You mess with the fat old bull you get the fat old horns!
Today the Dugout continues its Spring Training tradition and its center-of-the-Earth-like journey through the NL Central with the Houston Astros, a team so into media coverage that you'd almost forget they play baseball.
I like to think that Clemens is just a fan of Larry David and is doing this as an artistic homage to getting in trouble at work, quitting dramatically, and then just showing up the next day like nothing happened. Either that or he is just SO GUILTY that his body can't handle it and his guilt is seeping out of him and turning him into a giant Tetsuo monster. Either way, "hey guys, the Astros."
Here's a predictable story for you: the Houston Astros took a two run lead into the ninth inning this afternoon and with Dan Wheeler taking over for Brad Lidge as closer they actually held on to it. Wheeler retired the Cubs in order in the ninth tonight to pick up his first save of the season and preserve the Astros' 5-3 win over the Cubs.
Of course, as much of a relief as it was for Astros' fans to see Wheeler nail down the ninth, Cubs' fans again had to suffer through a bullpen meltdown. After falling behind 3-0 through five innings the Cubs fought back to tie the game at 3 going into the eighth, only to watch Bob Howry surrender a two run homer to noted home run hitter Adam Everett (six in 566 PAs last year) and give the Astros their margin of victory. That's the second time in the past seven days that Howry has been part of a Cubby bullpen failing, if you're counting at home.
Let's see, what else happened here... Ted Lily pitched pretty OK in his second start as a Cub (six innings, six hits, three runs, five Ks, one walk), but wasn't nearly as dominant as he was in his first start. Woody Williams was much improved over his first start for the 'Stros, but he was pretty awful in his first start so pretty much that just means he was OK. Craig Biggio had two doubles and scored twice for Houston. That gives him eight hits on the year and puts him 62 shy of 3,000. I would ask if you could feel the excitement, but this whole thing kind of feels like the steamroller scene in Austin Powers to me.
It's still early ... but don't tell that to Phil Garner. The Astros skipper announced before Monday's series with the Cubs that Brad Lidge would not be closing games "for the foreseeable future." From MLB.com:
"Brad will not be closing as a general rule," Garner said. "There may be a situation where it will be right to do it, but we'll probably pitch him earlier in the sixth or seventh inning."
In two appearances this year, Lidge has allowed three runs off of eight base-runners in less than two innings. He's already blown one save, and Garner would rather not give him the opportunity to blow any more, at least not until Lidge can prove that he's over his early-season struggles. In the meantime, Dan Wheeler (who already has a blown save of his own) will assume primary closing duties.
But are these really just "early-season struggles" for Lidge? Whether or not you believe a single pitch can completely alter a pitcher's career path, there's no denying that most of Lidge's struggles began with Albert Pujols' three-run blast off Lidge in Game 5 of the 2005 NLCS. The Astros came back to win Game 6 and advanced to the World Series, but Lidge continued to pitch poorly while watching his team get swept.
Last year was a complete disaster, as well: despite holding onto his job by a thread all season, he blew a career-high six saves while watching his ERA swell up to 5.28, three runs more than 2004. He's still a dynamite strikeout pitcher so there's always hope that he'll turn things around, but no matter what happens, I'm guessing Garner will think twice about using him against Pujols at any point this year. Previously on FanHouse: Right Now Brad Lidge Couldn't Close a Hot Dog Stand Dan Wheeler Saved Brad Lidge the Embarrassment
The Fanhouse's look at the day's most intriguing matchups
Pittsburgh Pirates (4-2) vs. St. Louis Cardinals (2-4)-1:35PM Est.
It's only a week into the season, but seriously, how many of you thought the Pirates would be in first place and the Cardinals would be in last place at this point? Raise your hands. If you raised your hand, you are a liar and should be ashamed of yourself. What would your mother say? Anyway, it's a matchup of Ian Snell and Braden Looper. Snell was fantastic in his first start of the season against Houston, and Looper was decent against the Mets. Now whether or not Snell will experience the same success against the Cardinals now that Albert's got his groove back, that's a whole different story.
Chicago Cubs (3-3) vs. Houston Astros (1-5)-2:20PM Est.
It's the Cubs home opener, and Wrigley Field is sure to be packed. Unfortunately, I'm guessing the majority of that bleacher talent won't be there seeing how it's going to be 38 degrees with possible flurries at game time. The only thing colder than the Chicago weather is the Houston offense. The Astros have managed to score a whole 16 runs in their first six games. Will they be able to get their 2.7 runs a game against Ted Lilly? It won't be easy if Lilly pitches like he did in Cincinnati last week.
Minnesota Twins (4-1) vs. New York Yankees (2-3)-ESPN 7:05PM Est.
This game has an interesting pitching matchup, but not in any way that involves actual pitching. No. It's the pitchers themselves. There's the heartbroken Carl Pavano who struggled on opening day, and then there's the possibly drunk, judge-punching Knight of the Aruban Round Table himself, Sidney Ponson, making his debut as a Twin. I'm guessing both will throw no-hitters because that's just the way things work in baseball.
