Hey. Wait a minute. Did the Astros just win a series? I think they did. Wandy was July Wandy, and the Astros cruised to a 4-1 win, outdueling Josh Johnson.
Wandy was dominant, breaking Florida's 10-hit/game streak, and throwing 70 of his 103 pitches for strikes in eight innings of work. Interestingly enough (as McTaggart pointed out during the game), 29 of those pitches came in the first inning. And because Astros County brings you the math for free, that means he threw 74 pitches in the remaining seven innings of his outing.
Wandy: 8IP, 4H/1R (0ER), 7K:2BB, 23/29 first-pitch strikes, 39/70 non-contact strikes (30 called:9 swinging)
Valverde: 1IP, 2K, 2/3 FPS, 6/10 NCS (2c:4s)
Wandy's 39 non-contact strikes tied a season-high, and his 30 called strikes in a single outing is a career-high. And Valverde's perfect outing was his first since July 24.
The Law Offices of Tejada, Berkman, and Lee, were 4x12 with 2RBI and 2 runs scored. Lee and Pence both hit big ol' bombs. My dad was at the game last night and called me after Lee's homer and said "That was the 3rd longest homer I've ever seen." I didn't ask who hit the two longest, but I'm pretty sure that it's Dale Murphy and Albert F. Pujols.
Hey, but Quintero was 1x3 with a run scored, and also threw out Hanley Ramirez at second base.
In sad news, Matsui was 0x3, and now has one hit in his last 26 PAs. He also has one walk in that span. So his line since August 12 is .040/.076/.040. Real happy that Maysonet is on the bench. If Tejada and Valverde were placed on waivers, and someone claimed them, and the Astros pulled them back (meaning they can't be traded), did another team really claim Matsui? Can he not just be released? Because this is ridiculous.
Pitch Count Hero: Miguel Tejada - 22 pitches in 4 PAs
Pitch Count Punk: Kaz Matsui - 8 pitches in 3 PAs
Man of the Match: Wandy Rodriguez. Shut down the Marlins offense, which hasn't happened much in the last two weeks.
Goat of the Game: Kaz Matsui. His .288 OBP for the year is embarrassing.
We didn't come out here to play tiddlywinks, son.
-Hal Smith
