There you go, Felipe. Just confirming everyone's previous hunch about 2009 for you there, buddy. Paulino could have made a strong case for staying in the rotation for a little while. But, uh, he didn't, and the Astros lost 8-1. And then the Astros offense gets four singles off a guy who hasn't won on the road since September 2008 and had a 6.33 road ERA.
Paulino: 4.1IP, 9H/5ER, 2K:2BB, 17/24 First-Pitch Strikes, 18/53 non-contact strikes (12 called:6 swinging)
Brocail: 0.2IP, 2H, 1K, 1/4 FPS, 3/7 NCS (1c:2s)
Wright: 3IP, 5H/3ER, 1K:1BB, 12/14 FPS, 10/32 NCS (6c:4s)
Byrdak: 1IP, 2K:1BB, 3/4 FPS, 6/9 NCS (2c:4s)
It's going to take the rest of this post for me to figure out who gets the Goat. Paulino was pretty bad, but Wesley Wright was just brutal, giving up two homers in the 6th to Freddy Sanchez and Pablo Sandoval. Wright's ERA is now 6.11. He has given up 7 homers this season, all to righties, and that's four homers in his last seven appearances.
The Astros only took 129 pitches in 34 plate appearances. That's bad, too. Pitch Count Hero was Jeff Keppinger, who saw 24 of those pitches in his 4 PAs (and struck out for just the 21st time this season). Pitch Count Punk was Hunter Pence, who took 7 pitches in his 4 PAs. The Astros were 1x8 with RISP and grounded into two double plays.
Man of the Match: Jeff Keppinger. 2x4 means Keppinger got a third of the Astros hits, and he saw the most pitches.
Goat of the Game: Wright is certainly deserving, as is the entire Astro offense. However, Wright didn't lose the game, and Paulino didn't make it out of the 5th.
We didn't come out here to play tiddlywinks, son.
-Hal Smith
