Light-hitting Brad Ausmus‘ RBI single in the 10th inning was the difference as the Stros went on to a 5-4 win over the Mets on a strange and sloppy Wednesday evening at Shea Stadium in Queens, New York.
The teams played through a steady rain until an hour long delay in the sixth. Lightning flashes throughout the early innings added to the eerie backdrop to the game.
Morgan Ensberg had three hits and scored twice for the Stros, who won for only the second time in seven games. Ensberg led off the 10th with an infield single, stole second and went to third on a groundout. With the infield drawn in, Ausmus hit a grounder past the diving Met third bagger down the left-field line to plate Ensberg with the game winner.
Brad Lidge struck out three in two scoreless innings for the win. Kirk Bullinger got three outs for his first career save, retiring a pinch-hitter with a runner on third to end this mess of a game.
Playing without injured starting pitcher Tom Glavine, slugger Mike Piazza, and shortstop Kaz Matsui, the injury-depleted Mets lost for the fourth time in five games. The Mets also lost left fielder Cliff Floyd during the game after he was nailed in the back by Stros starter Roy Oswalt‘s 95 mph fastball.
During the game, Oswalt slipped on the slick mound for a balk and matched a career high with five walks. In a particularly bizarre point in the game, Oswalt threw a pitch to the backstop on the fly in the third and, on the next pitch, the Mets’ Danny Garcia‘s bat slipped out of his hands and sailed over the Stros’ dugout into the stands.
What on earth were the umps thinking in continuing the game under these conditions?
Andy Pettitte attempts to throw his weekly five innings today against the Mets’ Victor Zambrano before the Stros take off for Montreal and their last series in that city before the Expos’ inevitable move after this season.