The Houston Astros thwart the St. Louis Cardinals
The St. Louis Cardinals had not won their last meeting with the Houston Astros, and ended up going into the season trailing by a win for the rivals.
The chance to change the recent past was up for grabs, yesterday as both teams met again for a showdown in the Busch Stadium; home of the struggling Cardinals. However, the Astros’ star pitcher, Bud Norris who in the past has quelled the St. Louis threat 2 times, was featuring in this fixture and was looking to repeat his antics and level the spirits of the opponents.
A move thought to be in conjunction of the trend; Tony La Russa fielded Bud and a fresh rookie, Angel Sanchez to compete with the opponents on their home turf. The Cardinals however fielded an inexperienced novice, Jaime Garcia and went ahead with the game, pitching the strike zone in the first innings.
The rookie pitcher hit the mark at the start by striking out the last two batsmen in the Astros’ line up. The match went in tothe bottom 1st inning where Colby Rasmus banged a 401 feet screamer to the right for a home run and registered the team’s intent on changing their fortunes again with a 1-0 lead to the Cardinals.
The second top innings marked the reverse of game conditions, as Garcia started to struggle with his pitches and allowed 5 hits off the bat, giving the opponents a great opportunity to score. The bases kept on piling up with Astros’ players and a fielding error by the Cardinals got Jeff Keppinger to the third base, while Carlos Lee ran past the last base to eliminate the deficit. More misery followed as Chirs Johnson hit a sacrifice to get Keppinger through for a lead. Subsequently, another three hits later by Norris, Bourgeois and Sanchez; Jason Castro and the two first hitters went across the final base to bring the score to 5 Astros – 1 St. Louis.
While Bud contained the Cardinal strike force, the Astros got another addition to their tally in the third innings, when Lee scored again after a sprint from the third base, off Pedro Feliz’s single to the centre. Things started getting better for the Cardinals in the 4th inning when A Craig’s single to the left got Rasmus to score and Skip Schumaker’s single to the right opened up room for Albert Pujols to score. This reduced the lead by two runs, bringing the total to 6 Houston – 3 St. Cardinals.
Unfortunately, the Stros’ went further ahead in the 6th inning when Sanchez hit down the deep centre for a triple off reliever, Mitchell Boggs and availed the team 3 runs from Chris Johnson, J Castro and Jason Bourgeois, bringing the score to 9 Astros and 3 St. Louis. Hunter Pence later sacrificed himself to get Sanchez his first scoring run to add to the Houston’s total. The cardinals replied with Matt Holiday who squashed the ball to the right for a 394 feet home run, bringing the total score for the team to 4.
However, the response was coming at a slow pace and the Cardinals were being battered across the home pitch with Denny Reyes replacing Boggs as the pitcher in the 7th innings. The Astros hit the ball around the park to get Keppinger, Feliz, Johnson and J Castro to score a total of 4 runs for the upbeat Houston team and bring the amalgamated score of 14 on the board.
For the Cardinals, more misery was to follow as Mike MacDougal relieved Reyes off his duty and took over in the 8th inning. This would work as a baffling move as Astros pushed on for 4 more runs, coming off Lee, Jason Michaels, Feliz and Geoff Blum. The four hits and the walk allowed, brought the game to an embarrassing close for the home team as the score read 18 – 4 to the visitors. The 9th innings didn’t account for any scoring but the damage was done.
If the Cardinals want to change their fate, something new has to come through, in terms of strategy. What is known for sure is that fielding a novice pitcher won’t help the team’s chances in prevailing in the game today. Which is why today’s game carries a good list of expectations from the home side.
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