OK, so Albert Pujols homering probably isn't the biggest story to come from the Cardinals' 10-1 drubbing of the Astros today, but when a guy like Pujols goes almost 20 at-bats to start the season without a homer, people tend to notice. He did finally go yard today against Jason Jennings in the third inning to put the Cards up 3-0 and put them well on their way to their second win of the year.
The big story in this one had to be Kip Wells' start. After a rough first outing for the Cards earlier in the week he was dominant today, tossing seven one-hit innings and striking out seven batters to go with only one walk. He kept his pitch count down (only 90 through seven innings), which is something that is always a problem for Wells. His mound opponent, Jason Jennings, was good but not as good as Wells, giving up three runs in his six innings of work and taking the loss.
The other story in this one was, once again, Brad Lidge. Phil Garner took the 5-0 score in the top of the ninth as a chance to get his closer some work (I mean, he's got to pitch sometime and the Astros aren't winning much) and disaster ensued, as Lidge got lit up for five runs and only managed to record two outs, which brought his ERA on the season to 16.20. The big hit in that inning was Scott Rolen's base clearing bases loaded double, which gave Rolen four RBIs on the day.
With the win, the Cards moved to 2-4 for their upcoming series at PNC Park against the Pirates, where the Cards have been dominant in recent history, while the Astros fell to 1-5 before their series in Chicago against the Cubbies.
And then there was one winless team left in the NL Central. I mean someone had to win the battle between the 0-3 Cardinals and the 0-3 Astros tonight. The Cardinals did just that on the arm of Adam Wainwright, who looked very good in his first career start.
After two nights of Braden Looper and Kip Wells not living up to their spring performances, Wainwright turned in seven strong innings of five hit, one run ball. He even helped his own cause at the plate by doubling a run in and scoring on Chris Duncan's two run homer in the third. Jason Isringhausen also nailed down his first save since going on the DL last year, though he did give up a run before nailing it down.
The winless Astros got seven strong innings from Wandy Rodriguez, but that wasn't enough to pull them out of their slump because their offense failed to get going for the fourth straight game. Carlos Lee knocked in a run and scored the other run and each of the Astros three through seven hitters had a hit tonight, it's just that those hits didn't come at the same time. With the 'Stros two runs tonight, they've scored a whopping 10 runs in their first four games. You don't win many games that way.
Roy Oswalt will take the hill again tomorrow against Anthony Reyes hoping to replicate his dominant opening day performance and put a tally in the W column for the Astros.
The early part of this week has been great for me. I've been walking around telling anyone that will listen that the Pirates are in first place. Of course I'm doing this because it's ridiculous; no one really believes the Pirates will stay there for very long and I've got to enjoy it while I can. Other people seem to be reacting to these early April games in a more harsh manner.
These Astros have a keen ability to turn early frowns upside down. It would be impossible to count them out even if another huge deficit builds up through half, maybe even two-thirds, of the season.
But if they do it this time, all things considered, it might be their greatest magic act.
April baseball and May-September baseball are entirely different. Position and rotation battles carry themselves out into the season. Pitchers and fielders alike battle dead arm. Batters try to get back into their grooves when facing real pitching for the first time since September. In divisions like the NL Central, there's also the weather; it's often cold and sometimes it's even worse (the Reds and Pirates will be trying to play through a blizzard this weekend and as bad as the forecast looks, they'll probably get two of the three games in). I know people need something to write about in the first week, but it's a bit premature for doom and gloom.
Tonight's Pirates/Astros game looked eerily similar to last night's game headed into the 8th inning. The Astros were nursing a 2-1 lead and the way Phil Garner was using his bullpen, with Qualls in the seventh and Wheeler in the eighth, he was clearly setting things up for a Brad Lidge appearance in the 9th. That was until Wheeler served up two runs in the top of the eighth and the Astros lost another late inning lead to the Pirates. Instead, Rick White pitched the ninth. How uninteresting.
There were some big performances on the mound in this one tonight. Ian Snell fanned 11 Astros in six innings, but took a no decision after leaving the game behind 2-1 on a Jason Lane homer and a Carlos Lee RBI single. Jason Jennings was impressive in his Astro debut, striking out seven in his six innings and allowing only a monstrous Xavier Nady homer in the second inning. On top of his second homer in two days, Nady's bloop single off of Wheeler in the eight brought home the go ahead run. After a spring in which he had no extra base hits or RBIs and battled intestinal disease causing him to miss a ton of time, Nady now has two homers and three ribbies in two games. That's why he gets his picture on the side.
Of course the big story from this one is going to be the Astros inability to hold a lead for the second night in a row. We aren't talking about the Yankees here; the Pirates aren't going to score a lot of runs this year. And it's not just Lidge either. Qualls gave up the homer to Bay last night and Wheeler blew the save tonight. Then again if the Astros offense scored more than two runs in either game, winning would be a lot easier. And as usual, this post comes with the reminder that there are still 159 games left and the Astros bullpen won't blow 162 leads this year. At least probably not.
