Arguably the best pitching performance of the first 95 games of the season. Start to finish the opposition - albeit the worst team in baseball - had no chance against the Astros pitchers.
Brandon Backe dominated for 7 shutout innings. He left after issuing his 4th walk to open the 8th inning. Chris Sampson induced his 2nd comebacker-turned double play ball in 2 days and recorded 6 outs while faced only 5 batters - all of whom took a called strike to open their at-bat.
So Backe goes 7 shutout innings - any guesses for when he last turned in 7 innings of shutout baseball for the Astros???
Those who remembered the 2005 World Series game 4 masterpiece, you guys get a gold star.
Watching Backe all season long has been maddening because he'll have so many moments of turning the corner and becoming a dependable starting pitcher. Yet he's just too easy to hit and gives up way too many longballs. But this was his 3rd start of the last four in which he did not allow a homer (of course that includes his 3-inning start due to rain delay). Just remember he'd allowed a homer in 15 of his 16 starts to this point.
Also keep in mind he is still a recovering pitcher. He returned last year after just less than 12 months of recovery time from Tommy John surgery. He needs to produce but honestly he could only just now be ready to be a healthy pitcher. The downside to this very lenient and positive look at Backe is that his numbers prior to the September 2006 surgery were not very good to begin with.
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And now for some meaningless All-Star trivia...
Who is the active leader in All-Star competition in the following hitting categories...
Hits? (hint, 2 players tied for lead)
Home Runs?
Strikeouts?
Among active pitchers, who leads in...
Losses?
Strikeouts? (hint, 2 pitchers tied for lead)
How about who was the last player to homer in his first all-star game at-bat?
I'll have the answers in Monday's post, plus a full-scale analysis of the Astros. (they stink).
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I'll be co-hosting the afternoon show on SportsRadio 610 with Matt Jackson on Monday, Tuesday and Thursday.
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1 comment:
We can only hope that Backe will get better and stay healthy....
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