Recap for G32 - Padres at Astros

The Astros swept the leg, Johnny, out of the Padres. And it felt good. Everyone needs to make someone else feel shame, and that's what the Astros did today. Oswalt finally got a decision, and his first win at that. Whoever had May 10 as the date in which Oswalt got his first win of the season wins, and also deserves to get bitten on the nostrils.

Oswalt: 6IP, 6H, 4ER, 4K:2BB
Byrdak: .1IP, 1H, 1ER, 1BB
Arias: .2IP, 0H
Sampson: 2IP, 2H, 1BB

Oswalt didn't pitch great, but as long as the Astros can hold it down until he, like Stella, gets his groove back, I'm okay with it. He did get six up/six down but after hitting Eckstein with a pitch (which I'm totally okay with), he did give up a homer to Chase Headley, but you know what he didn't give up? Three homers in an inning. Another two-run homer to Adrian Gonzalez - which was bound to happen - hurt the ERA, and it hurts to give up four runs with two swings of the bat, but the game was out of hand by then, thanks to an offense that went OFF.

Oswalt's:
First-pitch strikes: 17
First-pitch balls: 9

Pitcher	Pit/Str	Strike%	BF/Outs	Efficiency%	GB/FB/K
Oswalt	104/68	65.4%	26/18	69.2%	5/9/4
Byrdak	16/7	43.8%	4/1	25%	1/0/0
Arias	4/3	75%	1/1	100%	0/1/0
Sampson	21/10	47.6%	7/6	85.7%	5/1/0
Total	145/88	60.7%td>	38/27	71.1%	11/11/4

Unsung hero of the bullpen is Chris Sampson. 1.71 ERA and maybe the only reliever - other than Arias, who has a limited sample size - who you don't piss your pants when he comes to the mound.

As for the Astros offense. Well. 12 runs. 16 hits. Six of them for extra-base hits. The Astros had a .400 average today against the Padres. By the end of the 1st inning, the Astros had a 3-run lead thanks to Carlos Lee's RBI single and a Tejada 2-run shot to center. Tejada provided two-more RsBI (I'm a stickler for language, what can I say? It's "runs batted in," not "run batted ins") in the 2nd with a 2-run single. With a 4-run 4th, game was over. Three more runs in the 8th with home runs from Lee and Pudge put the game out of reach - even for the Astros' bullpen. With two outs in the inning, the Astros had 8 hits and 6 runs.

Longest AB of the night: 8 pitches by Kaz Matsui in the 3rd.

Man of the Match:
Pudge. 4x4 with 2RsBI and a walk with a triple and a homer. Now hitting .273.

Goat of the Game:
Hard to say. Everyone got a hit in the lineup. Byrdak gave up a home run to a guy hitting .228, after his 2x5 game. Keppinger went 1x5 with 5LOB. Toss-up. Flip a coin? Keppinger.