One important note on this SP5 question is that Russ Ortiz has a clause in the deal he signed with the Astros that allows him to opt out of his contract if he doesn't make the club out of Spring Training.
We didn't come out here to play tiddlywinks, son.
-Hal Smith
