Climbing Tal's Hill » Carlos Zambrano

Zambrano blanks Astros 4-0

Greg Thurston — Tue, 08 May 2012 02:58:39 +0000

It was one of those games that just felt bad from the beginning. Astro-killer Carlos Zambrano was on the mound for Miami and it appeared as though Wandy Rodriguez didn’t have his best stuff. Wandy didn’t have his normal velocity in the early going and was throwing very few curveballs. The Marlins hit the ball hard in the first inning but failed to score. Jose Reyes got picked off and a line drive off Wandy’s body was turned into the third out.

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Cardinals whip Astros 8-1

Greg Thurston — Sun, 06 May 2012 21:29:00 +0000

The Astros five game winning streak came to an end today with an 8-1 loss to the Cardinals. All good things must come to an end and today’s pitching matchup didn’t favor the Astros. Cardinals starter Adam Wainwright came into the game with a 24 inning scoreless streak against Houston. Wainwright improved his career record against the Astros to 10-1 with seven solid innings of work. J.A. Happ entered the game with a 1-6 career mark against the Cardinals. Happ pitched a 2-hit shutout against the Redbirds in 2010 but has not fared well against them otherwise. Despite the shutout Happ had a 6.44 ERA against St. Louis for his career. Today Happ pitched more like the pitcher we saw early last season. Happ gave up six runs, six hits, four walks and a couple of homers in five innings.

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Astros snatch victory from the jaws of defeat

Greg Thurston — Sun, 15 Apr 2012 02:30:37 +0000

The Astros staged an unlikely comeback off Marlins closer Heath Bell in the ninth inning on Saturday. The Houston offense went through three distinguishably different stages of effectiveness during the game. Jordan Schafer led off the first inning with a walk and came around to score for an early 1-0 lead. The Astros wasted several scoring opportunities over the first four innings, getting runners thrown out on the base paths and stranding several others. Then the Astros bats fell silent for innings five through eight, failing to record a single hit. Heath Bell entered the game in the ninth with Miami leading 4-1. That’s when things got interesting.

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