The Astros Can't Win, Lose 8th Straight Game In
2-0 Shutout.

post from The Crawfish Boxes on 05 July 2012 11:02:28 PM. © The Crawfish Boxes

Brad Mills claps his wrinkly hands for a team en route to their 7th straight loss on July 4, 2012. Mandatory Credit: Charles LeClaire-US PRESSWIRE

Well, losing is not fun, and the Astros have done it 8 consecutive times in the past 8 games. It appears that the 1st-place (can you believe that?) Pirates have done really well this year with a string of really great pitching and a not-so-bad offense even after having the worst record in the major leagues in 2010. It's possible the Astros could follow in the same footsteps, but there's also the possibility they won't. However, the Astros do not really have great pitching and their offense may have just hit an all-time low recently. If time is to tell, I believe the Astros will be a lot better in the 2nd half if the Astros call up the players who should be called up (Paredes, F-Mart, Wallace). It will also be a time of uncertainty and evaluation with possible trades and seeing what Dallas Keuchel, Matt Dominguez and whoever else gets called up can do. But as for now, the Astros have lost 8 straight games and are leaving for home tonight. On a plane. On a presumably quiet plane. The soft roar of the engines. The players sleeping. Some with earbuds in their ears. Another day tomorrow. Another forgettable day today.

In today's game the Astros offense could only muster 4 wimpy singles and 3 useless walks. Something that I noted was that every single ball almost that was hit into the outfield was caught by an outfielder. Balls that were hit hard enough for hits, but high enough for fielders to track them down, and long enough to land in gloves for outs. The Astros were pretty unlucky in that regard simply because they.

If you're still reading this and noticed that I left the last sentence off unfinished, I would like to let you know that was completely intentional. Let your imaginations run wild! What do you think I meant to say? Let me know in the comments.

On pitching, Bud Norris did not showcase his best stuff today. He did get away with a lack of command and was a bit lucky, but I think he rebounded nicely to pitch a good game. 7 innings, 2 runs, 5 hits, 3 walks, 6 Ks, but a loss. Brett Myers pitched the 8th inning, and put up 0s all across his line. The Astros didn't do any pitching in the 9th, but I'm sure with 8 straight losses, somebody was doing something that rhymes with pitching instead.

The Astros had a game lost inning (GLI) of 2, meaning that the Pirates scored enough runs by the 2nd inning to win the game even if they didn't score anymore runs after that. It's a nifty, but useless stat that I created in Monday night's recap.

Matt Dominguez made his debut with the 'Stros. He had two plate appearances; his first ended up with a strikeout on 3 straight pitches on a curveball out of the zone. In his 2nd plate appearance, he grounded into a double play. In his 3rd round to bat, he was being pinch hit for with Jordan Schafer, who you guessed it, struck out. I don't blame Mills for pinch hitting for Dominguez simply because Doughnut is a relative unknown to the team and has not had good stats in the minors this year. It was also a situation of platoon advantages. Anyway, the Astros will be at home tomorrow night facing the Brewers. Maybe the Brewers pitching will brew up some cookies into the Crawford boxes. We'll also get to see the progress being made on the Astros Community Leaders advertisement wall in LF.

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ht-game-in-2-0-shutout

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Game 82: Braves 7, Cubs 3

post from Capitol Avenue ClubCapitol Avenue Club on 05 July 2012 10:41:31 PM. © Capitol Avenue ClubCapitol Avenue Club

Source: FanGraphs Game MVP: Jason Heyward, .204 Brian McCann, .130 Mike Minor, 59 game score Least Valuable Brave: Michael Bourn, -.016 Most Valuable Cub: Reed Johnson, -.046 Least Valuable Cub: Matt Garza, 35 game score Big plays: 1st – (ATL) Heyward two-run homer for a 2-0 Braves lead, .193 1st – (ATL) McCann two-run homer [...]

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BBDP July 5th, 2012: Lefties impress, Warren
disappoints

post from Bronx Baseball Daily on 05 July 2012 10:11:43 PM. © Bronx Baseball Daily

[...]

