Watching SportsCenter earlier on Independence Day morning, I saw a HUGE comeback (which my Astros can't seem to make nowadays). Milwaukee was supposed to win (at least in their eyes) against Arizona playing at beautiful Chase Field. They were up 5-rock over Arizona. But with no outs in the bottom of the ninth, Arizona staged one hell of a comeback. It was 5-3 after batting around. And in the end, the Diamondbacks broke Milwaukee's hearts with a 6-5 victory. Doesn't this remind you of some other game? Right- Astros leading the Phillies 3-0 when former D-Back, Jose Valverde, did all the work of Astros' pitching... go straight to Hell by losing 4-3 to the fightin' Phils.
Ah yeah, I remember that game, it was incredible how Yost decided to play the infield inside thinking with Mota on the mound, the d-backs would hit ground balls to get easy outs. That's what happened, but instead Robby Hammock singled, Chris Burke walked and Augie Ojeda singled. Mota was pulled off the mound with the bases loaded, Then Brian Shouse came on to the mound and Chad Tracy then hit a 3 RBI double, Shouse was done, then Salomon Torres came on the mound, Justin Upton singled, then Orlando Hudson doubled, which allowed Tracy to score but Upton, who was waved around by 3rd base coach Chip Hale stopped at 3rd.
Then Conor Jackson came up and hit a chopper down the infield, but it slipped off the glove of the short stop and it rolled all the way to left-center field, which allowed Justin Upton and the O-Dog (Orlando Hudson) to easily score.
I believe that was Salomon Torres' first or second blown save of the year, which was good for us.
That's baseball. My Astros didn't have fireworks as they lost 6-2 to Atlanta and have now lost four straight games. I only dream of a second-coming of the 2005 Houston Astros who went from terrible to triumphant (though getting blanked 4-0 in the '05 World Series).
What's the word in Houston about Cecil Cooper possibly losing his job as the Astros manager?
In other details, the New York Yankees lost again to the Boston Red Sox. The common quote made after the game by one of the Yankees was, "this is between me and my teammates." Not as annoying as Drew Rosenhaus' "...next question!" with Terrell Owens, but the Yanks aren't fairing very well right now. We'll see if the Yankees defend Yankee Stadium proper against their hated Red Sox.
I think Girardi is expecting too much out of his players, the Yankees aren't the young and vibrant players that they used to be, and this teams' age is starting to show. Their only real saving grace is their pitching, which is still quite good considering that their ace Chein Ming-Wang is possibly out for the year.
But I think it was good on Girardi to basically tell the team that if they don't get their asses in gear, he won't be afraid to start shuffling guys around and may do some trading, there's still nearly a month left until the trade deadline.
In deciding who should be playing in the All-Star Game, I've been hearing of Mr. Lincecum perhaps being the National League pitcher. I've had some fun with Lincecum in talking about him on GTPlanet. Like how I said he looks much younger than he really is. The scouting report in an Astros' game at the Giants simply said "FLAT OUT NASTY" about Lincecum. Lincecum is one dangerous pitcher. In National League play, I'd love to see a matchup of Lincecum's Giants and Brandon Webb's Diamondbacks. Not sure if C.C. Sabathia will be in the All-Star Game, but I'm hearing he could be traded to Tampa Bay or someplace. Any of you want to speculate where the Indians' pitcher would go if he were indeed traded?
I've heard that the D-Backs new ace, Dan Haren is also a favorite for NL pitcher. Brandon Webb is still quite commanding after a 9-0 start, but ever since he got hit in the lower back by a line drive in New York, he's been struggling with his pitch control and has been in some pretty big jams.
The word with Sabathia is that the Brewers are willing to trade away a couple of position players in order to get Sabathia and a couple of future draft picks.
