Gotta be kidding me. Moehler trucked along, and then it all blew up in the 7th for Moehler, for Byrdak, and for Sampson. Errors didn't help, but this falls squarely on the shoulders of the pitching staff, as the Astros lose 6-3, missing out on yet another opportunity to get to .500 in a winnable game.
Tejada gave the Pirates a chance with an error in the 1st, but Moehler wiggled out of it, and got the next seven he faced, before McCutchen doubled in the top of the 3rd, and Wilson brought him home with a two-run shot. Then Moehler got the next 11 batters before walking Jones and LaRoche back to back in the 7th. So Byrdak comes in with one out and walks Vazquez on four pitches. So Sampson comes in and gets a ground ball, that Berkman throws away, scoring Jones. So then Young, McCutchen, and Wilson all single in succession to score three runs (Jaramillo thrown out at home on McCutchen's single), and it's 6-2 at the end of seven.
The Astros get one back in the bottom of the 7th, but it's just not enough. Moehler gets the quality start, due to one of his four runs being unearned, making Moehler's outing...
Moehler: 6.1IP, 3H/3ER, 4K:2BB, 14/24 first-pitch strikes, 24/55 non-contact strikes (only 2 swinging strikes all night long)
Byrdak: 0IP, 1ER, 1BB, 0/1 FPS, 0/0 NCS
Sampson: .2IP, 2H/0ER (1ER), 5/5 FPS, 0/5 NCS - that's right, the Pirates were swinging on every first pitch Sampson threw.
Arias: 2IP, 1H, 1K, 3/7 FPS, 6/14 NCS
Offensively, only one out of the Astros 10 hits was for extra-bases. Clutch hitting wasn't exactly on tap, either - two of the three runs came on RBI groundouts, and they were 1x8 total with RISP (Pence's RBI single). Pudge was 3x4, Tejada 2x5, and Lee 2x4 to account for the multi-hit games. Matsui was 1x2 with 2BBs, while Bourn and Keppinger were the only position players to go 0-fer (Bourn did have an RBI, though).
Pitch count alert: Pence, 1x4, only saw 8 pitches. Bourn, 0x4 with a BB, saw 21.
Man of the Match: Jeez, I don't know. Pudge? Three hits, two of them with less than two outs and, had somebody actually got a clutch hit, could have had some runs.
Goat of the Game: This is tough, too. Everyone played a pretty forgettable game. Sampson really earned Moehler's loss for him with three hits on three straight pitches. But I think this goes to Jeff Keppinger. He left four men on base, including an AB in the bottom of the 8th when, down 6-3 and the bases loaded with one out, Keppinger grounded an 0-1 pitch to the shortstop for an inning-ending double play.
We didn't come out here to play tiddlywinks, son.
-Hal Smith
