Carpenter: Hammers his first save
(c) Associated Press
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It's been a weird week. An earthquake in Washington D.C. A hurricane in New York City. Heat records in Houston. And the Astros winning a season series from the defending World Champions.
You might want to find your prayer beads or at least double your insurance.
Keeping with the weekend's theme of players getting back at their former bosses, Matt Downs ruined the Giants' afternoon with an RBI single in the 11th to score clean-up hitter Jose Altuve and give Houston a 4-3 triumph by the Bay.
Altuve had doubled off Jeremy Affeldt to help make a winner of Mark Melancon who had blown the save the inning before or the Astros would have won, 3-2. David Carpenter collected his first big league save. Altuve was batting in the fourth spot after Carlos Lee left with a mildly sprained ankle.
Lee had three hits before his departure; so did Jimmy Paredes as the two clubs traded leads throughout the game. Jordan Schafer had two big moments - drawing a walk against Matt Cain and scoring the game's first run then singling home Paredes in the eighth to tie the game at two-all.
Cain and Bud Norris both pitched extremely well and canceled out the other's performance. Norris fanned ten over seven innings while allowing just three hits but, unfortunately for him, two came in the seventh when the Giants scored twice to take the lead. Norris' father and sister were in attendance.
Everyone's favorite Astro, Jason Michaels, plated Paredes with a double in the tenth which looked like it would be the game-winner until the Giants got the run back on a single from Astro assassin Mark DeRosa.
Other than home runs, the game had a little of everything, including an extremely rare 2-4-3 strikeout when Carlos Corporan reacted to the runner breaking for second instead of noticing he was holding a dropped third strike and throwing to first. Jose Altuve redirected the throw to get catcher Eli Whiteside who earned the Golden Sombrero with four strikeouts.
That accomplishment behind them, the Astros jet back to arid Houston for a three-game set with the Pirates that begins Monday night at 7:05 Central. Wandy Rodriguez (9-9)will pitch for Houston if his head isn't still spinning from last week's aborted trade talks with the Rockies. Austin's Ross Ohlendorf will pitch for the Bucs.
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