Recap for G12, Astros vs Reds

I'm not afraid to admit when I'm wrong, and I was flat-out wrong about the decision to throw Paulino. Is Easy Eddie omnipotent? Perhaps. Did he get lucky? Perhaps. Regardless, he made a decision, and it worked out. That said, Geoff Geary owes Felipe Paulino an apology. And Byrdak probably ought to be standing there, too. Paulino threw a pretty stellar game, and the bullpen came in and wasted another quality start for the second time this series, losing 4-1 to the Reds and blowing a chance to go 3-3 at home this season. Byrdak walked Jerry Hairston, Jr, and then Geary did this:

1-2 single to Hernandez
1-1 sac bunt to Gonzelez, throwing error on Geary that scores Hairston and sends Hernandez to 3rd
1st pitch double to pinch-hitter/sometime-pitcher Micah Owings that scored Hernandez and Gonzalez
1-0 HBP on Taveras
Dickerson strikes out swinging
3-0 GIDP to Votto

Yep, that's on Geary. Hard to fault Coop for pulling Paulino after 95 pitches, but he was cruising, getting 3up/3down innings in the 5th and 6th.

Paulino: 6IP, 3H, 0ER, 6K:2BB
Byrdak: 0IP (1bf), 1ER, 1BB
Geary: 1IP, 2H, 1ER, 1K
Fulchino: 1IP, 1H, 1K
Sampson: 1IP, 1H, 1ER

Pitcher	Pit/Str	Strike%	BF/Outs	Efficiency%	GB/FB/K
Paulino	97/61	62.9%	23/18	78.3%	7/5/6
Byrdak	6/2	33.3%	1/0	0%	0/0/0
Geary	20/10	50%	6/3	50%	2/0/1
Fulchino	19/14	73.7%	4/3	75%	0/2/1
Sampson	13/9	69.2%	4/3	75%	2/1/0

And those Astros. Tejada was pretty much all the good stuff that happened today. 3x5 with an RBI. The Astros walked a whole bunch of times: eight, in fact. But the 10 strikeouts hurt pretty bad. And speaking of those walks, it's worth noting that Berkman has now drawn his 12th walk of the season. That's an average of .200, with an on-base percentage of .385. The average is the worst average among Astros with 20+ ABs. The OBP, meanwhile, is the 2nd best on the team with the same criteria.

The GIDP was a problem today, as the Astros had two of those - when Geoff Blum did it in the 6th with the bases loaded in a 1-0 game; and when Berkman did it in the 7th with two men on. It's also worth noting that Jason Smith went 0x3 with 2Ks. that's 0x17 with 8K:0BB. Yep, not on base in the first two weeks of the season. I know we're dealing with a relatively small sample size of 500+ ABs, but Smith has - in two weeks - lowered his career batting average almost seven points.

Man of the Match:
I really thought about giving it to Tejada, but it's got to go to Paulino. Moehler won't come off the DL until April 30, so that means Paulino would presumably get another start on the 29th at Cincinnati - so that could be handy.

Goat of the Game:
Geoff Geary. Totally blew it.