Rocket eclipses Maddux for win No. 343

07/20/2006
CHICAGO -- Although a starting pitcher typically thinks more about the opponent's lineup than the quality of the pitcher his team will face, it's likely both Greg Maddux and Roger Clemens knew they had to bring their "A" games to Wrigley Field on Wednesday night.
It's also likely the sellout crowd of 40,344 hoped for and expected a pitchers' duel, and the two future Hall of Famers delivered. Clemens, buoyed by adequate run support, prevailed as the Houston Astros topped the Chicago Cubs, 4-2, to even the series at one game apiece.
"I know when I'm going up against Greg, it's going to be a battle of wills, that's for sure," Clemens said. "On a hot, sticky night like it was tonight, I knew it was going to come down to who made the mistake first. He kept his team in the game, and they made a game of it late."
Clemens was very much Rocket-like during his 85-pitch outing, throwing six shutout frames while walking one and striking out five. He scattered three hits, never allowing more than one in a single inning.
Manager Phil Garner said Clemens probably could have pitched one more inning, but because the right-hander's groin felt a bit stiff toward the end of the outing, Garner erred on the side of caution.
"He's fine," Garner said. "It was a good time to take him out."
Maddux was also vintage Maddux, which made for a classic night at the Friendly Confines.
The starting pitchers relayed their respect for each other following the game, although Clemens was a bit more animated than his counterpart, whose losing streak reached six games. Rocket acknowledged the significance of two 300-game winners facing each other, something that has happened only a handful of times in history.
Clemens recalled a conversation he had with Maddux at a golf tournament in Las Vegas, shortly after Rocket "retired" for the first time following the 2003 season.
"[He asked] why I was going to hang it up and that he was going to keep going as long as he could," Clemens said. "So to have the opportunity to come back this year and match up against him is obviously pretty special. I think it's why we do it so that the fans -- especially at a stadium rich in history -- they can come out and enjoy it, and it even makes it more special when that happens."
Clemens added that he loves "watching Greg work." Clemens sits in a tunnel near the dugout between innings, and the only view he has is of the pitcher's mound. Even amid the intensity that always accompanies a Rocket start, the right-hander could appreciate watching Maddux do his thing.
"I think I've always said that he's one of the guys I admire in how he goes about his work," Clemens said. "I'd definitely pay to see him pitch, that's for sure."
Craig Biggio's leadoff homer -- his National League-record 49th -- stood as the only run between the two teams for five innings. That changed in the sixth, when Preston Wilson, celebrating his 32nd birthday, logged his first of two game-defining doubles.
Earlier, the inning had the makings of a small disaster.
Mike Lamb knocked an infield hit toward second, and he caught a break after he attempted to steal second on a pitch-out by Maddux. The ball reached shortstop Ronny Cedeno in plenty of time, but instead of moving toward Lamb on the play, Cedeno moved his glove in the opposite direction. Safe.
The luck seemingly ran out on the next play, when Chris Burke bunted toward Maddux, who made a perfect throw to third baseman Aramis Ramirez to erase the lead runner.
Lance Berkman popped to Derrek Lee a few feet in front of the plate for the second out, but Aubrey Huff singled to center, moving Burke to third. Up came Wilson, who doubled to the gap in right-center, scoring both runners and putting the Astros ahead, 3-0.
"You never know," said Wilson, who also doubled and scored on a squeeze play in the ninth. "That's why you have to go up there and keep trying to attack, keep believing something good's going to happen. In that situation, there were two outs, and he just left a pitch up more to me than he had earlier in the game and I was able to put a good swing on it."
Said Burke: "Right there, I'm just trying to do everything I can to get Lance up with a guy on third. Obviously, I didn't do my job. When Lance popped up it looked like we missed our opportunity. Two-out rallies have been hard to come by. When they happen, it's a beautiful thing."
And something they haven't enjoyed very much this season.
"Preston really came through for us in that situation," Garner said. "We finally got a big hit. That's what we've been missing, that ball going in the gaps and coming up with the big run. That was a very big play."
And, more importantly, a much-needed win.

