It’s New Year’s Eve and I’ve given you 5 previous favorite moments of the Astros 2011 season. I’m not really sure how many there will be. I’m trying to just go with the flow (which is hard for this slight control freak). Perhaps we’ll get to a nice even 10? Or maybe 11 since it’s the end of 2011? Oh, who knows. Let’s just get on with it, shall we?

To continue the celebration of the efforts of the Js…you know, all those rookies who got called up whose names all started with J…I thought I’d pull up a video of JD Martinez’s 3 run homer that I remember fondly, but I got two for the price of one!

This first 3 run homer was against the Brewers on 8/6 in the bottom of the third and pulled Houston to within one run. Unfortunately the lead would never be Houston’s that day, but JD Martinez managed his 8th RBI in just 7 major league games with this one. I’m looking forward to seeing if his hitting holds up in Spring Training. He’s one of my favorite hitters to watch.

Click the photo to see the video.

JD’s second 3 run blast would happen just a few nights later on 8/8 in the first inning while visiting Arizona. He nailed it to left to give himself his 3rd home run of his at-this-point very short major league career. The Astros would go on that Monday evening to beat the Diamondbacks with a whopping 9-1 final score.

A good friend of mine was at this game surrounded by shocked and then upset Arizona fans as she cheered wildly for the “New Astros.”

Click the photo below to watch the video.

Terri Schlather (AGirlintheSouth) is the tortured Senior Houston Astros Writer for Aerys Sports. You can email her at agirlinthesouth@gmail.com, or follow her ridiculous ramblings on sports, vodka and the weeone on twitter @agirlinthesouth.

The final game against the Diamondbacks looked like it would be this young Astros’ teams’ shining moment. Early on Brett Myers and company looked like they would split this series with a win last night. But it wasn’t to be. A pair of home runs by the well hitting Dbacks would seal their fate as the first MLB team to reach 80 losses on the season.

It has to be said that Myers looked like the pitcher he was last season as he efficiently keep the Dback hitting machine in check though 7 innings, allowing only 1 run while the Astros racked up 5. Brian McTaggart, the beat writer for the Astros talked to Myers after the game.

“I felt really good today,” Myers said. “I felt like I didn’t give up many hard-hit balls; a couple of bloopers cost me a couple of runs. Over the course of the game I started feeling a lot better. They’re a good-hitting ballclub and you try to keep them on the ropes as much as you can and mix your pitches. They can hurt you, as they showed tonight.”

It turned out that the hits were still coming. The 8th inning would see Bloomquist score on an RBI double by Ryan Roberts who was then knocked home by Miguel Montero. The Astro still led 5-3.

That lead would not survive the ninth inning. Xavier Nady singled on a grounder setting up the 2 run homer from Paul Goldschmidt to tie the game, sending it into extra innings. The Astros went down 1,2, 3 in the top of the 10th. With Jeff Fulchino pitching, singles by Roberts and Justin Upton set the stage for the Chris Young walkoff 3 run homer to finish it off 8-5. It was a crushing loss and the Astros surrendered 3 of 4 in the series with the Dbacks.

This New Astros ballclub makes me think of one of my favorite baseball quotes, offered up by Roy Campanella. He said, “You gotta be a man to play baseball for a living, but you gotta have a lot of little boy in you, too.”

The Astros right now have a lot of little boy in them. A lot of that has to do with the age of the players that have recently been brought up, but also how hungry they are. Jose Altuve, Jimmy Paredes, JD Martinez, Jordan Lyles, JB Shuck- they all still play all out every game, hoping to show they deserve to play baseball everyday at this level. They look like they’re having fun. So, we’ve got the little boy part down cold.

The challenge with this young team? Turning them into men. Men don’t get rattled by comebacks by the opponent. Men continue to do the job and get it done, so to speak. Brad Mills and the rest of the coaching staff have a great situation right now. They can mold the way these boys become men of baseball. I really hope they do it right.

Terri Schlather (AGirlintheSouth) is the Senior Houston Astros Writer for Aerys Sports. You can read her Astros blog at www.talesfromthejuicebox.com, email her at agirlinthesouth@gmail.com, or follow her on twitter @agirlinthesouth.

Friday night the Astros fell apart against the Diamondbacks leaving hope-filled fans devastated. Losing a 6 run lead was a painful thing to watch and losing that 7-6 crushing. Follow that with a painful beating where the fans had no hope from almost the very start. Saturday night’s final score? Diamondbacks 11 and Astros 3. Yep, painful.

Is Sunday the day that the Houston Astros find a little balance? After going out Friday night with guns blazing they fell apart. On Saturday they were stagnant until a too-little-too-late rally in the ninth. I’m hoping that today is the day they figure out that slow and steady wins the race. Pitch like we know you can, hit consistently, stop ground balls when they come right to you, make good throws, run the bases aggressively, and please-oh-please could someone hit a long ball? » Continue reading “Astros Sunday – Is this the day?”

Since the Astros found it in themselves to blow a six, yes 6, run lead there’s not a lot to say about how sucky this game one against the Arizona Diamondbacks is. So, to entertain us all here’s the latest scoop on what’s going on with the Houston Nine.

- Jeff Keppinger rejoined the Astros tonight. I was hoping his highsocks would be the right amount of luck and early on it appeared that way. Kepp came back in style despite the ‘Stros pitching atrocities going 2-5 with 1 RBI. Welcome back, Kepp. You were missed. If he keeps hitting, he should see more playing time than my best friend, Bill Hall.

- Brett Myers continues his run of disappointing pitching. He’s now not accumulated a win in six starts which is a career long. Tonight in 5.2 IP, he allowed 5 hits, 4 ERs, walked 3 and had 2 dingers hit off of him. His ERA is now 5.11. Brett hasn’t fulfilled my dream of having a strong first starting pitcher this season. Will his greatness of last season return? I’m thinking it’s not likely. This very well may be his struggling season. If we want a pitcher to cheer for, I think we’ll find it in Wandy Rodriguez and/or Bud Norris.

- The club released IF Joe Inglett today from AAA OKC to make room for Brain Bogusevic. Bogie was sent back down after Kepp completed his rehab assignment and returned to the big club.

» Continue reading “Astros Scoop Because This Game Is Poop”