Wandy pitched well enough, I guess, but the rest of the offense just wasn't up to the task of hitting Randy Wolf. They took Brett Wallace's lead (who got the day off to some nicks and bruises), and sat and watched. Astros lose 4-1.
*The Astros ended this six-game road trip at 3-3, the most successful 6+ game road trip since September 3-8, 2010, when they went 4-2 against the Di'mon''ack' and Cubs.
*They have been held to <3 runs eight times this season, and are 3-5 in those games.
*Wandy threw 126 pitches - a career-high.
*The lead-off batter reached base in three of the seven innings Wandy tossed. The kicker was the 2nd inning, which started off with a Rickie Weeks homer, and by the time it was done, a 1-0 Brewers lead was a 4-0 Brewers lead, and Prince Fielder had tripled. It's an Easter miracle!
*Wandy allowed double-digit hits in an outing for the first time since May 1, 2010 at Atlanta.
*Wandy's walks are down from 2010, and his strikeout rate hovers about what it was. So what's the problem? He's giving up 11.7 hits/9 - 3.4 hits/9 higher than 2010. And that comes from a .368 BABIP - up from .307 in 2010 (and .268 in the second half of 2010).
*The Astros offense was just pathetic. They got five hits - and two of them were from Wandy. Jason Bourgeois, Angel Sanchez, and J.R. Towles had your other three hits, and the Astros only had three ABs w/RISP.
*The lone run of the game came from Towles, who hit an 8th inning homer. That was Towles' 10th career homer, and his second of the season. His career high in a season is four, and it took 54 games for him to do it, compared to eight games this season.
*Towles has a 1.138 OPS, but the Astros are 2-6 in games he starts behind the plate.
*Bill Hall enjoyed his 4th 3K game of the season, going 0x3 with all punchouts. Hall's 26Ks on the season are 6th in baseball, one off of five players who all have more ABs than Hall.
*Chris Johnson was 0x3, and has now gone 13PAs without a hit. We'll have more on this later, but Johnson's BABIP is an even .235 (strangely both at home and on the road). He's put the ball in play eight times in those 13PAs.
*Man of the Match: Wandy, I guess. Nobody else did anything.
*Goat of the Game: THE ENTIRE OFFENSE.
We didn't come out here to play tiddlywinks, son.
-Hal Smith
