Wade Miller followed the Rocket‘s fine performance the previous evening and threw six innings of shut out ball as the Stros shut out the rather hapless Mariners for the second straight night, 3-0. Miceli, Lidge and Dotel again mowed down the M’s in the last three innings to preserve the zip out.
You just never know what you are going to get from the inconsistent Miller. In his three previous starts, Miller had given up over a run an inning, which is not the way to establish a stellar earned run average. On the other hand, he is capable of being dominant as he was on Wednesday night when he gave up only four singles and a double and struck out four. A big key for Miller is walks — he is one of the National League leaders in that category and when he controls them (he had only two on Wednesday), he has a much better chance of success.
Ex-Stros farmhand Freddy Garcia (he came over to Seattle in the Randy Johnson trade five years ago — has it really been that long?) cuffed the Stros for most of the night, but Bags, Berkman and Hidalgo led an uprising in the third that generated all of the Stros’ runs.
Despite his contribution in this game, Hidalgo — who has been scruffing ever since the beginning of May and has not hit a yak since April 13th — continues to have buzzard’s luck. In this game, he whacked a shot over the fence in deep center only to have the M’s Randy Winn make one of the best catches of the season by extending his arm well over the fence and snagging the ball. Hidalgo couldn’t believe it.
Meanwhile, the Reds have started their inevitable descent from first place (their pitching generally stinks) as they lost three straight in Oakland this week. The Cards, whose pitching has been the best in the division so far this season, now share first place with the Reds and the Stros are a game and a half back.
The Stros try to get in a golf game today in Milwaukee before beginning a weekend series on Friday with the Brew Crew, who are uncharacteristically playing reasonbly well so far this season. Tim Redding, Roy O, and whoever is replacing Andy Pettitte in the rotation this time around (probably Pete Munro) will hurl this series. The Stros finally return to the Juice Box on Monday for an 11 game homestand against the Cubbies, the Angels, and the Pirates.
Finally, it turns out that the Stros still hold at least one option under Brandon Duckworth‘s contract, as he was mercifully optioned to AAA New Orleans yesterday. Journeyman reliever Kirk Bullinger replaces Duckworth on the 25 man roster.