Again, the Pirates just completely vanished in this one, and you could see from the beginning that the offense just wasn't going to hit. Mike Hampton allowed only three hits despite struggling with his command early and, you know, not being very good.
It was also clear from this game that the outfield has slowed down a lot in the past couple weeks. Delwyn Young took what seemed to be an eternity to get to a double hit to the left field corner--or maybe we've just been spoiled by Nyjer Morgan. And Garrett Jones narrowly avoided a Jose Canseco situation--Jones pulled back a Geoff Blum hit that would have been a homer, but it bounced off him and caromed way, and the Astros scored two runs as Blum cruised into third. It initially appeared that the ball had bounced off Jones' head and then just missed going over the wall, but it actually bounced off his arm. Keeping in mind that the Astros' right field wall isn't high at all, a lot of outfielders would have made the catch, in which case the game would have been much closer.
On the plus side, Evan Meek looked filthy recording three strikeouts in the eighth.
A few notes:
A's add some pop in Hairston from Padres
The Padres have traded Scott Hairston to the A's for minor leaguers Ryan Webb and Craig Italiano and a player to be named. This strikes me as reasonable. For a slightly above average hitter who's overachieving this year, the Padres get a fringy reliever (Webb), a very high-risk starting pitching prospect (Italiano, who's kind of like an older, lower-upside version of Jeff Locke in that he strikes out and walks a ton of guys, gets a fair number of grounders, and has an early-round draft pedigree) and a PTBNL, who's rumored to be Sean Gallagher, who Padres fans can hope will fit into the back end of the team's rotation. It's kind of a grab bag from the Padres' end, but Hairston isn't that good of a player, and pitching depth doesn't grow on trees.
Twitter / Jorge Arangure: Am convinced Sano will not ...
ESPN's Jorge Arangure says the Orioles don't see Miguel Sano as being worth more than $1.5 million or so. If true, this likely makes the Pirates the best candidate to sign him. I just noticed that Androgen Jar Jimmy put this in the fanshots as well, and he also has a pretty provocative fanpost on the subject.
Louisville 15, Indianapolis 1
Donnie Veal (and Jason Davis, Juan Mateo, and, to a lesser extent, Brad Lincoln) got knocked around by the Louisville Bats tonight. Veal allowed five runs and four walks in 1.3 innings, and now has a AAA ERA of 6.43.
West Virgnia 8, Lakewood 4
Tony Sanchez went 2-for-4 (raising his average at West Virginia to .368) and Quincy Latimore went 3-for-5, and Quinton Miller also pitched pretty well. Robbie Grossman, however, struck out four times.
GCL Yankees 6, GCL Pirates 3
2008 bonus baby Wesley Freeman is off to a great start for rookie-league Bradenton. Also, Rinku Singh pitched a scoreless inning tonight.