Houston Astros Baseball

Holy Valverde !!!

Saturday May 24

I didn't think it was possible to overshadow a multi-HR game from Hunter Pence, a GREAT start from Brandon Backe and Lance hitting a TRIPLE. Yet, Jose Valverde was able to do just that when he was hit in the cheek with a comeback liner off the bat of Pedro Feliz during the 9th last night in Houston.



The score was 4-1 and Jose came in for the save. He looked good for the most part until he was struck by a hard hit ball off his face. In most cases, the pitcher would have broken at least his jaw, and may have had other serious injuries. However, Jose was able to get his glove in front fast enough so that the ball just tapped off his glove resulting in a loss of velocity. Friday night game was a great one and the Astros fans were into it, however, when Jose was hit the crowd went silent. Jose lay on the ground for a little over a minute as the Astros medical crew rushed the field. At this point the fans were praying for some kind of movement from Jose just to assure them he was seriously injured. A few moments later, Jose stood up and received a rousing standing ovation and cheers from all fans. The make this story even better is that after only a few jaw exercises and a couple warm up pitches Jose said he wanted to stay in the game. Even the most die-hard fan knows that this is just a game and person health is far more important, and that's just what Miguel Tejada reminded Jose. However, Jose denied the option to leave the game and chose to muscle it out. The very next pitch, Jose hit 95 on the radar gun and the place went crazy. Unfortunately, the situation got a little more interesting. Jose ended up with some base runners on account of a Micheal Bourn error, and not being able to finish at-bats. Now I know Jose was hurt and he was showing incredible courage just staying on the field, but he was able to get several Phillies hitters in 0-2 counts and was not able to finish them off. This resulted in a small comeback from the Phils. The climax of the game came when The Phillies had brought themselves within 1 run of The Astros and had runners on 2nd and 3rd with 2 outs. Shane Victorino was up and Jose started off with 3 straight balls. Jose was able to work back from that 3-0 count to get 3-2 and eventually get Shane to pop out to Micheal Bourn and secure the save.

Friday nights game was great in just about every way. Our young slumping hitters are starting to straighten things out, we are getting better starting pitching, and we continue to score runs. This new exciting Astros team has begun to fill the seats on a nightly basis, something very few expected. If they are able to continue this play, I would imagine The Astros may make a bid for the Division.

No Comment