by John Lauck @ Astros Daily
The Offense Gets It In Gear
Tuesday's game in Winter Haven against the Indians was a better performance than the final score of 7-6 in favor of the Astros might indicate. Houston banged out nine hits and ripped several other shots off Cleveland's starting pitcher, Jason Bere, while Brian Moehler, who had to contend with an Indians' club who whipped Atlanta on Monday by the almost-unbelievable (even for Spring Training) score of 22-0, did well in making the pitches he had to, and pitching around the uncertain, even sometimes dumb, play of his teammates in the field. The win puts Houston at 14-10-1 for the Spring, with two games remaining in Florida and two in Houston over the weekend before the season opens on April 1.
Among the early bright spots in Tuesday's game was the bat work of Craig Biggio, who smashed a homer in the first inning to give Houston a 1-0 lead, an RBI single in the third to expand the lead to 3-1, and a blistering line drive that was caught by Omar Vizquel at SS in the fourth. Frankly, I have been worried about Biggio over the last week, both offensively and defensively, and that concern will continue into the season, although at the moment it is somewhat lessened. The Astros should have held the lead that Biggio gave them longer than they did, but Julio Lugo decided to fight a high sky with no sunglasses on in the bottom of the first, and he paid the price for his mistake by cowering under a one-out pop up from Vizquel that opened the door to a rally by the Indians that tied the score. Two base hits, by Matt Lawton and the ageless DH Ellis Burks, tied the score, but I have to give credit to Moehler for making pitches on the next two men, Karim Garcia and Shane Spencer, both of whom popped out to Lugo, who had to catch those balls if he didn't want to walk all the way back to Kissimmee tonight.
Houston kept the offense churning in the second after Bere, who is truly on the edge of finding himself out of the big leagues, walked Jeff Kent, who returned to the lineup today, in another piece of good news. Orlando Merced, who started in RF for the still-on-the-shelf Richard Hidalgo, singled to LCF, and Gregg Zaun singled to CF to drive in run number two. Run number three came in courtesy of the Biggio hit to CF to which I just referred, and Geoff Blum, hitting in the # 2 spot again today, kept the string of hits going with an RBI single to RF for a 4-1 lead. Biggio got himself thrown out at 3B for the final out of the inning on that hit by Blum, and the Astros also had Berkman thrown out at 3B in the third inning. When you combine those aggressive, but inadvisable plays with Lugo's inexcusable lack of sunglasses while handling a pop-up, it's fair to say that the Astros' play wasn't entirely perfect today, but hitting--which the Astros continued to do--will cover up a lot of mistakes.
Houston put two more runs up on the board in the third on a single to LF by Jeff Bagwell, who afterwards advanced to 3B when Shane Spencer took Lance Berkman's little grounder at 1B and attempted to throw out Bagwell at 2B but tossed the ball into LF instead. The difference between Bagwell's play and Biggio's is that Bagwell picked a more appropriate time to be aggressive. There were no outs before Bagwell's hit; there were two when Biggio tried to get to 3B. With Bagwell at 3B, Kent celebrated his return to the lineup with an RBI single to RF, and Orlando Merced followed suit with a single to CF to make it 6-1. But Kent, with an even bigger inning in the offing, made the mistake of trying to get to 3B with the play still in front of the center fielder. Those are not usually good odds for the baserunner, and they weren't here, as Kent was nailed, 8-5, for the out. Bere was then able to get out of what should have been a much tougher jam.
Cleveland narrowed the score to 6-2 in the bottom of the third but, again, the run was more the fault of Houston's defense than of Moehler himself. A grounder from Karim Garcia that Kent should have fielded cleanly to end the inning was followed by two straight hits, but Moehler lived through the error by picking up a 5-4 fielder's choice to get out of further trouble.
In the fourth, there was more difficulty but, once again, Moehler worked around it. Lugo, who had seen Visquel's leaping catch of Biggio's liner in the top half of the inning, tried to imitate it, but he dropped the ball hit by Brandon Phillips, who was given a hit. Jody Garrett then singled to CF. The Indians put their third run up shortly afterward, scoring during an unusual 9-6 fielder's choice play. Moehler then got a more conventional 4-6 force out to end the inning. His fifth was all right, although he gave up a single and a steal. A groundball, a pop-out and a called strikeout on catcher A.J. Hinch did the trick.
In sum, then, Moehler's day, like Shane Reynolds's on Monday, may have looked worse than it actually was. He allowed three runs and ten hits, but one of those runs was unearned. The other big difference from Reynolds' start for Moehler was that he kept the ball in the park and within range of his fielders. Lots of groundballs and pop-ups. The homers surrendered by Reynolds still make me wonder whether his stuff is all the way back.
The fact that Cleveland rallied in this game may be attributed to the fact that Jesus Sanchez had a terrible seventh, perhaps his last inning of work as an Astro. Octavio Dotel had pitched a good sixth, allowing a hit but finishing the frame with two strikeouts, and he had seen the Astros add a run in the top of the seventh on a single by Lugo, a steal, an advance on a wild pitch, and a sacrifice fly to CF by Blum, but Sanchez had nothing the Indians couldn't hit in the bottom half. A homer by Burks on the first pitch he saw made it 7-4; Sanchez hit Garcia with a pitch; Spencer homered to LCF. Presto, the Tribe was back to within 7-6 and Jimy Williams, thank God, made a pitching change. Brandon Puffer gave up a single--keep in mind that there was still no one out--but Puffer then did what Puffer can do. He coaxed a 6-4-3 double play ball, Everett to David Matranga to Blum over at 1B, for two outs. It's the kind of work that will keep Puffer in the hunt for the final bullpen spot until the end of camp. Although both my head--which tells me that Brad Lidge has outpitched Puffer in camp--and my heart--which tells me Lidge has the stuff the Astros really need down there--say that Lidge has the spot locked up, Puffer cannot be counted out.
I have been fooled before, and Williams and Hunsicker may bite me where it hurts again before Spring Training ends. Bruce Chen, who almost surely does have the staff made as the situational lefty, came in after the double play to force a pop up to 2B. From there, Lidge survived a scary eighth--scary because of a lead-off walk and a deep fly to LF for the last out--but he treated the Indians with comtempt in the ninth, striking out Spencer and new, hot-hitting Casey Blake for the last two outs on stuff those guys haven't seen yet, an hour-and a half after the game.
The Astros have made two significant roster cuts since Monday's column was posted. Of Jason Lane's demotion to New Orleans, I can say only that he took the news with a great deal more poise and grace than I did. This afternoon--a notice given during the game--Houston announced that Victor Hall has cleared waivers and has been re-claimed by his original team, the Arizona Diamondbacks. You will perhaps recall that Hall, who was selected by Colorado from Arizona in this past winter's Rule V draft, was sent to Houston as part of the deal for P Nelson Cruz.
Jeriome Robertson gets the start Wednesday against the Tigers at Kissimmee, while his competition for the fifth spot, Tim Redding, will pitch in a minor-league game. This is exactly the same case as we had last week, when Redding pitched against the Yankees at Tampa, while Robertson did his chore in minor-league camp. Give Williams and Hooton credit: they are keeping the field of competition perfectly level for the two men. It was also announced Tuesday that Wade Miller will start Friday versus the White Sox, and we'll have a fashion show by all the bullpen guys on Saturday night to close out the exhibition season--much the same thing Williams did last year in closing out the Spring work, although I hope that this year, the results are better than last year's final work was.
Grapefruit Game 25, Tues., 25 Mar., vs Indians
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