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-disappoints/

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Now What

post from LADodgerTalk.com - Matt Kemp, Clayton Kershaw, Vin Scully, Andre Ethier and the Dodgers on 05 July 2012 10:01:23 PM. © LADodgerTalk.com - Matt Kemp, Clayton Kershaw, Vin Scully, Andre Ethier and the Dodgers

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Carlos Lee: Low Risk, High Reward

post from Marlin Maniac on 05 July 2012 09:18:28 PM. © Marlin Maniac

The Marlins addition of Carlos Lee primarily serves as a low risk upgrade to the offense. Despite giving up top prospects Matt Dominguez and Rob Rasmussen, Miami?s minor league system will not be left bare as a result of this deal. Dominguez merely projects as a defensive replacement while Rasmussen, only recently promoted to Double [...]

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Contest Time: Predict The All-Star Game MVP And
WIN, WIN, WIN!!!!

post from 30-Year Old Cardboard on 05 July 2012 08:55:34 PM. © 30-Year Old Cardboard

Contest Time: Predict The All-Star Game MVP And WIN, WIN, WIN!!!! The name of this contest says it all!!! For this contest, I will be asking the readers to choose a player slated to play in Tuesday’s All-Star game that … Continue reading →

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-mvp-and-win-win-win/

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Andre Dawson 2012 Topps Series 2 Historical
Stitches

post from 30-Year Old Cardboard on 05 July 2012 08:09:16 PM. © 30-Year Old Cardboard

Andre Dawson 2012 Topps Series 2 ‘Historical Stitches’ For classification purposes, I put these ‘manufactured’ cards into the ‘Game-Used’ portion of my player collections and checklists. And while they are far from pieces of game-used memorabilia, they fit nicely amongst those … Continue reading →

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2012 Rockies Game #82: Christian Friedrich vs
Lance Lynn

post from Purple Row on 05 July 2012 08:01:03 PM. © Purple Row

June 30, 2012; Denver, CO USA; Colorado Rockies head athletic trainer Keith Dugger checks Rockies pitcher Christian Friedrich for an injury after getting hit by a San Diego Padres line drive at Coors Field. Mandatory Credit: Andrew Carpenean-US PRESSWIRE

Next Game

Colorado Rockies
@ St. Louis Cardinals

Thursday, Jul 5, 2012, 6:15 PM MDT
Busch Stadium

Christian Friedrich vs Lance Lynn

Clear. Winds blowing in from center field at 5-10 m.p.h. Game time temperature around 100.

Know Your Foe #27: Beltran, Cardinals Set to Tee Off Against Rockies

posted by Bryan Kilpatrick 3 days ago

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The Rockies conclude their epic series against the St. Louis Cardinals. All we know for sure is that this game is nothing short of historic, with the world's eyes focused on Busch Stadium tonight.*

GO ROCKIES!!!

* by historic, I mean that it literally will be recorded for future historians to look at, should they so desire, not that they actually will desire such. And by the world's eyes, I'm probably stretching the figurative connotation of the metaphor, but I'm sure there's some Cardinals fan in Japan or on a foreign military base or something that will be interested in the outcome, maybe. At least an overseas gambling addict or two, right?

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Houston Astros at Pittsburgh Pirates, Jul 5, 2012
6:05 PM CDT

Current Series

4 game series vs Pirates @ PNC Park

Houston Astros The Crawfish Boxes
@ Pittsburgh Pirates Bucs Dugout

Monday, Jul 2, 2012, 6:05 PM CDT
PNC Park

Jordan Lyles vs James McDonald

Mostly clear. Winds blowing out to center field at 5-10 m.p.h. Game time temperature around 85.

Complete Coverage >

Tue 07/03 6:05 PM CDTWed 07/04 12:35 PM CDTThu 07/05 6:05 PM CDT

Bud Norris

#20 / Pitcher / Houston Astros

Height: 6-0

Weight: 220

Bats: R

Throws: R

Born: Mar 02, 1985

Jeff Karstens

#27 / Pitcher / Pittsburgh Pirates

Height: 6-3

Weight: 185

Bats: R

Throws: R

Born: Sep 24, 1982

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Do The Braves Have A Historically Great Outfield

Over at the main blog our boss Dave Schoenfield asks if the Braves current outfield is an All-Time great outfield. A major reason all three rate so well is both systems see them as outstanding defensive players. FanGraphs’ defensive metric — UZR — ranks Bourn, Heyward and Prado first, second and fourth among all NL [...]

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