Source: http://astros.mlb.com/

Notes: Huff's presence strongly felt

07/20/2006
CHICAGO -- Although Aubrey Huff has been with the Astros for less than a week, his presence in the Astros' lineup has already made a difference.
The addition of a good hitter in the middle of the lineup has a domino effect on the rest of the hitters. Not only can he do the obvious -- get on base, drive in runs -- but he also can affect the performances of those in front of him, because he makes it harder for opponents to pitch around the better hitters.
Let's take nothing away from Lance Berkman -- obviously, he was doing just fine, even before Huff arrived. But now Berkman has a threat hitting behind him, an element the team was sorely lacking when Morgan Ensberg was playing every day.
Berkman entered Thursday's series finale at Wrigley Field with a .321 batting average, 25 homers and 85 RBIs, tremendous numbers regardless of what kind of lineup he's a part of.
After Huff joined the team, Berkman had nine hits in 24 at-bats for a .375 average. Does Huff get any credit for that?
"One thing you see is he's definitely swinging the bat," manager Phil Garner said. "He's not going to be timid about that. Obviously, Morgan was struggling a little bit, so having a guy that can step in there ... it looks like he's going to drive in some runs."
Many of the league's best hitters struggle without protection. The Mets' Carlos Beltran is a prime example. He had a very average year in 2005, but now that he's hitting in front of Carlos Delgado, he's having a tremendous season. Coincidence?
"Over and over and over again, when a guy usually has a good year, there's somebody behind him that's doing a pretty doggone good job," Garner said. "You need two things. People in front are getting on, and guys behind you are doing a good job protecting you."
Garner's ideal lineup would have four heavy hitters. The Astros haven't had that since 2004, when they had Beltran, Jeff Bagwell, Berkman and Jeff Kent.
"You need two really good hitters, a third one that's a pretty decent hitter and a fourth that's a pretty decent hitter," Garner said. "Then, you can't get through it."
On Maddux: Following the matchup of two 300-game winners on Wednesday, Craig Biggio talked about the kind of approach a hitter has to take against Greg Maddux, one of two future Hall of Famers who took the mound at Wrigley Field that night.
"You've got to be aggressive, but you've got to be smart off him," said Biggio, who extended his National League record with his 49th leadoff homer. "He puts the ball exactly where he wants to put it. A little bit here, a little bit there."
Biggio took the first pitch for a strike and connected with the second offering, which landed one row into the left-field seats.
"That one there, I was able to get it just far enough into the stands," he said. "It was nice to get a little start like that."
Biggio has 2,885 hits, which gives him sole possession of 34th place on the all-time hits list.
Backup players: Playing a day game after a night game can make for an exhausting day at the ballpark, but for many teams, it's a chance to give the bench players a rare starting nod.
On Thursday, Garner rested Biggio -- a standard practice for day games on the road -- and he also gave Preston Wilson a day off.
Chris Burke played second, Willy Taveras played center and Luke Scott started in left. Garner didn't necessarily think Wilson needed a day to rest, but he wanted to insert Scott into a game and felt Thursday was a good time to do it.
"It's maybe a good time to let Luke play again," Garner said. "Luke's looking hitterish."

Source: http://astros.mlb.com/

Albers recalled, Rodriguez sent down

07/20/2006
CHICAGO -- While it remains to be seen if the Houston Astros will find anything on the trade market that can help their bullpen, they did not hesitate to draw from their own system on Thursday when they recalled right-handed pitcher Matt Albers from Double-A Corpus Christi.
In a corresponding move, the Astros optioned left-hander Wandy Rodriguez to Triple-A Round Rock, where he will rejoin the Express starting rotation. He'll start Saturday, in Omaha.
Rodriguez was moved from the Astros' rotation to the bullpen during the first leg of the current road trip, but the club views him as a future starter and prefers to keep him on a starter's schedule.
"We have to be prepared if something (an injury) happens to a starter," general manager Tim Purpura said. "We thought that would be a good opportunity to get him back and going again."
Purpura said the decision to send Rodriguez down was one of the hardest he's made this year.
"That's one of the problems with young pitching," Purpura said. "With a guy coming off the DL (Brandon Backe), you've got players that have versatility who are the ones that have to bear the brunt of going back and forth at times. We told him we still believe in him. I told him I thought he's going to be a big part of what we do down the stretch. I'm certain, at some point, he'll be back here with us."
The Astros will have to make another roster move on Saturday, when Backe is officially activated from the DL. That move will not involve Albers, who will be given a fair chance to display his talents on the Major League level. That leaves either Fernando Nieve or Taylor Buchholz as the likely candidates to be sent down.
Rodriguez, 27, led the Astros staff with nine wins, against six losses. He was the beneficiary of generous run support, which helped to offset his 5.22 ERA. Rodriguez made 21 appearances, 19 of which were starts.
The left-hander was quite broken up after receiving the news following the Astros' loss to the Cubs on Thursday. After stopping to compose himself several times, he said, "Truly, I don't know what to say right now. I will try my best. Always when I take the mound I'm trying to do my best. And on Saturday, when I pitch, I'll just have to start proving that I belong back here."
Albers, 23, was 10-2 with a 2.17 ERA over 19 starts for Double-A Corpus. He allowed 40 runs, but only 28 were earned. He walked 47 and struck out 95.
"Here's a kid who's at the top of the league in ERA in the Texas League, top of the league in wins," Purpura said. "He fits the profile of a reliever for us at this stage. That's not to say he'll be a reliever in his career. I expect him to win some games at the big-league level as a starter. Hopefully, a lot of games.
"His pitching makeup is what will allow him to go to the bullpen and help us out. His arm bounces back really, really good. He can go 100 pitches and then feel hardly anything the next day."
Manager Phil Garner has liked Albers from the first time he saw him throw two years ago during the Nolan Ryan Elite Pitchers Camp, held a few weeks prior to Spring Training.
"The difference between last year and this year was a 100-percent turnaround," Garner said. "He's matured to the point where he really opened a lot of eyes. In Corpus ... he's leading the league in ERA. He's been nasty. Even though he's been a starter, we're going to put him in the bullpen, and let's see what he can do."
Albers will be in uniform in time for the Astros' opener at Shea on Friday.