Here's one fun thing about Opening Day- watching fans react to things that happen in 1/162th of the season. If Brad Lidge blew a save by allowing a Xavier Nady home run with two outs in the ninth in July, it might just be a blip on the radar. But by doing so last night, he's ignited a huge range of reaction from Astro fans. The thing is, both games count exactly the same in the standings. Opening Day is a giant magnifying glass for everything. Then again, it's not like everyone didn't see this coming from Lidge last night. It's not like he didn't blow a bunch last year. So let's look at some fan reactions from around the web. Crawfish Boxes is not happy:
Reading below, I see Garner's name, I see Everett's name (despite his double). And yeah, I see Lidge's name too, but Christ, I think it should be unanimous.
Now we're gonna hear squawking about the poor offensive showing, we're gonna hear squawking about Chad Qualls, we're gonna hear squawking about Ausmus and Everett and probably even Roger Clemens, when all the talk right now should be about our now undoubtedly failed closer.
He can't do the job anymore. I don't know why, and frankly I'm tired of speculating. But he can't, and the club needs to do whatever it is you do to old closers who can't cut the mustard.
Roundrock his ass, I suppose. Maybe trade him for a Pat Borders, or an Alan Zinter.
The Fanhouse's look at the day's most intriguing matchups
San Francisco Giants (0-0) vs. San Diego Padres (0-0)-4:05PM Est.
There are always those two teams that the schedule makers wait the extra day to start the season, and this year that "honor" belongs to the Giants and Padres. Whether or not it's Bud's way of keeping Barry from catching Aaron for at least one more day, we'll never know. All we do know is that he needs 22 more injections home runs to break the record. It's also the debut of Barry Zito as a Giant as he faces Jake "F#*% the Police!" Peavy and the Padres. When you think about it, Zito and Peavy both share the same disdain for The Man, they just have different ways of showing it. They're kinda like MLK and Malcolm X that way.
Houston Astros (0-1) vs. Pittsburgh Pirates (1-0)-8:05PM Est.
It's Jason Jennings' turn to see a masterful performance wasted by the Jell-O brained closer that is Brad Lidge right now. I don't know who to feel worse for, Lidge or Astros fans? You would think that it has to be killing Astros fans to know that Phil Garner is going to stick with Lidge until he finally just blows his own head off on the mound. As for the Pirates, they look to maintain their stranglehold on first place in the NL Central.
St. Louis Cardinals (0-1) vs. New York Mets (1-0)-8:10PM Est.
The Cardinals look to rebound from losing the first game of their quest to defend the World Series crown. Cardinals fans have to be a little nervous though. If the Mets could rough up Chris Carpenter like that, just what are they capable of doing to Kip Wells? You can question the Mets starting rotation all you want, but sometimes the best rotation is an offense that scores 8 runs a game.
You mess with the fat old bull you get the fat old horns!
Here's a predictable story for you: the Houston Astros took a two run lead into the ninth inning this afternoon and 
It's still early ... but don't tell that to Phil Garner. The Astros skipper announced before Monday's series with the Cubs that Brad Lidge would not be closing games "for the foreseeable future." From 
OK, so Albert Pujols homering probably isn't the biggest story to come from the Cardinals' 10-1 drubbing of the Astros today, but when a guy like Pujols goes almost 20 at-bats to start the season without a homer, people tend to notice. He did finally go yard today against Jason Jennings in the third inning to put the Cards up 3-0 and put them well on their way to their second win of the year. 
And then there was one winless team left in the NL Central. I mean someone had to win the battle between the 0-3 Cardinals and the 0-3 Astros tonight. The Cardinals did just that on the arm of Adam Wainwright, who looked very good in his first career start. 
The early part of this week has been great for me. I've been walking around telling anyone that will listen that the Pirates are in first place. Of course I'm doing this because it's ridiculous; no one really believes the Pirates will stay there for very long and I've got to enjoy it while I can. Other people seem to be reacting to these early April games in a more harsh manner. 
Tonight's Pirates/Astros game looked eerily similar to last night's game headed into the 8th inning. The Astros were nursing a 2-1 lead and the way Phil Garner was using his bullpen, with Qualls in the seventh and Wheeler in the eighth, he was clearly setting things up for a Brad Lidge appearance in the 9th. That was until Wheeler served up two runs in the top of the eighth and the Astros lost another late inning lead to the Pirates. Instead, Rick White pitched the ninth. How uninteresting. 
Here's one fun thing about Opening Day- watching fans react to things that happen in 1/162th of the season. If Brad Lidge blew a save by allowing a Xavier Nady home run with two outs in the ninth in July, it might just be a blip on the radar. But by doing so last night, he's ignited a huge range of reaction from Astro fans. The thing is, both games count exactly the same in the standings. Opening Day is a giant magnifying glass for everything. Then again, it's not like everyone didn't see this coming from Lidge last night. It's not like he didn't blow a bunch last year. So let's look at some fan reactions from around the web.
