Yeah, so that vaunted pitching matchup I was so excited about kind of fizzled, no? The Astros jumped on Chad Billingsley early and often - and most often with two outs - to push their record to two games over .500 with an 8-1 win over the Dodgers.
Roy threw his 3rd complete game of the season, giving up only four hits and collecting his 6th win of the season. Let's look:
Roy: 9IP, 4H/1ER, 5K:0BB, 20/31 first-pitch strikes, 31 non-contact strikes (21 called:10 swinging).
He gave up one extra-base, a triple to Orlando Hudson, and that was pretty much it. No homers, nevermind three in an inning.He put together streaks of seven and eight batters retired in a row, and his ERA has settled down to a Roy-esque 3.65.
Offensively, it all happened in the first two innings. The Astros chased Billingsley after five outs, that took 14 batters to record. Billingsley's line was 1.2IP, 9H/6ER, 0K:0BB.
Seven of the Astros eight hits came with two outs. After Bourn and Matsui were out in the first, Tejada homered, Lee singled, Blum singled, Pence doubled, Pudge singled, Erstad singled, and Roy grounded out. Before most Dodger fans had filed in, it was 4-0.
Pudge had the big game, but only Lee and Pence were the starters without two hits. Even 1B2 Darin Erstad collected two hits, as did Bourn, Matsui, Tejada, and Blum. Pudge was 4x5 with 2RBI. In those 5ABs, Pudge only saw 12 pitches.
So seven runs, 4x9 with RISP, and they still left 9 on base...
Man of the Match: Pudge is deserving, but it goes to the guy with the complete game.
Goat of the Game: This one's hard, because everybody did well. But he who did least well has been anointed Carlos Lee. 1x4, 0x2 with men on base.
We didn't come out here to play tiddlywinks, son.
-Hal Smith