Source: http://astros.mlb.com/

Pettitte struggles mentally in loss

07/20/2006
CHICAGO -- Andy Pettitte fully admitted that his mindset was off during his start against the Chicago Cubs, which could have explained some very un-Pettitte-like occurrences that contributed to the Houston Astros' 4-1 loss in the finale at Wrigley Field on Thursday afternoon.
Perhaps the weight of what has been a disappointing season for the left-hander, coupled with the Astros' ongoing struggles at the plate and an awareness that they were facing Carlos Zambrano, the Cubs' ace, interrupted Pettitte's concentration, to the point where a couple of mistakes made the difference in this game.
"I've been really sure where my ball was going to be going," Pettitte said. "And today, I wasn't real sure."
Pettitte, facing a lineup without slugger Derrek Lee, allowed three hits and a walk in the first frame but escaped allowing only one run. It wasn't long before his luck would run out while pitching to the middle of the Cubs order. In the third, he yielded back-to-back home runs to Michael Barrett and Aramis Ramirez, putting Chicago ahead, 3-0.
In the fifth, Pettitte uncharacteristically issued a bases-loaded walk to Matt Murton, his third free pass of the frame. Later, Pettitte acknowledged he was thinking too much during that sequence.
"I got a little too tentative," he said. "Going against Carlos, and the way he's pitching against us ... that one inning when I walked [Murton], instead of making a pitch, I was too concerned with not letting them score or try to score. When you don't feel comfortable mechanically and the ball's not going where you want it to, it's a tough day. I felt like I might have added to that a little bit with my mental mindset out there."
Pettitte's dilemma is similar to that of Roy Oswalt and Roger Clemens, all in their second year of pitching without much help from the offense. The burden is undoubtedly starting to take its toll. Oswalt is more vocal about the lack of run support, while Pettitte takes a more laid-back approach.
"Our team is what it is," he said, asked if he feels like he must be perfect every time out. "I really haven't been doing that no matter what my situation is. I'm concentrating on making pitches. I may have gotten a little caught up with it today because I knew the way Carlos was throwing the ball, and we were already down three.
"I tried to talk about that with Roy. I know he might have a hard time with that. But you can't control [run support]. We've got to go out there, make pitches, make quality pitches, and give our guys a chance to get back in the dugout and try to score some runs. That's the mindset we've got to have."
In that respect, Pettitte certainly didn't knock his team out of the game. He did, however, exit after five innings, lifted for a pinch-hitter when it was obvious Zambrano was going to be as tough as he always is against this Houston club.
"It's a shame we can't give him more time in the game," manager Phil Garner said. "But we had to try to do everything we can to get as much offense as we can."
As it turned out, it wasn't much. Zambrano, buoyed by a generously wide strike zone at the most opportune times, struck out 10 and allowed just two hits during his eight innings of work.
Even Garner, usually diplomatic to a fault when prodded about the umpiring, struggled to be objective about some of the called third strikes.
"Ours came at pretty tough times," Garner said.
In all, four of Zambrano's strikeouts were on called third strikes.
"It certainly doesn't help anything, when [Zambrano's] getting the calls, and he's tough enough as it is," said Lance Berkman, who struck out looking to end the fourth. "When he's throwing tough pitches and he's getting the calls, that makes it tough."
Even tougher to swallow is the fact that the Astros have yet to meet their toughest competition of this three-city trip. They undoubtedly had higher expectations than splitting with the young Marlins and losing two of three to the fifth-place Cubs.
Now they're off to New York, where they will meet the Mets -- a team far superior to the Astros' first two opponents, as evidenced by their 57-38 record that has made a mockery of the phrase "division race" in the NL East.
Ask the players, however, and they insist they approach every team with the same attitude.
"It's sort of a misnomer to say that this team's struggling so you ought to be able to come into their place and beat them," Berkman said. "Especially when they've got a 300-game winner going (Greg Maddux) and Carlos Zambrano going and a kid that's got really good stuff the first night (Carlos Marmol). Anybody can beat you, and you can beat anybody."
"We played the Royals," Pettitte said. "They came in and took two out of three. These are big-league teams. If you don't pitch well and you don't swing the bat well, if you don't hit with guys in scoring position, you don't do the little things, you don't get guys in from third and less than one out, you're going to have problems winning ballgames. We are just not clicking at all on any cylinders. Hopefully, we can get going."

Source: http://astros.mlb.com/