b The Longhorn Mafia <$BlogRSDURL$>

Thursday, September 09, 2004

Astros: Snapped 

The win streak is over. Oliver Perez throws a gem to beat the Astros, 3-1.

But it's still a beautiful day for a game, so let's play a second. Even with the mental midget, Tim Redding, taking the hill, Houston has to find a way to win. Perez struck out fourteen Good Guys today, wiping out a relatively good outing for Carlos Hernandez.

C'mon guys. Let's maintain that tie with San Fran.

Getting re-focused

As I think about it, this could be a blessing in disguise. No, you never want to lose, but it's baseball. You're not going to win every game. Boston and Florida have both seen long win streaks snapped recently as well, and all of that media attention had shifted to Houston.

When you're on a winning streak, and everyone is watching, waiting for you to mess up, I think you play tenatively. I noticed it in the later innings yesterday, and I noticed it today. You don't play well when you're tense, especially against a guy that was throwing the way Perez threw today. Hopefully, with the loss behind them, the team can re-focus and loosen up.

Houston doesn't have to win every game from here on out. They already accomplished the seemingly impossible task of getting back in contention. For the remainder of the season, they just have to win more games than their opponents. No one else is playing lights-out baseball right now (except Florida, who alos lost today), and that's something to keep in mind.

Win the nightcap tonight and come out and play hard tomorrow. Today's loss was nothing to get too worked up about.

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