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June 21, 2004

Stros come back to beat Pirates

The Stros battled back from a four run deficit with a five spot in the fifth and rode fine relief pitching from Bullinger, Weathers, Miceli and Dotel to beat the Pirates, 7-4 on Monday night in the first game of their four game set at the Juice Box.

As usual, Barry Bonds, Jr was the hitting star, driving in four runs, three of which came on a key double in the fifth. Jason Lane pounded a solo yak, and the light-hitting Viz continues his recent rampage with three singles.

Two cautionary notes - JK left the game in the eighth with a sore wrist. Given that he missed considerable time with tendonitis in his left wrist last season, that is not good news. Chris Burke, are you ready? The other is that the Pirates pounded Tim Redding like a batting practice pitcher for eight hits and four runs in three and a third -- with an RSAA (explained here) approaching negative 10, it's time for the Stros to give the ball to someone other than Redding every five days.

The Stros send Roy O to the hill in the Tuesday night game to try to win their third in a row. Statistically, the Stros should be in third place (behind the Cards and Cubs, but in front of the Reds and Brewers), so there is a reasonable chance that the club will ascend to that position as the season wears on. However, overtaking either the Cards or the Cubs is increasingly appearing to be a pipe dream for the Stros.

Posted by Tom at June 21, 2004 10:27 PM |

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